I have already objected to how some people have been arguing in circles in
opposing marijuana legalization. So it might help to post this article which
contains a great deal, although by no means all, of the evidence in one place.
Robert Halfhill Loring Park
REMEMBER PROHIBITION?
IT STILL DOESN'T WORK
By Robert Halfhill
The federal government's so called drug war is actually a fanatical religious
jihad since they are actually willing to force sick people to suffer and die
because the government won't event allow medical uses of marijuana. Cocaine
may be administered in hospitals but the DEMON WEED must forever be denied to
suffering and dying people.
Drs. Steven Sallan and Norman Zinberg published their results demonstrating
that marijuana was a superior anti-vomiting agent for patients undergoing
cancer chemotherapy in the October 15, 1975 New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Alfred Chang confirmed these results in the December, 1979 Annals of
Internal Medicine. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia conducted
studies of the medical efficacy of marijuana before the federal government
forced the states to halt their research. The Tennessee study included over
100,000 people and found that 90.4% of the people could control their nausea
and vomiting by smoking marijuana but that only 66.7% of the people were
successful when they took Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, one of the active
ingredients of marijuana in pill form. As opposed to smoked marijuana, which
worked almost immediately, patients suffering from severe nausea and vomiting
often had trouble keeping the THC-9 pill down long enough for it to begin to
work.
What was confirmed in the 1970's with respect to the nausea and vomiting
caused by chemotherapy applies equally to the nausea and vomiting caused by
AIDS.
The May 29, 2003 Star Tribune (p. D1) states that 1.3 million Americans are
diagnosed with cancer every year, that one million end up on chemotherapy, and
that about 70 to 80 percent of these patients experience nausea and vomiting
during their chemotherapy. In other words, 700 to eight hundred thousand
people end up vomiting their guts out every year because of the government's
refusal to legalize medicinal marijuana and, every three years, the number of
people vomiting their guts out mounts up to millions without even considering
the additional people vomiting their guts out because of AIDS.
The June 3, 2003 Star Tribune (pp. D1&D2) trumpets the newest drug for
preventing nausea and vomiting, MCI Pharma Incorporated's Palonosetron,
currently awaiting FDA approval. This drug, introduced nearly thirty years
after plain old marijuana was proven to be a superior anti-nausea and vomiting
agent by Sallan and Zinberg, only eliminated nausea and vomiting in 72 to 81
percent of the patients during their first day of chemotherapy and only 64 to
74 percent of the patients after five days. This in contrast to the Tennessee
study which found that marijuana could eliminate nausea and vomiting in 90.4
percent of chemotherapy patients.
Drs. Robert M. Hepler and Ira M. Frank reported that marijuana is effective in
treating glaucoma in the September 6, 1971 New England Journal of Medicine.
Glaucoma is a disease in which the build up of severe pressure in the eyes
leads to blindness. The Proceedings of the First International Conference on
the Pharmacology of Cannabis, held in Savannah, Georgia in December, 1974
reported that other cannabinoids in marijuana were far more effective with
glaucoma than Delta-9-THC. Delta-8-THC for example, was far superior. Drs.
Hepler and Frank, along with J.T. Ungerleider, reported on the superior
efficacy on marijuana in the treating glaucoma in the December, 1987 American
Journal of Ophthalmology.
Marijuana has also proven superior to the THC pill in the treatment of the
muscle spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries.
During hearings before Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young of a case
brought by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Valerie
Cover, who had been confined to a wheel chair because of multiple sclerosis,
testified that she was able to resume her normal activities after smoking
marijuana for three months, and that her symptoms would resume each time she
stopped using marijuana. At the end of hearings that took place between 1987
and 1988, Judge Young ruled that marijuana was useful for nausea, glaucoma,
muscle spasticity, stimulating appetite, epilepsy, anxiety, depression, pain,
asthma, and alcohol and other drug withdrawal.
MARIJUANA AND ECOLOGY
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 404, published on October 14,
1916, reported that one acre of cannabis hemp could produce as much pulp for
paper as 4.1 acres of trees. It could be produced using soda ash without
polluting sulfur-based acid chemicals. The problem of dioxin contamination of
rivers could be avoided by using hydrogen peroxide instead of chlorine bleach.
In "Crimping progress by banning hemp in the Orange County Register of October
30, 1988, Alan W. Bock states: "Since 1937, about half the forests in the
world have been cut down to make paper. If hemp had not been outlawed, most of
it would still be standing, oxygenating the planet. Hemp pulp could be used
for methanol at competitive prices; hempseed oil could be used instead of
petrochemicals for hundreds of uses, meaning less pollution. We might not be
facing the Greenhouse Effect."
In Energy Farming in America, Lynn Osburn stated that "Hemp is the only biomass
resource capable of making America energy independent. Our government outlawed
it in 1938." The benefits of cannabis cultivation are also discussed in "New
Billion Dollar Crop," in the February, 1938 Popular Mechanics.
CIVIL LIBERTIES
The July 28, 2003 Star Tribune (p. A3) reported that there were 2.17 million
Americans in state and federal prisons, local and county jails and juvenile
detention facilities at the end of 2002, many for victimless "crimes" such as
drug use. This was a 2.6 percent increase in the incarcerated population in
just one year. The August 18, 2003 Star Tribune (p. A4) states that 5,618,000
U.S. adults have served time in state or federal prisons, nearly one in 37 or
2.7 percent. The study projected that 7.7 million people will have served time
in prison by 2010, about 3.4 percent of the adult population. If the
government is allowed to continue imprisoning more and more people because of
its drug war, somewhere between the present percentage of the population being
in prison and all of the population consisting of prison inmates and prison
guards, society will collapse. It is in the interests of all of us, and
especially those of us who plan to be around in 2010 and later, to se
e that this trend is ended sooner rather than later.
The right to due process of law has been abolished in many cases because of the
government's fanatical drug war jihad. The federal government can now
confiscate property worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on
the mere suspicion that the property was acquired with money from drug dealing.
Even if the victim of the confiscation is acquitted in a criminal trial, he or
she must sue the government to recover their property. Yet Amendment V of the
U.S. Constitution states that "No person(shall) be deprived of life, liberty,
or property (our emphasis) without due process of law." And Amendment VII
requires that "In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall
exceed twenty dollars (our emphasis), the right of trial by jury shall be
preserved"
When under the thrall of a tyrannical government, we considered it the right of
Serbian people to take to the streets to regain their rights. Should not the
citizens of the United States have no less right?
http://halfhillviews.greatnow.com
http://www.thepen.us/e-fraud.html
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