McCain Should Know the Truth about Medical Marijuana

Through all his years in politics, despite the endless obligation to shake hands, smile for the cameras and coax money out of contributors, John McCain has somehow avoided becoming a complete phony-something that John Edwards and Mitt Romney managed to achieve within a week of entering politics. Annoy McCain, and you won’t have to wait long to find out.

Even a sickly, soft-spoken woman in a wheelchair gets no pass from him. The other day, at a meeting with voters in New Hampshire, Linda Macia mentioned her use of medical marijuana and politely asked his position on permitting it. Barely were the words out of her mouth before the Arizona senator spun on his heel, stalked away and heaped scorn on the idea.

“You may be one of the unique cases in America that only medical marijuana can relieve pain from,” he said, in a skeptical tone. “Every medical expert I know of, including the AMA (American Medical Association), says there are much more effective and much more, uh, better treatments for pain.” He also ridiculed the notion that police would arrest patients for using marijuana as medicine.

It’s refreshing that McCain is willing to state his position with such unvarnished candor. It would be even better if he knew what he was talking about.

Apparently he missed the news that federal agents recently raided the home of Leonard French, a paraplegic who had been authorized under New Mexico law to use cannabis for his condition. He now faces possible federal charges, not to mention that he was deprived of the medicine recommended by his doctor.

As for medical experts, McCain could easily find plenty who testify to the therapeutic value of pot. The American Academy of HIV Medicine says that “when appropriately prescribed and monitored, marijuana/cannabis can provide immeasurable benefits for the health and well-being of our patients.”

The New England Journal of Medicine has called the federal ban on medical marijuana “misguided, heavy-handed, and inhumane.” A 1999 report by the federal Institute of Medicine concluded, “Scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation.”

It’s true that actual arrests of patients are rare. But that’s often little consolation. Consider the case of Angel Raich, a California cancer victim whose marijuana was confiscated in a federal drug raid.

When she challenged the federal law, an appeals court ruled against her. But the court also had to acknowledge, “Raich’s physician presented uncontroverted evidence that Raich ‘cannot be without cannabis as medicine’ because she would quickly suffer ‘precipitous medical deterioration’ and ‘could very well die.’ ” Said the court, “All medical evidence in the record suggests that, if Raich were to stop using marijuana, the acute chronic pain and wasting disorders would immediatelyresume.”

But none of that mattered. In the end, the government and the courts gave Raich a choice: obey federal law, or risk jail by using the only treatment that helped her.

Bush administration officials often insist there are no definitive studies proving the curative powers of marijuana. What they omit is that the federal government has done everything in its power to prevent such research.

That effort has not entirely succeeded, though. Recently, the journal Neurology published the results of one clinical trial of HIV patients. It showed that pot “effectively relieved chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-associated sensory neuropathy,” with no adverse side effects.

The mystery is not why anyone believes cannabis can be safe and effective therapy. The mystery is why so many politicians, particularly Republican presidential candidates-Ron Paul, a physician, being the heroic exception-are unwilling to consider the possibility, or to leave the matter up to the states. It’s not even clear their hard-line stance is smart politics in their own party.

Wherever you look, public opinion supports medical marijuana. In Texas, a 2004 Scripps-Howard poll found that 75 percent of the people favor allowing it-including 67 percent of Republicans. Such red states as Alaska, Colorado, Montana and Nevada are among the 12 that have legalized medical marijuana.

This is not a dispute between Republican voters and Democratic voters. It’s a dispute between Republican politicians and everyone else.

What McCain ought to say is that he would rather ignore medical opinion, and inflict needless pain on people whose doctors say they could be helped by marijuana, than admit the federal ban is a mistake. Now that would be real candor.

–Steve Chapman

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47 Comments so far

namvet67 October 8th, 2007 12:46 pm

Alcohol is also a pain killer but that isn’t illegal. Cannabis has many uses but we aren’t even allowed to grow it for personal use. That’s what I like about the United States of Everything - our freedom. We are free to be sheep. It wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t in the hands of the most criminal government in the world.
Hoa binh

annabelle October 8th, 2007 1:08 pm

Something just reminded me of the old adage “He doth protest too much.”

hey now October 8th, 2007 1:15 pm

Personally, I feel that most of the folks that support medical marijuana also support recreational marijuana use - I know I certainly would like pot to be legal…

That’s the thing though.

There is this culture of thought that is so entrenched in this country, where the folks like McCain have seen this so many times -

The potheads (okay, pot enthusiasts)are using medical marijuana as an end-run around the laws as they are now, realizing that if you weaken the restrictions in this sense, chances are you will be able to leverage this in other ways.

Over time (according to this logic)… pot will become legalized. I mean it’s a no-brainier.

It is a valid strategy that could work, and they [the controllers]know it.

Bush knows it, McCain knows it… all those that are opposed to legal marijuana know this.

Lets be honest.
We all know this too.
Underneath of it all, the big deal is that in MANY instances medical marijuana is a game plan to chip away at the anti pot laws–> then, eventually drug laws in general –> how can you govern people when you can no longer control them by telling them they cannot take drugs???
It is all about control and power.
Power OVER the people.

Then, when pot is legalized…
well, of course heroin isn’t hurting anyone but the user.
The biggest problem is that because it’s illegal, the addict has to resort to under handed means to obtain it (ie- break the law).
So the solution here is to make it available to those that need it, so that they don’t have to commit crimes in order…blah, blah, blah.

I mean, the logic works.
One thing COULD lead to another. Next thing you know we don’t have this stranglehold on drug use.
What would that mean?
Can you even imagine?
It flies in the face of one of the USA’s principal institutions of wrongful up-tight-ness (?)!!!
It just doesn’t end. Me? I have given up on the hope that pot will ever be legal here.
I think sometimes you just have to realize that somethings will not ever change.
What can I say? Sorry.

Vince Lawrence October 8th, 2007 1:17 pm

Steve Chapman should be applauded for writing publicly about an issue the goblins of Puritanism hold so near their heart.

A close friend of mine was involved in a very serious motorcycle accident. Didn’t know for a while if he would live, then didn’t know if he would be a vegatable, but has made as good a recovery as could be hoped. He is however in almost constant pain as a result of destroyed joints, torn cartilage and tendons and the settling in of arthritis around those injuries. You can guess what he was prescribed: Celebrex, that “safe” and legal medication (ha, ha, ha.) Even with the Celebrex and other different and legal prescriptions, it seems what really takes his pain away is some really good pot.

When the pharmaceutical companies can figure out how to get it into a pill and make big money off of it, it will be “legal.”

geoff29 October 8th, 2007 1:21 pm

when I’m hanging around older folks shooting the breeze, and they start talking about the different kinds of pain that’s afflicting them, I just wish it would occur to them that pot is a wonderful pain killer. better by far and more natural than the pharmaceutical solutions to the problem. Older folks have been so indoctrinated into good meaning legal, and bad/evil meaning illegal, that they will never try it which is a shame.

But so much is a shame nowadays that where do you start? If more of us started smoking the problems would become glaringly obvious, that’s the major change that would occur were more people to start using it. so it will probably remain imperative for the ruling powers to keep it and enlightenment of any variety out of the reach of the general public.

I remember the first time I ever tried smoking when I was in high school and I was a bit afraid from all the hype. But after I fully recovered the first thought that occurred in my clear headed reality was, “this is illegal? why? it’s harmless.” And that has remained true ever since as I don’t believe I’ve ever committed a violent crime of any sort. That I can recall.

but I would wager that any one who has ever tried it after the fog has lifted will have thought something along those lines, and in doing so, the absurdity of the state and many of it’s laws would have been revealed to them in that instant. and that’s a problem for those who try to keep us under their thrall.

namvet67 October 8th, 2007 1:25 pm

Hey now, pot heads are not making end runs around the law. In Oakland they are standing up to Federal Law, and winning. When you join your first medical marijuana club be sure to thank the “pot heads” in Oakland for your right to do it.
Hoa binh

Kristina40 October 8th, 2007 1:33 pm

The war on drugs is simply another method to feed the capitalist beast. The PIC or “prison industrial complex” makes billions from incarcerating “pot heads”. Imagine if instead of not letting anyone smoke weed, we MADE all our leaders smoke it. They probably wouldn’t get much less accomplished than they do now but they certainly wouldn’t be running around trying to start any wars…

Vince Lawrence October 8th, 2007 2:09 pm

geoff29: an intersting phenomenon I have observed lately concerning young vs. old. There is great publicity in my locale concerning our local constabulary enforcing current drug laws. Those I see on my TV screen busted for possessing and distributing pot all look a hell of a lot like… ME. 54 and invisibly middle-aged.

greenman October 8th, 2007 2:42 pm

the problem with cannabis is control and money. Unlike Alcohol which requires expertise and technical skill in processing and tobacco which will only grow successfully in a few areas of the country, cannabis will grow very well just about anywhere in the country if you have water. The point being that the legal drugs(including the prescribed pharma ones) all require infrastructure and centralized production facilities that can be controlled, regulated and profiteered.
Cannabis, opium and coca leaf, are all usable right off the vine so to speak(I’m not talking about heroin or cocaine, both of which are the result of attempts to control the less potent forms of both drugs)there isn’t any need for processing and just about anybody that can grow a garden can produce these things(although coca won’t grow outdoors in most of the united states). So there is is a huge problem with controlling who gets to make the money off of the consumption of these drugs. Big Pharma doesn’t want cannabis legalized because it would cut a huge chunk out of their profit stream. There certainly isn’t any problem with the use of these drugs as we know that great civilizations going back 4-5 thousand years all used these drugs, and drug use was never the reason that they eventually collapsed.
Ultimately this is the problem with capitalism as we know it, production of anything must be centralized so that investors can make a profit. This is ultimately why wind and solar energy have never gotten anywhere as well, both of these sources of energy would work very well as decentralized small operations, but would be unprofitable for folks that profit off the work of others.

some_liberal October 8th, 2007 2:42 pm

I find it curious that those who are against pot because it’s illegal and ‘drugs’ are bad! are the first people to shove handfuls of pills in their mouths only because the government (which for anything else is bad) says they’re ok.
And McCain is just an ass. But why not be? It seemed to work for George.

Mainstay October 8th, 2007 3:28 pm

I agree with Kristina40,

All Americans aspiring to public office, should have to smoke some marijuana publicly and then speak with the public candidly, before they can be considered for Public Service.

Marijuana has an interesting side affect of making bad liars out of people - if falsehood is part of a person’s outward personae - their facade always seemed to fall apart under the influence of wacky tobbaccy.

I remember back in the late 60’s and early 70’s when pot was all over campuses, Spring Break, for some of the more fortunate, meant a trip to Jamaica for the next semester’s supply of weed. I was fascinated to learn that many of the Jamaican dealers had a mandate that before they would do business with anyone - the potential buyer had to sit down with them and smoke a coconut bowl of the weed being bought… Needless to say if the buyer were some uptight, “I know what other people should and shouldn’t do/be”, paranoid sort of person - no deal went down. This way the Jamaicans had few problems with the law (and those associated with them didn’t either) and not too surprisingly, the ones that were allowed to buy seemed to be natural leaders - people who did very well in the business world and their communities after graduation.

It amazes me that after all the international studies on cannabis showing little or no serious issues, and the evidence inherent in millions of hippy era kids who smoked regularly but still went on to lead normal productive lives, that we allow our government to use tax dollars to prohibit and prosecute “potheads”, let alone prohibit medical use of a substance with much lighter side affects than most prescribed pharmas!

WJM October 8th, 2007 3:44 pm

Obviously Mr McCain has never tried to FUNCTION on those fabulous pain pills he wants everyone to take. Hell, he’s not functioning very well now, so I’m not surprised. Maybe he’s taking them by the handfull now, I don’t know. But his ABSOLUTE IGNORANCE of the facts is astonishing.

Look to the Czechs, who back in the 30’s did studies on Cannabis, and found that it has literally dozens of uses. Look to the studies done by the senate itself in the early 70’s that showed that even those who do massive amounts, in specific the Rastas in Jamaica and the Coptics in Costa Rica, have NO adverse health issues from it, and in fact, tend to live LONGER than their next door neighbors who don’t. And that INLCUDES when cigarettes are involved.

And then look at our own history, and you will find that it was first made illegal so that the southewestern states could kick all the Mexicans out of their states and the country. It’s all based on racism, it was NEVER about health in any way.

And then let’s get to the AMA, shall we? They were one of TWO groups that FOUND OUT about the hearings in 1937 and went to TESTIFY AGAINST THE PROHIBITION (the other being the bird seed manufacturers). For the first three years of it, over 3,000 DOCTORS were jailed for prescribing it to their patients. Once the doctors realized they were being targeted, they caved. Now they are so eaten up with big Pharma money that they will probably never realize that once they stood on the RIGHT side of this battle.

I know several medicinal patients who have had their medicine taken away, including my own landlord, a disabled Viet Nam vet who gave his leg for this country. The cops came over recently and took his plants, and it took 12 armed and masked police storm troopers to pull up a few scrawny plants. And this IS a medicinal cannabis state! And the real fun thing is that I also use it to counter severe depression and alcoholism. I have been sober for 23 years, and now they want to make ME a criminal, because I was there and said I knew he was growing. So that makes ME an accomplice. And they will either put me in jail for three years or put me on probabtion, which means that I will be right back on the bottle. Colorado will allow you to be on Methadone if you are a heroin addict, but if smoking weed keeps you from drinking, tough shit. Go back to drinking. And I am VERY afraid that I will be soon.

You can take a handful of pills, and that is fine. You can smoke tobacco, and as long as you are outside, most people won’t screw with you. You can drink until you pass out and that is fine. You can over eat until you are a blimp. But you can’t have a puff on a plant that nature gave the world, that makes you a criminal. The absolute LACK of compassion for their fellow human beings is the ONE hallmark of those who are against this, and that includes EVERY member of congress and every “christian” who opposes it. Their REAL problem is that they have been politicians so long that they have forgotten what it means to be CITIZENS anymore.

I may leave this state and move to Canada, before this is all over. Or maybe even CA, but the economy sucks worse there than it does here. At least their cops aren’t foolish enough to screw with most people over something that has NEVER killed asingle human being in history.

BTW, according to Kaiser Permanente, the ONLY health issue that pot smokers have is THE POLICE. And for the record, it is my belief that this will ONLY change if and when the American PEOPLE get damned sick and tired of having a war declared on them by their own gov’t every other week.

I can’t wait until Senator McCain gets to deal with chronic pain. Let’s see how HE likes those damned pills and their side effects. And look into the Physicians Desktop Reference if you want to see what those pills will do to you. On 98% of the medications in there (and it has them all), DEATH is listed as a possible side effect.

Go ahead, Senator, and tell us all how this is all about HEALTH. IT’S NOT, and you are a liar and a compassionless jerk. TRY walking in someone else’s shoes, because yours stink!

Ken Mitchell October 8th, 2007 3:45 pm

We have medical morphine and medical codine. Why not medical marijuana? By the way, my congressman, Maurice Hinchey twice introduced a medical marijuana bill that the presidential candidate that I am currently supporting, Ron Paul voted for. The house voted it down. STUPID!!!!!!!!

Mr. Duncan October 8th, 2007 5:03 pm

Hinchey’s a pretty good guy.

texrey October 8th, 2007 5:08 pm

The funny, AND more sad thing is that a lot of those in power today, probably partook in that very sin back in the day. They can mimick future first lady bill, but I would bet more than a few inhaled. Hippocritters. Wait…what was I…… talking…………………………………….. about………………………………………Oh yeah, it is ALL about control, prisons, power and greed! Dennis Kucinich Rocks. Maybe some one will ask why tonite when the DEMONcRATS deate. C-Span, I think at 9:00. Thanks Texrey

Zell October 8th, 2007 5:10 pm

In many cases _ not all _ the line between “medical” and “recreational” drug use is fairly blurry.

Or at least it looks blurry, and wavy. Really interesting, too.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah.

Most people I know who’ve used illegal drugs didn’t do it entirely for “recreation” _ unless one wants to define “recreation” as “feeling less unpleasant.

Which is pretty much what “recreation” is _ feeling better and ENJOYING YOUR SHORT LIFE MORE.

Drugs alter our experience of life. That’s why we all want them. If we’re experiencing pain, we want out of that. If we’re suffering anxiety, we want to make it go away. If we’re just bored, that’s unpleasant. It’s just a sort of spectrum.

This is NOT to belittle the agony of severely ill people by comparing their experience to mere boredom. Like I said, it’s a spectrum.

It’s natural to want to feel better. That’s why many people turn to drugs _ and always will. Pot’s among the safest and least destructive. Would you rather hang out with someone who’s really drunk, or really stoned? Think about it.

Most of the resistance to marijuana, like McCain’s, is political. That plant’s associated with Liberalism, tolerance, relaxation, introspection, art and pleasure, that’s why those people hate it. Please note how much more Bill’s non-inhalation bothered people than Bush’s sharp, squeaking little sniffs.

There are many constructive uses for that plant, even aside from from its astonishing psychological and physiological effects. Hemp is fairly versatile. The vicious Conservative hatred of it is another example of their sadism, fear of pleasure, and the damage they do to the world by wanting to deprive people _ whom they don’t even know _ of a way to make them feel better. Got to understand the enemy.

It’s 4:19 p.m.

geoff29 October 8th, 2007 5:34 pm

what were we talking about? am I in the right place?

