cannabisnews.com: US Ignoring Marijuana Research





US Ignoring Marijuana Research
Posted by CN Staff on September 15, 2002 at 17:20:36 PT
By Bruce Mirken
Source: Sun News 
Early in the morning of Sept. 5, dozens of armed men stormed a respected medical facility where nearly 300 people desperately ill from cancer, AIDS and other illnesses got their medicine. Brandishing semiautomatic weapons in the faces of terrified patients, including a woman paralyzed from childhood polio, they destroyed all of the medicine and took prisoner the facility's operators. 
The work of Osama bin Laden? Hamas? Some other international terrorists? No. This particular terrorist raid was carried out by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The facility they attacked was the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) in Santa Cruz, Calif. A co-op run entirely by and for seriously ill people - 80 percent of whom have terminal diagnoses - WAMM sold nothing. All of the medical marijuana grown was given to members without charge. The facility was supported by the community and worked closely with local officials. According to County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt, WAMM operated in an "exemplary" fashion. After the raid - which had been planned and executed with no warning to the local government - Wormhoudt told reporters she was "appalled" by the DEA's action. The patients WAMM served are desperately ill. For many with AIDS or cancer, marijuana is the only thing that allows them to tolerate the horrendous side effects of the harsh treatments that keep them alive. Others endure excruciating pain that conventional medicines have failed to relieve, but which marijuana helps. Because of this raid, many of these people will die prematurely - agonizing, horrible deaths - because the only medicine that helped them has been taken away. What could possibly motivate such cruelty? Desperation. All around the world, governments and scientific experts are coming to believe that marijuana shouldn't be illegal - that it is simply not dangerous enough to warrant arresting and jailing even social or recreational users, much less people using it to relieve symptoms of cancer or AIDS. The British government has already moved to make marijuana possession a nonarrestable offense. On Sept. 4, Canada's Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs released the most exhaustive investigation of marijuana data and policy options ever conducted by any government. The 650-page report declared that criminalizing marijuana amounted to "throwing taxpayers' money down the drain in a crusade that is not warranted by the danger posed by the substance." But marijuana - which accounts for the vast majority of illegal drug use and arrests - is the engine that drives the war on drugs and keeps massive drug-control budgets pumped up. So even as DEA agents were shoving machine guns in the faces of sick people, White House drug czar John Walters and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson stood in front of a Washington, D.C., press conference, spouting long-discredited myths as if they were proven facts. Marijuana, said Thompson, is "a clear and present danger to the health and well-being of all its users" - a statement contradicted by reams of scientific research. Indeed, in 1995, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet stated flatly, "The smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health." This year, the British government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and the Canadian Senate committee came to similar conclusions after extensive study. But our government's drug war ideologues don't care about science. And they don't care how many sick people they literally torture to death in their desperate effort to pump up a collapsing policy. Contact Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, at P.O. Box 77492, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC 20013. Source: Sun News (SC)Author: Bruce MirkenPublished: Saturday, September 14, 2002Copyright: 2002 Sun Publishing Co.Contact: opinions thesunnews.comWebsite: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/Related Articles & Web Sites:WAMMhttp://wamm.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org News Articles on WAMM Raidhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/valc.htmConflict Heightens in California Marijuana Battlehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14102.shtmlCanadian Senate Panel Calls For Legalization http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13998.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #5 posted by overtoke on September 15, 2002 at 21:41:27 PT:
Arrest the DEA?
Can the city instruct the city police to arrest DEA agents? Please do.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by FoM on September 15, 2002 at 21:40:31 PT
p4me
I swear we think the same. Here is Daniel Forbes article and I posted the same comment about Valerie talking to the DEA agents on another thread and I put the link to the pictures on my page I'm building about the raids. I guess I am trying to rest up a little and work on a few pages of mine to pass the time until this week happens. I hope Bush doesn't decide to bomb Iraq and take all the news in that direction this week. I don't want to bomb Iraq but I really don't want it to happen this week.
News Articles on WAMM Raid
http://freedomtoexhale.com/valc.htm
The DEA in Chains: Bound by a Patient in a Chair, the Feds Call Local Cops for Help
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread14036.shtml
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by p4me on September 15, 2002 at 21:13:35 PT
Dan Forbes and WAMM
Someone mentioned how good a website drugwars.com is. It really is tops and it has Dan Forbes who does not have to whore himself to continue the prohibition that insist on jail or death for to marijuana users. Dan Forbes has the best coverage of the raid at drugwars.com: http://www.drugwar.com/pforbeswammraid.shtmThere is a link to the WAMM.org website that has many pictures of the people that are at risk of dying and guartanteed unneede suffering blocking the exit of the DEA off the rural mountain with chain and bodies. The pictures are very powerful and if you participate in a messageboard these pictures will remove a lot of ignorance and hate: http://www.wamm.org/ The links to the pictures are about half way down next to picture of the closed gate on the lonely road with the DEA convoy backed up behind it.At this link- http://www.marijuana-art.com/ARaid2.html -off of that list of links nest to the picture it has a picture of Valerie and a comment that reads: Val & Michael CorralValerie was able talk to some of these young DEA agents while they had her handcuffed on the floor, and she told them about her experiences with marijuana as medicine. Before she was done, there were eyes glazed with tears in that room. She's so quietly powerful. They don't know what they're facing here.©-----------------------1,2
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 15, 2002 at 18:18:29 PT
LTEs don't always have to be rebuttals
Sirs,  Thank you for running Bruce Mirkin's article. It is all true, although it recieves relatively little media attention outside of California, and I am happy to see your paper considers such things newsworthy.  The government may have more at stake in the drug war than most people think. I reccomend taking a look at the Sundance award-winning 10 minute film Crack the CIA, available online at http://www.gnn.tv/crack/ - it's an excellent introduction to the government's role in the drug war.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by DdC on September 15, 2002 at 18:07:31 PT
Ignoring? Flat Out Hiding Research!!!
The Toxic Alternative to Natural Fiber
http://fornits.com/curiosity/hemp/fibre.htm
Cannabis Shrinks Tumors: Government Knew in 74    
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=116.topic
The Hype Brain Damage in Dead Monkeys
(Rayguns suffocates Bonzo)
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=50.topic
Hashish Fudge Soma and the Whooton report
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=26.topic
D.E.A. Confirms Grounds To Remove Cannabis from Sch#1 
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=253.topic
Sacramental Cannabis 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/Sacramental.html
Food 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/Food.html
Fuel 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/Fuel.html
Fiber
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/Fiber.html
FARMaceuticals
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/farmaceuticals.html
D.E.A.th Deceptions
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/DEAth.html
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/39/39670.gif
Welcome
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment