cannabisnews.com: Users Complain Pot in Studies Too Weak 





Users Complain Pot in Studies Too Weak 
Posted by CN Staff on May 15, 2002 at 17:45:23 PT
By Ray Delgado, Chronicle Staff Writer
Source: San Francisco Chronicle 
They call it Mississippi ditch weed and the quality is so poor to Sacramento resident Elvy Musikka that she spends a whole day picking apart the medical marijuana cigarettes the U.S. government sends her to remove the stems and seeds. Even street-level marijuana, which can sometimes come laced with PCP, is considered by many to be of higher quality than the government-grown marijuana that is supplied by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. 
The agency has been growing the pot through the University of Mississippi for medicinal studies since the 1970s and has been hearing the complaints from the very beginning. The poor-quality pot is partly to blame for the lack of participants in a current San Mateo county program that is the first publicly funded study to look at the effects of medical marijuana on HIV patients who smoke the drug at home. Only 10 people are taking part in the study, which was designed for 60, and Dale Gieringer, coordinator for California NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the seeds and stems issue is part of the reason. "It was really obvious when you looked at (the cigarettes) and saw the problem," Gieringer said. "There was a potency test several years ago with samples of medical marijuana. The government pot tested at the bottom of the samples." According to the study performed in 1999 by Ethan Russo, a Montana neurologist and editor of the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics, the government's marijuana cigarettes were loaded with seeds and stems and tested at 2 to 3 percent potency, compared with 5 or 6 percent for typical street- quality marijuana and 7 to 8 percent for the pot that is supplied by most medical marijuana operations. "That has been a chronic problem from the time the farm was created," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML Foundation. "If (patients) had access to high-end marijuana, some of these people might go from smoking 15 cigarettes a day to a few puffs when they feel the tremors coming on." Steve Gust, the special assistant to the director at the institute, said the government's marijuana tests at almost the same level of potency as the average marijuana that is seized by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which is about 4 to 5 percent. He also said the marijuana cigarettes are mostly free of seeds and stems. "Like any mass processing, it's not a perfect process," said Gust. "But the marijuana that we provide and produce is almost entirely free of stems and seeds." The agency ships out the majority of its marijuana cigarettes to a dozen different research programs throughout the nation that service several hundred people. The agency also directly ships cigarettes to seven patients who are part of an old investigative program that was created in the 1970s for research. Musikka, a Sacramento woman who has been suffering from glaucoma since 1975, is one of the seven study participants who receives the shipments from the institute. She said that since her participation in the study in 1988, the quality of the marijuana has gone from awful to tolerable but that she still can't smoke the cigarettes without cleaning them up first. "They always have to be rerolled," said Musikka, who is blind in one eye. "I don't like their papers, and all the seeds and stems have to come out. It takes me all day to just clean everything and get it so that I can reroll it." In Southern California, they're having just the opposite problem. Two patients enrolled in a medical marijuana trial program in La Jolla have complained that the institute-provided pot is too potent. "They've reported getting high shortly after the first few puffs," said Dr. Andrew Mattison, the center's co-director. "These are people with a chronic, debilitating illness who do not want to get high. They want to get pain relief. " The Associated Press contributed to this report.Note: Iffy quality impeding medical research. Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Ray Delgado, Chronicle Staff WriterPublished: Thursday, May 15, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Hearst Communications Inc. - Page A - 1 Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/Related Articles & Web Sites:CaNORMLhttp://www.canorml.org/Cannabinoids in Pain Managementhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/drr.htmChronic Cannabis Use http://freedomtoexhale.com/ccu.pdf Picture of Debris - 3 NIDA Cannabis Cigarettes http://freedomtoexhale.com/debris.jpg Activists Complain About Government Pot Qualityhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12849.shtmlSan Mateo Pot-Study Sign-Up Low http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12836.shtml
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Comment #7 posted by RavingDave on May 16, 2002 at 22:49:18 PT
Pa, Thar's PCP in My Ditchweed Ag'in
You know, I keep hearing the funniest thing. Every now and then, someone dredges up that old comedy about PCP in the street pot. Interesting. I bought pot off the "street" for years, and I don't remember having any strange hallucinations or other ill effects. Neither can any of my friends ever remember getting any special condiments on their green grass.Now, my evidence may be purely anecdotal, but I have to ask myself a more profound question: who is the samaritan with all the money to burn? I mean, the pot is going to sell, right? Why would someone go out of their way to dope the dope with some other substance which only adds to their cost? Besides, wouldn't this drive their customers away, not to mention possibly causing a fatality? I don't know of too many dealers who are that stupid.The only thing I ever had to worry about in my bygone days was trying to get the good stuff. As likely as not, I would get a bag of ditchweed and be charged too damned much for it. Go figure.
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Comment #6 posted by qqqq on May 16, 2002 at 05:38:33 PT
...Oh,,,This weed is much too potent!...
....Oh!...I'm getting much too unpleasantly stoned off this ,....Help!...
"In Southern California, they're having just the opposite problem. 
      Two patients enrolled in a medical marijuana trial program in La Jolla have complained that the institute-provided pot is too potent. 
      "They've reported getting high shortly after the first few puffs," said Dr. Andrew Mattison, the center's co-director."These are people with a chronic, debilitating illness who do not want to get high. They want to get pain relief. " "
...What a crock of Shit!......Who were these two "patients"????..what a pile of crap!,, if they got too "high",after a "..few puffs",,,then they should not take so many puffs next time!....What percentage of people who are in pain would complain about feeling "high",from Marijuana?..If they dont like the "high",,then they should switch to tylenol,or advil!
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Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on May 16, 2002 at 05:11:54 PT:
Connotations, again...
Which would you rather have? A thick, juicy well-done grilled Porterhouse steak? Or the charred muscle tissue from a castrated bull?It makes no difference; they are exactly the same thing. But most people would quickly choose the former. Simply because of the disagreeable sounding nature of the latter.You think media types are unaware of this? Most especially, do you think the Federal government is oblivious to this fact? This bald-faced manipulation slips beneath most people's radar screens. Simply because they are exposed to it every single day. But if someone points this out to the public, most have been so conditioned that they disregard the observation...until it becomes so obvious that even the dimmest bulb in the box can see it. Which is what's happening now.But Walters wants more money for this deception? Typical. So typical...
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Comment #4 posted by BGreen on May 15, 2002 at 23:56:56 PT
Two more thoughts
I've never heard of participants in any other medical trial referred to as "Users." This intentional bias demonstrated by the use of a derogatory slang vernacular may appear "cutesy," but it undermines the intrinsic news value, reducing it to tabloid entertainment.We've been trying to tell these people that we consume LESS of the potent cannabis, so why are they making these people in the La Jolla study continue to smoke after they've had too much? Geez, even the most die-hard smokers I know will put the joint out and save the rest for later.
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Comment #3 posted by BGreen on May 15, 2002 at 22:01:32 PT
Taste
When I take a hit of some properly cured Bubble Gum or KC33, I still smile because it tastes so good. I don't smoke tobacco, and only experimented with it as a kid, but I've never tasted a cigarette that wasn't worse than ditch weed.Real Columbian Gold back in the 70's was the same way. It tasted SO sweet, and that's why I chose cannabis. I haven't touched tobacco in 27 years, although I'm forced to breath 2nd-hand smoke in some of the venues we play.My friends have all known since the 70's that burning seeds release volatile compounds which cause headaches, not to mention those pesky little burn holes in clothing, so the Gov't is OBVIOUSLY trying to sabotage the ongoing research.
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Comment #2 posted by bruce42 on May 15, 2002 at 21:36:14 PT
ticks...
are gross... lol many ticks.this story seems to be making a few papers...minneapolis:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1556/2836575.htmland apparantly, Bush knew about a plot by Bin laden to hijack some planes pre 911http://wire.ap.org/APnews/main.html?SLUG=BUSH%2dHIJACKINGSI hope the link works
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on May 15, 2002 at 19:56:08 PT
Politics?
Only in America......do we use the word 'politics' to describe the
 process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning
 'bloodsucking creatures'.
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