Vince Lawrence October 8th, 2007 5:54 pm

Well, fellow travelers, it seems we’ve found something we can all agree upon.

Discorporate.

Kristina40 October 8th, 2007 5:56 pm

LOL geoff29, I think so, but people might be watching you…Seriously, I’ve been through some pretty rough times in the past five years. My Dad was terminal with bone cancer and passed, then Mom stroked and I had to move 800 miles to Florida to take care of her home and eventually her after she was released. She was 24/7 care and it was super stressful, she was aphasic and paralyzed and had horrific wounds the hospital inflicted. She ended up passing away last year which caused even more stress. If it weren’t for weed I’d have never made it through this time. It is truly a wonderful anti-depressant, if I hadn’t smoked I’m sure I’d have had a breakdown and ended up on those fabulous pharmaceuticals, walking around like an automaton. Lucky for me I was too broke to afford a shrink so I self medicated…

Vince Lawrence October 8th, 2007 6:02 pm

Zell: don’t know how I overlooked your post - look at that pretty bug.

I’m still laughing, thanks a million.

frank1569 October 8th, 2007 6:09 pm

Cannabis also cures most PMS symptoms, indigestion, and, most importantly, stress, just to mention a few other positives ignored. According to Wikipedia, pot was made illegal because those damn Mexican immigrants were going all kinds of crazy once they crossed the border and took a puff. Or was it to protect the white women from their uncontrollable desire, when high only, for the scary black man.

All sound, medically proven reasons to label cannabis a Schedule One “drug.”

andersdl October 8th, 2007 6:21 pm

If you were a cop, you would prefer to bust pot smokers rather than chase real criminals. Less risk and it all pays the same.

Kristina40 October 8th, 2007 8:09 pm

lol anders, yeah busting those pot heads only puts them at risk for heart burn after they confiscate the offenders pizza and doritos…

jjohnjj October 8th, 2007 8:40 pm

Obviously, Big Pharma does not want competition from medicinals that people can grow in their back yard.

Big Timber, Big Ag, Big Oil, Big Tobacco, and Big Distillers don’t want competition from hemp fiber, seed, leaf and oil.

Thus, the Rebublican Party, the champions of “free markets” and “competition”, works day and night to protect these industries from Cannibis growers (and consumers).

Ask your conservative neighbors how a weed, that’s been growing on earth since before God made Adam, could be such a terrible threat to anyone?

The reason your local Sheriff enforces unpopular federal drug laws is that the “War on Drugs” funnels thousands or millions of dollars into the Sheriff’s budget each year.

Ask your conservative neighbors how they feel about Washington having that much influence on “local” law enforcement.

I got nothing against conservatives… just hypocrites.

falazmah October 8th, 2007 9:00 pm

We’re stuck on semantics. Marijuana is no more harmful than cigarettes and certainly has more social impact than alcohol. If we’re going to apply consistent standards, we should either legalize it, or outlaw tobacco and alcohol. End of debate.

Do you think marijuana should be legalized? http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=660

Siouxrose October 8th, 2007 10:36 pm

Stream of consciousness thoughts on this subject:

1. I recall a documentary on mummies from Ancient Egypt where traces of marijuana and cocaine were found in the tissue samples! Yep. This stuff goes back a long time!

2. I remember an article explaining that Pot was used to help patients who had tuberculosis. It helped alleviate the coughing symptoms, and I believe it was legal until the l930’s.

3. There is NO question that marginalizing a “drug” associated with liberal thinkers has its benefits. Enough convictions and you create an end run around voting rights.

4. I’ve always thought all those prison beds (something like 70% of people incarcerated have drug or alcohol problems) justified by the bogus “war on drugs” are really to make space for political dissidents. (Of course the blackwater camps are another take on this same dark but logical, given our times, idea)

5. Note the amount of violence associated with tobacco, fire arms and alcohol… and how these things are legal; and contrast these statistics with the lack of any crime statistics associated with pot, THE peace pipe. If war is what your nation is best at, it can’t be about tolerating those who would sit together in circles and brainstorm ways to build community ties, or bridges among those with disparate interests.

redjeff October 8th, 2007 11:17 pm

I was just thinking about this subject this morning when I read a piece about how the US wants to spray herbicide on Afghanistan’s poppy fields. The farmers there are concerned about what happens to the opium they harvest, but they have no other way to support themselves. Same with the coca growers in South America.
But what if they could grow hemp and marijuana for cash instead? What if our economically distressed rural areas could grow legal crops of hemp and marijuana, instead of making meth? In fact, I believe North Dakota farmers have been trying to get industrial hemp legalized. I’m sure they aren’t getting anywhere with that–DEA will stomp on their dream, you know, for our own good.
And let the record show that I have no personal interest in marijuana–never use it, don’t care to, unless of course, my doctor should prescribe it to me. I just think the drug war is such an elaborate and farcical tragedy (like all wars) that we just need to rethink it completely.

twistoflex October 9th, 2007 12:56 am

The big cats want drugs illegal because they are more expensive that way and they make more money off them that way. Drugs follow the army and wars in Vietnam Afganistan etc. The money ends up invested in wall street so they are in favor of the war on drugs too. It is all about control money and power. They don’t care about health and are against freedom.

kengarjagalouski October 9th, 2007 1:30 am

Siouxrose:
i have not smoked for
somewhat of a long while,
but i did grow
maybe 10ys.
would fill quaker oats
canisters
with bud and give–
it was so kool
like money would never
buy
such a feeling!!

to grow the plant is like
playing
or
being
god
what ever her mood
is or was this season!!
ken

sageone October 9th, 2007 6:57 am

There are two kinds of people in this world, those that smoke pot and those that should.

Those who have made and continue to make this plant illegal oppose the will of the very God that they are so fond of holding up before themselves,…”and every plant of the field and every herb…”

LeeAnnG October 9th, 2007 11:11 am

jjohnjj - Great synopsis of all the reasons why pot is still illegal!

I’ve read recently that pot smoking is down among young people and up among those over 50, so it’s not all of the old who are against it. It’s probably certain members of the older generations, but I believe pot use is pretty much spread out among the population.

Several years ago, my son, who was never a drug user of any kind, had to undergo a hair follicle test to get a job at Blockbuster videos! (Then when he passed that test, he was told he would have to get his hair cut because male clerks had to have hair that did not touch their collars. Of course, he turned down the job. But that’s another story.) Isn’t it amazing that in spite of drug testing by employers, arrests for growing and using, robbing students of college aid, and all the draconian laws imposed on marijuana use, it’s still the mind-altering substance of choice among so many people? Obviously the war on drugs is not preventing use, it’s simply victimizing those who get caught.

It’s political, economic, and controlling. So, what else is new?

brian barnett October 9th, 2007 11:12 am

Let me start off by saying that i live in Arkansas. i have been to many parties. the parties where people are drinking alcohol a few hours into the party fights almost always breakout(now in saying this i been to some Yankee parties too , just the fights that breakout there are not as visible) And i have been to parties where marijuana is the social enabler of choice and at those parties a few hours after it starts someone will probably be a sleep on your couch some people will be listening to Dave matthews , pink Floyd or talking about social justice and maybe even talk about how they feel stress in their neck or body and have to stretch it out. And say some things like the only thing that truing exists is love and every thing else is a distraction (which i am sure everyone would agree with me that words like that will make you want to touch some one- now, where and the amount of force may depended on whether i have been drinking or eating/smoking)

i believe we need more stories on legalizing marijuana.

Some times the best way to put out a fire is by not throwing gasoline on it.

i would love to write more but little Debbie is calling.

forextrader October 9th, 2007 11:59 am

It’s crazy. When I travel to Amsterdam, Marijuana is available in coffee shops. They don’t cage people like animals like they do here in The United States of The Planet of The Apes. Many Americans claim they want the laws eased on Marijuana, but they always seem to vote for Drug Warriors who make the laws harder. Many American Marijuana smokers have gone along with these barbaric laws rather than try to fight them. If they haven’t, Marijuana would be legal since millions of Americans have tried it or smoked it frequently. To me that’s just saying that Americans, even though many who do smoke pot; seem to be perfectly satisfied with the American Prison Industrial Complex. Why can’t America be like Holland on the issue of Marijuana? Why are Americans so backward? Americans who smoke Marijuana and enable drug warrirors are as despicable as gays like Matt Sanchez (the gay prositute who shills for Bush) who hate on their own sexual orientation. When is this hypocrisy gonna end? Do I have to move to Amsterdam because Americans are barbaric apes?!?!

Vfor911 October 9th, 2007 12:16 pm

Medical “Marijuana” is redundant. Its like saying Medical Medicine.

Free pot!

asbmuy October 9th, 2007 1:19 pm

Forcefeeding children with High Fructrose Corn Syrup is what should be criminalized!

I think it was George Bush Sr., after whose plane had been shot down in the Pacific in WWII, was saved by a lifevest manufactured with…guess what?

Hemp.

Ours is such a hypocritical society…

sphne October 9th, 2007 1:38 pm

I was never a big fan of pot, prefering alchohol as my drug of choice. However, a friends have been urging me to try it for various complaints I have had over the years and I finally did and let me tell you it is a freaking miracle drug. For me it is no just a pain killer it actually get to the root of the pain and stops it, which for me is inflamation. I only do it late at night because I don’t enjoy being any more stupid than I already am. I’m not too crazy about the smoking part so I bake it into cookies. I just wish I could grow it myself. I seriously urge anyone with health problems to try it.

sphne October 9th, 2007 1:43 pm

Also, the bless-ed herb has never given me even the slightest hangover. They tried to discredit it during the Reagan “war on drugs” years by pouring money to research the dangers and were unable to find anything. I mean it sick people out there, get on the internet and do some research.

Zell October 9th, 2007 4:27 pm

You know, I used to sort of wish it would remain illegal, an “underground” drug, because of the fun, goofy, nudge-wink camaraderie and “invisible community” it generated.

Pot use, growing and sharing the love had its own culture, ethics, aesthetics and etiquette, along with traditions, some dating back thousands of years. One could always find cool, friendly, helpful people in any country when one saw certain signs and signal. Users identified each other in a trust-building social dance of careful conversation, jokes, double meanings, sort of like gays. Pass to the left.

Also, its illegality, frowned-upon nature in “polite” society and the innate humor that suffused it use _ that sort of, uh, weeded out the uptight.

Then came 1980, Reagan and an actual war on a plant.

Misdemeanors turned into felonies. Kindly law enforcement officers, who used to just dump confiscated weed or take it home, turned into grim, very un-funny enforcers of some ghastly new sort of steely-rimmed glasses society that people like me _ our most of us _ no longer comprehend. People’s kids were encouraged to rat on their parents in schools, and some were removed from their parents’ care, over one plant in garden. There’s “family values” for you. People lost homes, livelihoods, careers, marriages, families, reputations, friends. Not at all funny in the least.

Reading all your posts, I’m just awestruck by the number of normal, decent, loving and responsible people that pot has HELPED. What’s wrong with us? We’re sick. Time for some “medical use” for all of a society that does that to its people, the ill, the pain-ridden, the depressed, the angry, the sad, the dispossessed.

Guess we all have to show some courage and stand up as examples, at least among our peers, if it when we can _ it’s a huge social risk, not just a legal one.

Just Say Oh.

Love to you all.

Zell October 9th, 2007 4:30 pm

Oh and by the way, this is a quote, Tim Leary once said to me, nearly two decades ago _

“Computers will be the marijuana of the 1990s.”

laddy October 9th, 2007 5:54 pm

What do you expect from a person who only got to where he is now, is for being stupid and very inept, to be shot down by a slingshot and pea shooter and then didn’t try to escape his captors and now is supposed to be some big hero, but spent most of the war in a place surprisingly like Gitmo. If ignorance and stupidity was a crime, McCain should be in jail for life or like his budy Limbaugh who got caught for buying illegal drugs and was a drug addict of a very powerful narcotic, to which he used to condemn that type of white collar crime. But lucky for him, he had enough of the green to get out of his jam. hopefully, McCain won’t be able to get that green and have to drop out of the race. And by the way, McCain has had cancer, which I predict will take complete control of his body and he ends up smoking marijuana to relieve the pain and then he’ll again flip-flop on the issue as he does now. And remember he was a crook and got caught for fraud or money laundering when he took money from a church fanatic or preacher which he was censured for it and had it not been for his connections in the justice department he would still be doing time. He’s like any politician. He’s nothing but a hypocritical,lying cult member who would rather let someone die and suffer than to help them. That’s what should have happened to him at the Hilton in Nam. But remember: what goes around comes around. Would he let his wife and kids suffer if they needed medical marijuana to help them defeat the horrendous cancer that is eating away their organs, slowly or would he take the advice of the doctor and have the prescription filled for joints of pot? I think the idiot that he is: he would let his family die and suffer. that’s my opinion anyway.

alexnosal October 9th, 2007 10:35 pm

There are THOUSANDS of drugs out there that are more powerful, more dangerous and more addictive that pot that are perfectly legal. Why? The pharmaceutical companies don’t sell or control cannabis.

Tens of millions of Americans smoke pot regularly yet they’re living in constant fear of brutal punishment by their courts and denied such crappy jobs like working at Wal-Mart simply because of corporate controlled lackeys in Washington.

Any politician who doesn’t support the legalization of marijuana is playing into the hands of predatory drug companies. Pfizer, Bayer and Roche make Pablo Escobar look like a second-rate rookie in the drug business.

Republicrat-Demican October 10th, 2007 8:05 am

The medical marijuana argument is a bullshit argument. Let’s start the argument where it starts and ends. It’s my body and I will do whatever I want with it and if you don’t like it - Fuck you!! Years from now we’re still going to be arguing whether some glaucoma patient can get a government sanctioned bong hit of ditch weed when I want to by LSD at a CVS pharmacy tomorrow. All prohibition laws are wrong.

sphne October 10th, 2007 11:40 am

Also, I forgot to mention my 40 years of observational research. I now know people who are known as heavy pot smokers who have been doing it for 40 years and let me tell you, they are no worse for the wear. They look great and appear more physically and mentally fit than many of their peers. That was one of the things that got me into pot for the first time in my mid 40’s. I had smoked many times but never got into it. I felt if I was going to put another toxin in my body I wanted more of a kick than the weed high. I actually have to force myself to do it sometimes if I hadn’t done it in a while. Like excercise, once I do it I’m glad I did. I have never felt healthier in my life. We need to do something to make it legal. Also the seeds very high in Omega 3’s, which I believe most have a mass deficiency in and is causing many of the social and physical problems. The plants grow fast and could be used to make ethanol also.

PaulMagillSmith October 11th, 2007 11:11 am

RE: sageone October 9th, 2007 6:57 am
,…”and every plant of the field and every herb…”

I’m glad you mentioned this quote from the first or second page of Genesis, sageone, because it cuts the legs out from any argument by the religious right that pot, and other plant derived mind altering substances are the work of the devil, or contrary to the will of God. These bible thumping hypocrites don’t even pay attention to their own ‘constitution’ so how should we expect them to understand a tracebly man written one granting pursuit of happiness as a right?

RE: Siouxrose October 8th, 2007 10:36 pm

“There is NO question that marginalizing a “drug” associated with liberal thinkers has its benefits. Enough convictions and you create an end run around voting rights.”

Very good point, Siouxrose, and one that many people miss. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I think it might be a reasonable assumption that numerous felons caused by drug convictions are minorities or others alienated by the right. Certainly a majority are very likely inclined to vote for Democrats rather than Republicans, and we can’t have that now, can we? The Repugs showed us just how far they will go to swing the vote in their favor by Tom Delay’s redistricting in Texas, and the numerous instances of blocking minority voters in the last several elections, right? With 2.2+ million people currently incarcerated in this country, and approximately 5 million more in the ’system’ (parole, probation, etc) the number of felons who can’t vote represent a number of people who could put the Democrats in the drivers seat virtually forever. The puritanical ‘you were all born sinners and hence must suffer’ Christian evangelical minority can’t have people in this life plane actually enjoying themselves or the whole Chjristian fascist scheme goes (pardon the pun) “to hell in a handbasket” LOL.

RE: Zell October 9th, 2007 4:27 pm

Very thoughtful statements, Zell, and I also appreciate your Leary quote from another post on this thread. I went to his house in the hills of Berkeley back in the late sixties, but he was in NY at the time, so I never had the pleasure of meeting him.

I especially like your parody of Nancy Reagan’s idiotic comment about how to fight a drug problem, that being the infantile absurd, “Just say no.”. Your response of, “Just say…oh?” Speaks volumes about the lunacy of her position.

RE: Republicrat-Demican October 10th, 2007 8:05 am

I like your spunk. “…I will do whatever I want with it and if you don’t like it - Fuck you!!” Very appropriate & direct. You might even add, “…and don’t expect me to keep a civil tongue in my head when you are so callously trampling on my right to health and/or happiness!”

Thanks for all your comments, and aside from the points I’ve made about yours here is one I didn’t see mentioned very much. It is practical, political, and economical by nature.

I recently read pot seeds from one acre grown can be processed into 55 gallons of high grade oil for fuel. The article also stated this is more output than any other material source for bio-fuel…including corn, and the only thing the article mentioned was seeds, NOT stalks, leaves, stems, buds, etc. With our looming energy crisis (it’s only in the beginning stages now folks) resource reality could eventually have us see miles & miles of fields growing everywhere. And no, I’m not sitting here with a pipe in my hand LOL

Zell October 12th, 2007 6:06 am

PaulMagillSmith,

Hi, thanks for kind words.

Another fun Leary quote, from same summer _

“You know, Nancy Reagan is really lapsing on the whole wholesome, family values thing _ she should be teaching children to ‘just say no, THANK YOU.’”

kelleysurf October 12th, 2007 12:42 pm

There is ONE reason the corporate controlled government does not want to legalize cannabis: When people smoke pot they enjoy the simple things of life more and feel the desire to buy much less. It’s true. You are no longer bored. Just being outside is fun. You don’t need the mall. You think about what life is about —and THEY sure don’t want a bunch of people thinking! I am a firm believer in the idea that we’d be MUCH better off if everyone got high now and then.

PaulMagillSmith October 15th, 2007 3:00 pm

By definition all the people who favor maintaining the current “War On Drugs’ are insane since they are repeating the failed prohibition policy of the twenties & early thirties against alcohol yet expecting different results. At the same time these self-appointed self-righteous hypocrites try to frame their argument by insinuating (or outright stating even), “People who smoke a bit of pot are crazy”.

If you go to a shrink you might hear something like, “Well if you deny you are crazy you probably are, but if you admit it then you are probably not.” It’s a catch 22 argument, because if you say you’re crazy then they’ll PUT you in the looney bin, and if you say you’re not then they will assume you are and KEEP you there.

Well, I guess I might be crazy because just as tens of millions of Americans like to occasionally smoke a bit of pot, so do I. By admitting the act might be a bit crazy we are undoubtedly millions of sane people in a contest with a number of insane prohibitionists. John McCain is just a figurehead & mouthpiece for their insane position; he’s the poster child for a new commercial we need called, “This is your brain WITHOUT/OFF drugs”. LOL

namvet67 October 8th, 2007 12:46 pm

Alcohol is also a pain killer but that isn’t illegal. Cannabis has many uses but we aren’t even allowed to grow it for personal use. That’s what I like about the United States of Everything - our freedom. We are free to be sheep. It wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t in the hands of the most criminal government in the world.
Hoa binh
annabelle October 8th, 2007 1:08 pm

Something just reminded me of the old adage “He doth protest too much.”
hey now October 8th, 2007 1:15 pm

Personally, I feel that most of the folks that support medical marijuana also support recreational marijuana use - I know I certainly would like pot to be legal…

That’s the thing though.

There is this culture of thought that is so entrenched in this country, where the folks like McCain have seen this so many times -

The potheads (okay, pot enthusiasts)are using medical marijuana as an end-run around the laws as they are now, realizing that if you weaken the restrictions in this sense, chances are you will be able to leverage this in other ways.

Over time (according to this logic)… pot will become legalized. I mean it’s a no-brainier.

It is a valid strategy that could work, and they [the controllers]know it.

Bush knows it, McCain knows it… all those that are opposed to legal marijuana know this.

Lets be honest.
We all know this too.
Underneath of it all, the big deal is that in MANY instances medical marijuana is a game plan to chip away at the anti pot laws–> then, eventually drug laws in general –> how can you govern people when you can no longer control them by telling them they cannot take drugs???
It is all about control and power.
Power OVER the people.

Then, when pot is legalized…
well, of course heroin isn’t hurting anyone but the user.
The biggest problem is that because it’s illegal, the addict has to resort to under handed means to obtain it (ie- break the law).
So the solution here is to make it available to those that need it, so that they don’t have to commit crimes in order…blah, blah, blah.

I mean, the logic works.
One thing COULD lead to another. Next thing you know we don’t have this stranglehold on drug use.
What would that mean?
Can you even imagine?
It flies in the face of one of the USA’s principal institutions of wrongful up-tight-ness (?)!!!
It just doesn’t end. Me? I have given up on the hope that pot will ever be legal here.
I think sometimes you just have to realize that somethings will not ever change.
What can I say? Sorry.
Vince Lawrence October 8th, 2007 1:17 pm

Steve Chapman should be applauded for writing publicly about an issue the goblins of Puritanism hold so near their heart.

A close friend of mine was involved in a very serious motorcycle accident. Didn’t know for a while if he would live, then didn’t know if he would be a vegatable, but has made as good a recovery as could be hoped. He is however in almost constant pain as a result of destroyed joints, torn cartilage and tendons and the settling in of arthritis around those injuries. You can guess what he was prescribed: Celebrex, that “safe” and legal medication (ha, ha, ha.) Even with the Celebrex and other different and legal prescriptions, it seems what really takes his pain away is some really good pot.

When the pharmaceutical companies can figure out how to get it into a pill and make big money off of it, it will be “legal.”
geoff29 October 8th, 2007 1:21 pm

when I’m hanging around older folks shooting the breeze, and they start talking about the different kinds of pain that’s afflicting them, I just wish it would occur to them that pot is a wonderful pain killer. better by far and more natural than the pharmaceutical solutions to the problem. Older folks have been so indoctrinated into good meaning legal, and bad/evil meaning illegal, that they will never try it which is a shame.

But so much is a shame nowadays that where do you start? If more of us started smoking the problems would become glaringly obvious, that’s the major change that would occur were more people to start using it. so it will probably remain imperative for the ruling powers to keep it and enlightenment of any variety out of the reach of the general public.

I remember the first time I ever tried smoking when I was in high school and I was a bit afraid from all the hype. But after I fully recovered the first thought that occurred in my clear headed reality was, “this is illegal? why? it’s harmless.” And that has remained true ever since as I don’t believe I’ve ever committed a violent crime of any sort. That I can recall.

but I would wager that any one who has ever tried it after the fog has lifted will have thought something along those lines, and in doing so, the absurdity of the state and many of it’s laws would have been revealed to them in that instant. and that’s a problem for those who try to keep us under their thrall.
namvet67 October 8th, 2007 1:25 pm

Hey now, pot heads are not making end runs around the law. In Oakland they are standing up to Federal Law, and winning. When you join your first medical marijuana club be sure to thank the “pot heads” in Oakland for your right to do it.
Hoa binh
Kristina40 October 8th, 2007 1:33 pm

The war on drugs is simply another method to feed the capitalist beast. The PIC or “prison industrial complex” makes billions from incarcerating “pot heads”. Imagine if instead of not letting anyone smoke weed, we MADE all our leaders smoke it. They probably wouldn’t get much less accomplished than they do now but they certainly wouldn’t be running around trying to start any wars…
Vince Lawrence October 8th, 2007 2:09 pm

geoff29: an intersting phenomenon I have observed lately concerning young vs. old. There is great publicity in my locale concerning our local constabulary enforcing current drug laws. Those I see on my TV screen busted for possessing and distributing pot all look a hell of a lot like… ME. 54 and invisibly middle-aged.
greenman October 8th, 2007 2:42 pm

the problem with cannabis is control and money. Unlike Alcohol which requires expertise and technical skill in processing and tobacco which will only grow successfully in a few areas of the country, cannabis will grow very well just about anywhere in the country if you have water. The point being that the legal drugs(including the prescribed pharma ones) all require infrastructure and centralized production facilities that can be controlled, regulated and profiteered.
Cannabis, opium and coca leaf, are all usable right off the vine so to speak(I’m not talking about heroin or cocaine, both of which are the result of attempts to control the less potent forms of both drugs)there isn’t any need for processing and just about anybody that can grow a garden can produce these things(although coca won’t grow outdoors in most of the united states). So there is is a huge problem with controlling who gets to make the money off of the consumption of these drugs. Big Pharma doesn’t want cannabis legalized because it would cut a huge chunk out of their profit stream. There certainly isn’t any problem with the use of these drugs as we know that great civilizations going back 4-5 thousand years all used these drugs, and drug use was never the reason that they eventually collapsed.
Ultimately this is the problem with capitalism as we know it, production of anything must be centralized so that investors can make a profit. This is ultimately why wind and solar energy have never gotten anywhere as well, both of these sources of energy would work very well as decentralized small operations, but would be unprofitable for folks that profit off the work of others.
some_liberal October 8th, 2007 2:42 pm

I find it curious that those who are against pot because it’s illegal and ‘drugs’ are bad! are the first people to shove handfuls of pills in their mouths only because the government (which for anything else is bad) says they’re ok.
And McCain is just an ass. But why not be? It seemed to work for George.
Mainstay October 8th, 2007 3:28 pm

I agree with Kristina40,

All Americans aspiring to public office, should have to smoke some marijuana publicly and then speak with the public candidly, before they can be considered for Public Service.

Marijuana has an interesting side affect of making bad liars out of people - if falsehood is part of a person’s outward personae - their facade always seemed to fall apart under the influence of wacky tobbaccy.

I remember back in the late 60’s and early 70’s when pot was all over campuses, Spring Break, for some of the more fortunate, meant a trip to Jamaica for the next semester’s supply of weed. I was fascinated to learn that many of the Jamaican dealers had a mandate that before they would do business with anyone - the potential buyer had to sit down with them and smoke a coconut bowl of the weed being bought… Needless to say if the buyer were some uptight, “I know what other people should and shouldn’t do/be”, paranoid sort of person - no deal went down. This way the Jamaicans had few problems with the law (and those associated with them didn’t either) and not too surprisingly, the ones that were allowed to buy seemed to be natural leaders - people who did very well in the business world and their communities after graduation.

It amazes me that after all the international studies on cannabis showing little or no serious issues, and the evidence inherent in millions of hippy era kids who smoked regularly but still went on to lead normal productive lives, that we allow our government to use tax dollars to prohibit and prosecute “potheads”, let alone prohibit medical use of a substance with much lighter side affects than most prescribed pharmas!
WJM October 8th, 2007 3:44 pm

Obviously Mr McCain has never tried to FUNCTION on those fabulous pain pills he wants everyone to take. Hell, he’s not functioning very well now, so I’m not surprised. Maybe he’s taking them by the handfull now, I don’t know. But his ABSOLUTE IGNORANCE of the facts is astonishing.

Look to the Czechs, who back in the 30’s did studies on Cannabis, and found that it has literally dozens of uses. Look to the studies done by the senate itself in the early 70’s that showed that even those who do massive amounts, in specific the Rastas in Jamaica and the Coptics in Costa Rica, have NO adverse health issues from it, and in fact, tend to live LONGER than their next door neighbors who don’t. And that INLCUDES when cigarettes are involved.

And then look at our own history, and you will find that it was first made illegal so that the southewestern states could kick all the Mexicans out of their states and the country. It’s all based on racism, it was NEVER about health in any way.

And then let’s get to the AMA, shall we? They were one of TWO groups that FOUND OUT about the hearings in 1937 and went to TESTIFY AGAINST THE PROHIBITION (the other being the bird seed manufacturers). For the first three years of it, over 3,000 DOCTORS were jailed for prescribing it to their patients. Once the doctors realized they were being targeted, they caved. Now they are so eaten up with big Pharma money that they will probably never realize that once they stood on the RIGHT side of this battle.

I know several medicinal patients who have had their medicine taken away, including my own landlord, a disabled Viet Nam vet who gave his leg for this country. The cops came over recently and took his plants, and it took 12 armed and masked police storm troopers to pull up a few scrawny plants. And this IS a medicinal cannabis state! And the real fun thing is that I also use it to counter severe depression and alcoholism. I have been sober for 23 years, and now they want to make ME a criminal, because I was there and said I knew he was growing. So that makes ME an accomplice. And they will either put me in jail for three years or put me on probabtion, which means that I will be right back on the bottle. Colorado will allow you to be on Methadone if you are a heroin addict, but if smoking weed keeps you from drinking, tough shit. Go back to drinking. And I am VERY afraid that I will be soon.

You can take a handful of pills, and that is fine. You can smoke tobacco, and as long as you are outside, most people won’t screw with you. You can drink until you pass out and that is fine. You can over eat until you are a blimp. But you can’t have a puff on a plant that nature gave the world, that makes you a criminal. The absolute LACK of compassion for their fellow human beings is the ONE hallmark of those who are against this, and that includes EVERY member of congress and every “christian” who opposes it. Their REAL problem is that they have been politicians so long that they have forgotten what it means to be CITIZENS anymore.

I may leave this state and move to Canada, before this is all over. Or maybe even CA, but the economy sucks worse there than it does here. At least their cops aren’t foolish enough to screw with most people over something that has NEVER killed asingle human being in history.

BTW, according to Kaiser Permanente, the ONLY health issue that pot smokers have is THE POLICE. And for the record, it is my belief that this will ONLY change if and when the American PEOPLE get damned sick and tired of having a war declared on them by their own gov’t every other week.

I can’t wait until Senator McCain gets to deal with chronic pain. Let’s see how HE likes those damned pills and their side effects. And look into the Physicians Desktop Reference if you want to see what those pills will do to you. On 98% of the medications in there (and it has them all), DEATH is listed as a possible side effect.

Go ahead, Senator, and tell us all how this is all about HEALTH. IT’S NOT, and you are a liar and a compassionless jerk. TRY walking in someone else’s shoes, because yours stink!
Ken Mitchell October 8th, 2007 3:45 pm

We have medical morphine and medical codine. Why not medical marijuana? By the way, my congressman, Maurice Hinchey twice introduced a medical marijuana bill that the presidential candidate that I am currently supporting, Ron Paul voted for. The house voted it down. STUPID!!!!!!!!
Mr. Duncan October 8th, 2007 5:03 pm

Hinchey’s a pretty good guy.
texrey October 8th, 2007 5:08 pm

The funny, AND more sad thing is that a lot of those in power today, probably partook in that very sin back in the day. They can mimick future first lady bill, but I would bet more than a few inhaled. Hippocritters. Wait…what was I…… talking…………………………………….. about………………………………………Oh yeah, it is ALL about control, prisons, power and greed! Dennis Kucinich Rocks. Maybe some one will ask why tonite when the DEMONcRATS deate. C-Span, I think at 9:00. Thanks Texrey
Zell October 8th, 2007 5:10 pm

In many cases _ not all _ the line between “medical” and “recreational” drug use is fairly blurry.

Or at least it looks blurry, and wavy. Really interesting, too.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah.

Most people I know who’ve used illegal drugs didn’t do it entirely for “recreation” _ unless one wants to define “recreation” as “feeling less unpleasant.

Which is pretty much what “recreation” is _ feeling better and ENJOYING YOUR SHORT LIFE MORE.

Drugs alter our experience of life. That’s why we all want them. If we’re experiencing pain, we want out of that. If we’re suffering anxiety, we want to make it go away. If we’re just bored, that’s unpleasant. It’s just a sort of spectrum.

This is NOT to belittle the agony of severely ill people by comparing their experience to mere boredom. Like I said, it’s a spectrum.

It’s natural to want to feel better. That’s why many people turn to drugs _ and always will. Pot’s among the safest and least destructive. Would you rather hang out with someone who’s really drunk, or really stoned? Think about it.

Most of the resistance to marijuana, like McCain’s, is political. That plant’s associated with Liberalism, tolerance, relaxation, introspection, art and pleasure, that’s why those people hate it. Please note how much more Bill’s non-inhalation bothered people than Bush’s sharp, squeaking little sniffs.

There are many constructive uses for that plant, even aside from from its astonishing psychological and physiological effects. Hemp is fairly versatile. The vicious Conservative hatred of it is another example of their sadism, fear of pleasure, and the damage they do to the world by wanting to deprive people _ whom they don’t even know _ of a way to make them feel better. Got to understand the enemy.

It’s 4:19 p.m.
geoff29 October 8th, 2007 5:34 pm

what were we talking about? am I in the right place?
Vince Lawrence October 8th, 2007 5:54 pm

Well, fellow travelers, it seems we’ve found something we can all agree upon.

Discorporate.
Kristina40 October 8th, 2007 5:56 pm

LOL geoff29, I think so, but people might be watching you…Seriously, I’ve been through some pretty rough times in the past five years. My Dad was terminal with bone cancer and passed, then Mom stroked and I had to move 800 miles to Florida to take care of her home and eventually her after she was released. She was 24/7 care and it was super stressful, she was aphasic and paralyzed and had horrific wounds the hospital inflicted. She ended up passing away last year which caused even more stress. If it weren’t for weed I’d have never made it through this time. It is truly a wonderful anti-depressant, if I hadn’t smoked I’m sure I’d have had a breakdown and ended up on those fabulous pharmaceuticals, walking around like an automaton. Lucky for me I was too broke to afford a shrink so I self medicated…
Vince Lawrence October 8th, 2007 6:02 pm

Zell: don’t know how I overlooked your post - look at that pretty bug.

I’m still laughing, thanks a million.
frank1569 October 8th, 2007 6:09 pm

Cannabis also cures most PMS symptoms, indigestion, and, most importantly, stress, just to mention a few other positives ignored. According to Wikipedia, pot was made illegal because those damn Mexican immigrants were going all kinds of crazy once they crossed the border and took a puff. Or was it to protect the white women from their uncontrollable desire, when high only, for the scary black man.

All sound, medically proven reasons to label cannabis a Schedule One “drug.”
andersdl October 8th, 2007 6:21 pm

If you were a cop, you would prefer to bust pot smokers rather than chase real criminals. Less risk and it all pays the same.
Kristina40 October 8th, 2007 8:09 pm

lol anders, yeah busting those pot heads only puts them at risk for heart burn after they confiscate the offenders pizza and doritos…
jjohnjj October 8th, 2007 8:40 pm

Obviously, Big Pharma does not want competition from medicinals that people can grow in their back yard.

Big Timber, Big Ag, Big Oil, Big Tobacco, and Big Distillers don’t want competition from hemp fiber, seed, leaf and oil.

Thus, the Rebublican Party, the champions of “free markets” and “competition”, works day and night to protect these industries from Cannibis growers (and consumers).

Ask your conservative neighbors how a weed, that’s been growing on earth since before God made Adam, could be such a terrible threat to anyone?

The reason your local Sheriff enforces unpopular federal drug laws is that the “War on Drugs” funnels thousands or millions of dollars into the Sheriff’s budget each year.

Ask your conservative neighbors how they feel about Washington having that much influence on “local” law enforcement.

I got nothing against conservatives… just hypocrites.
falazmah October 8th, 2007 9:00 pm

We’re stuck on semantics. Marijuana is no more harmful than cigarettes and certainly has more social impact than alcohol. If we’re going to apply consistent standards, we should either legalize it, or outlaw tobacco and alcohol. End of debate.

Do you think marijuana should be legalized? http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=660
Siouxrose October 8th, 2007 10:36 pm

Stream of consciousness thoughts on this subject:

1. I recall a documentary on mummies from Ancient Egypt where traces of marijuana and cocaine were found in the tissue samples! Yep. This stuff goes back a long time!

2. I remember an article explaining that Pot was used to help patients who had tuberculosis. It helped alleviate the coughing symptoms, and I believe it was legal until the l930’s.

3. There is NO question that marginalizing a “drug” associated with liberal thinkers has its benefits. Enough convictions and you create an end run around voting rights.

4. I’ve always thought all those prison beds (something like 70% of people incarcerated have drug or alcohol problems) justified by the bogus “war on drugs” are really to make space for political dissidents. (Of course the blackwater camps are another take on this same dark but logical, given our times, idea)

5. Note the amount of violence associated with tobacco, fire arms and alcohol… and how these things are legal; and contrast these statistics with the lack of any crime statistics associated with pot, THE peace pipe. If war is what your nation is best at, it can’t be about tolerating those who would sit together in circles and brainstorm ways to build community ties, or bridges among those with disparate interests.
redjeff October 8th, 2007 11:17 pm

I was just thinking about this subject this morning when I read a piece about how the US wants to spray herbicide on Afghanistan’s poppy fields. The farmers there are concerned about what happens to the opium they harvest, but they have no other way to support themselves. Same with the coca growers in South America.
But what if they could grow hemp and marijuana for cash instead? What if our economically distressed rural areas could grow legal crops of hemp and marijuana, instead of making meth? In fact, I believe North Dakota farmers have been trying to get industrial hemp legalized. I’m sure they aren’t getting anywhere with that–DEA will stomp on their dream, you know, for our own good.
And let the record show that I have no personal interest in marijuana–never use it, don’t care to, unless of course, my doctor should prescribe it to me. I just think the drug war is such an elaborate and farcical tragedy (like all wars) that we just need to rethink it completely.
twistoflex October 9th, 2007 12:56 am

The big cats want drugs illegal because they are more expensive that way and they make more money off them that way. Drugs follow the army and wars in Vietnam Afganistan etc. The money ends up invested in wall street so they are in favor of the war on drugs too. It is all about control money and power. They don’t care about health and are against freedom.
kengarjagalouski October 9th, 2007 1:30 am

Siouxrose:
i have not smoked for
somewhat of a long while,
but i did grow
maybe 10ys.
would fill quaker oats
canisters
with bud and give–
it was so kool
like money would never
buy
such a feeling!!

to grow the plant is like
playing
or
being
god
what ever her mood
is or was this season!!
ken
sageone October 9th, 2007 6:57 am

There are two kinds of people in this world, those that smoke pot and those that should.

Those who have made and continue to make this plant illegal oppose the will of the very God that they are so fond of holding up before themselves,…”and every plant of the field and every herb…”
LeeAnnG October 9th, 2007 11:11 am

jjohnjj - Great synopsis of all the reasons why pot is still illegal!

I’ve read recently that pot smoking is down among young people and up among those over 50, so it’s not all of the old who are against it. It’s probably certain members of the older generations, but I believe pot use is pretty much spread out among the population.

Several years ago, my son, who was never a drug user of any kind, had to undergo a hair follicle test to get a job at Blockbuster videos! (Then when he passed that test, he was told he would have to get his hair cut because male clerks had to have hair that did not touch their collars. Of course, he turned down the job. But that’s another story.) Isn’t it amazing that in spite of drug testing by employers, arrests for growing and using, robbing students of college aid, and all the draconian laws imposed on marijuana use, it’s still the mind-altering substance of choice among so many people? Obviously the war on drugs is not preventing use, it’s simply victimizing those who get caught.

It’s political, economic, and controlling. So, what else is new?
brian barnett October 9th, 2007 11:12 am

Let me start off by saying that i live in Arkansas. i have been to many parties. the parties where people are drinking alcohol a few hours into the party fights almost always breakout(now in saying this i been to some Yankee parties too , just the fights that breakout there are not as visible) And i have been to parties where marijuana is the social enabler of choice and at those parties a few hours after it starts someone will probably be a sleep on your couch some people will be listening to Dave matthews , pink Floyd or talking about social justice and maybe even talk about how they feel stress in their neck or body and have to stretch it out. And say some things like the only thing that truing exists is love and every thing else is a distraction (which i am sure everyone would agree with me that words like that will make you want to touch some one- now, where and the amount of force may depended on whether i have been drinking or eating/smoking)

i believe we need more stories on legalizing marijuana.

Some times the best way to put out a fire is by not throwing gasoline on it.

i would love to write more but little Debbie is calling.
forextrader October 9th, 2007 11:59 am

It’s crazy. When I travel to Amsterdam, Marijuana is available in coffee shops. They don’t cage people like animals like they do here in The United States of The Planet of The Apes. Many Americans claim they want the laws eased on Marijuana, but they always seem to vote for Drug Warriors who make the laws harder. Many American Marijuana smokers have gone along with these barbaric laws rather than try to fight them. If they haven’t, Marijuana would be legal since millions of Americans have tried it or smoked it frequently. To me that’s just saying that Americans, even though many who do smoke pot; seem to be perfectly satisfied with the American Prison Industrial Complex. Why can’t America be like Holland on the issue of Marijuana? Why are Americans so backward? Americans who smoke Marijuana and enable drug warrirors are as despicable as gays like Matt Sanchez (the gay prositute who shills for Bush) who hate on their own sexual orientation. When is this hypocrisy gonna end? Do I have to move to Amsterdam because Americans are barbaric apes?!?!
Vfor911 October 9th, 2007 12:16 pm

Medical “Marijuana” is redundant. Its like saying Medical Medicine.

Free pot!
asbmuy October 9th, 2007 1:19 pm

Forcefeeding children with High Fructrose Corn Syrup is what should be criminalized!

I think it was George Bush Sr., after whose plane had been shot down in the Pacific in WWII, was saved by a lifevest manufactured with…guess what?

Hemp.

Ours is such a hypocritical society…
sphne October 9th, 2007 1:38 pm

I was never a big fan of pot, prefering alchohol as my drug of choice. However, a friends have been urging me to try it for various complaints I have had over the years and I finally did and let me tell you it is a freaking miracle drug. For me it is no just a pain killer it actually get to the root of the pain and stops it, which for me is inflamation. I only do it late at night because I don’t enjoy being any more stupid than I already am. I’m not too crazy about the smoking part so I bake it into cookies. I just wish I could grow it myself. I seriously urge anyone with health problems to try it.
sphne October 9th, 2007 1:43 pm

Also, the bless-ed herb has never given me even the slightest hangover. They tried to discredit it during the Reagan “war on drugs” years by pouring money to research the dangers and were unable to find anything. I mean it sick people out there, get on the internet and do some research.
Zell October 9th, 2007 4:27 pm

You know, I used to sort of wish it would remain illegal, an “underground” drug, because of the fun, goofy, nudge-wink camaraderie and “invisible community” it generated.

Pot use, growing and sharing the love had its own culture, ethics, aesthetics and etiquette, along with traditions, some dating back thousands of years. One could always find cool, friendly, helpful people in any country when one saw certain signs and signal. Users identified each other in a trust-building social dance of careful conversation, jokes, double meanings, sort of like gays. Pass to the left.

Also, its illegality, frowned-upon nature in “polite” society and the innate humor that suffused it use _ that sort of, uh, weeded out the uptight.

Then came 1980, Reagan and an actual war on a plant.

Misdemeanors turned into felonies. Kindly law enforcement officers, who used to just dump confiscated weed or take it home, turned into grim, very un-funny enforcers of some ghastly new sort of steely-rimmed glasses society that people like me _ our most of us _ no longer comprehend. People’s kids were encouraged to rat on their parents in schools, and some were removed from their parents’ care, over one plant in garden. There’s “family values” for you. People lost homes, livelihoods, careers, marriages, families, reputations, friends. Not at all funny in the least.

Reading all your posts, I’m just awestruck by the number of normal, decent, loving and responsible people that pot has HELPED. What’s wrong with us? We’re sick. Time for some “medical use” for all of a society that does that to its people, the ill, the pain-ridden, the depressed, the angry, the sad, the dispossessed.

Guess we all have to show some courage and stand up as examples, at least among our peers, if it when we can _ it’s a huge social risk, not just a legal one.

Just Say Oh.

Love to you all.
Zell October 9th, 2007 4:30 pm

Oh and by the way, this is a quote, Tim Leary once said to me, nearly two decades ago _

“Computers will be the marijuana of the 1990s.”
laddy October 9th, 2007 5:54 pm

What do you expect from a person who only got to where he is now, is for being stupid and very inept, to be shot down by a slingshot and pea shooter and then didn’t try to escape his captors and now is supposed to be some big hero, but spent most of the war in a place surprisingly like Gitmo. If ignorance and stupidity was a crime, McCain should be in jail for life or like his budy Limbaugh who got caught for buying illegal drugs and was a drug addict of a very powerful narcotic, to which he used to condemn that type of white collar crime. But lucky for him, he had enough of the green to get out of his jam. hopefully, McCain won’t be able to get that green and have to drop out of the race. And by the way, McCain has had cancer, which I predict will take complete control of his body and he ends up smoking marijuana to relieve the pain and then he’ll again flip-flop on the issue as he does now. And remember he was a crook and got caught for fraud or money laundering when he took money from a church fanatic or preacher which he was censured for it and had it not been for his connections in the justice department he would still be doing time. He’s like any politician. He’s nothing but a hypocritical,lying cult member who would rather let someone die and suffer than to help them. That’s what should have happened to him at the Hilton in Nam. But remember: what goes around comes around. Would he let his wife and kids suffer if they needed medical marijuana to help them defeat the horrendous cancer that is eating away their organs, slowly or would he take the advice of the doctor and have the prescription filled for joints of pot? I think the idiot that he is: he would let his family die and suffer. that’s my opinion anyway.
alexnosal October 9th, 2007 10:35 pm

There are THOUSANDS of drugs out there that are more powerful, more dangerous and more addictive that pot that are perfectly legal. Why? The pharmaceutical companies don’t sell or control cannabis.

Tens of millions of Americans smoke pot regularly yet they’re living in constant fear of brutal punishment by their courts and denied such crappy jobs like working at Wal-Mart simply because of corporate controlled lackeys in Washington.

Any politician who doesn’t support the legalization of marijuana is playing into the hands of predatory drug companies. Pfizer, Bayer and Roche make Pablo Escobar look like a second-rate rookie in the drug business.
Republicrat-Demican October 10th, 2007 8:05 am

The medical marijuana argument is a bullshit argument. Let’s start the argument where it starts and ends. It’s my body and I will do whatever I want with it and if you don’t like it - Fuck you!! Years from now we’re still going to be arguing whether some glaucoma patient can get a government sanctioned bong hit of ditch weed when I want to by LSD at a CVS pharmacy tomorrow. All prohibition laws are wrong.
sphne October 10th, 2007 11:40 am

Also, I forgot to mention my 40 years of observational research. I now know people who are known as heavy pot smokers who have been doing it for 40 years and let me tell you, they are no worse for the wear. They look great and appear more physically and mentally fit than many of their peers. That was one of the things that got me into pot for the first time in my mid 40’s. I had smoked many times but never got into it. I felt if I was going to put another toxin in my body I wanted more of a kick than the weed high. I actually have to force myself to do it sometimes if I hadn’t done it in a while. Like excercise, once I do it I’m glad I did. I have never felt healthier in my life. We need to do something to make it legal. Also the seeds very high in Omega 3’s, which I believe most have a mass deficiency in and is causing many of the social and physical problems. The plants grow fast and could be used to make ethanol also.
PaulMagillSmith October 11th, 2007 11:11 am

RE: sageone October 9th, 2007 6:57 am
,…”and every plant of the field and every herb…”

I’m glad you mentioned this quote from the first or second page of Genesis, sageone, because it cuts the legs out from any argument by the religious right that pot, and other plant derived mind altering substances are the work of the devil, or contrary to the will of God. These bible thumping hypocrites don’t even pay attention to their own ‘constitution’ so how should we expect them to understand a tracebly man written one granting pursuit of happiness as a right?

RE: Siouxrose October 8th, 2007 10:36 pm

“There is NO question that marginalizing a “drug” associated with liberal thinkers has its benefits. Enough convictions and you create an end run around voting rights.”

Very good point, Siouxrose, and one that many people miss. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I think it might be a reasonable assumption that numerous felons caused by drug convictions are minorities or others alienated by the right. Certainly a majority are very likely inclined to vote for Democrats rather than Republicans, and we can’t have that now, can we? The Repugs showed us just how far they will go to swing the vote in their favor by Tom Delay’s redistricting in Texas, and the numerous instances of blocking minority voters in the last several elections, right? With 2.2+ million people currently incarcerated in this country, and approximately 5 million more in the ’system’ (parole, probation, etc) the number of felons who can’t vote represent a number of people who could put the Democrats in the drivers seat virtually forever. The puritanical ‘you were all born sinners and hence must suffer’ Christian evangelical minority can’t have people in this life plane actually enjoying themselves or the whole Chjristian fascist scheme goes (pardon the pun) “to hell in a handbasket” LOL.

RE: Zell October 9th, 2007 4:27 pm

Very thoughtful statements, Zell, and I also appreciate your Leary quote from another post on this thread. I went to his house in the hills of Berkeley back in the late sixties, but he was in NY at the time, so I never had the pleasure of meeting him.

I especially like your parody of Nancy Reagan’s idiotic comment about how to fight a drug problem, that being the infantile absurd, “Just say no.”. Your response of, “Just say…oh?” Speaks volumes about the lunacy of her position.

RE: Republicrat-Demican October 10th, 2007 8:05 am

I like your spunk. “…I will do whatever I want with it and if you don’t like it - Fuck you!!” Very appropriate & direct. You might even add, “…and don’t expect me to keep a civil tongue in my head when you are so callously trampling on my right to health and/or happiness!”

Thanks for all your comments, and aside from the points I’ve made about yours here is one I didn’t see mentioned very much. It is practical, political, and economical by nature.

I recently read pot seeds from one acre grown can be processed into 55 gallons of high grade oil for fuel. The article also stated this is more output than any other material source for bio-fuel…including corn, and the only thing the article mentioned was seeds, NOT stalks, leaves, stems, buds, etc. With our looming energy crisis (it’s only in the beginning stages now folks) resource reality could eventually have us see miles & miles of fields growing everywhere. And no, I’m not sitting here with a pipe in my hand LOL
Zell October 12th, 2007 6:06 am

PaulMagillSmith,

Hi, thanks for kind words.

Another fun Leary quote, from same summer _

“You know, Nancy Reagan is really lapsing on the whole wholesome, family values thing _ she should be teaching children to ‘just say no, THANK YOU.’”
kelleysurf October 12th, 2007 12:42 pm

There is ONE reason the corporate controlled government does not want to legalize cannabis: When people smoke pot they enjoy the simple things of life more and feel the desire to buy much less. It’s true. You are no longer bored. Just being outside is fun. You don’t need the mall. You think about what life is about —and THEY sure don’t want a bunch of people thinking! I am a firm believer in the idea that we’d be MUCH better off if everyone got high now and then.
PaulMagillSmith October 15th, 2007 3:00 pm

By definition all the people who favor maintaining the current “War On Drugs’ are insane since they are repeating the failed prohibition policy of the twenties & early thirties against alcohol yet expecting different results. At the same time these self-appointed self-righteous hypocrites try to frame their argument by insinuating (or outright stating even), “People who smoke a bit of pot are crazy”.

If you go to a shrink you might hear something like, “Well if you deny you are crazy you probably are, but if you admit it then you are probably not.” It’s a catch 22 argument, because if you say you’re crazy then they’ll PUT you in the looney bin, and if you say you’re not then they will assume you are and KEEP you there.

Well, I guess I might be crazy because just as tens of millions of Americans like to occasionally smoke a bit of pot, so do I. By admitting the act might be a bit crazy we are undoubtedly millions of sane people in a contest with a number of insane prohibitionists. John McCain is just a figurehead & mouthpiece for their insane position; he’s the poster child for a new commercial we need called, “This is your brain WITHOUT/OFF drugs”. LOL

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