cannabisnews.com: When It's OK To Inhale





When It's OK To Inhale
Posted by CN Staff on October 04, 2002 at 22:25:01 PT
From the Journal Sentinel
Source: Journal Sentinel 
Last month, officials in a California town aided and abetted the distribution of marijuana as hundreds of residents cheered. To get the pot, Santa Cruz residents had to meet qualifications, one of which was that they be ill.Cannabis relieves both pain and nausea. Accordingly, California has passed a law permitting the drug to be used for those purposes. Anti-drug zealotry has led the feds to oppose the law, however.
Hence, armed with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the federal ban on pot trumps state law, drug enforcement agents have been raiding California farms that grow marijuana for medicinal purposes, uprooting the plants and arresting the growers.To protest, Santa Cruz officials staged a rally that featured a marijuana giveaway. Mayor Christopher Krohn told The New York Times: "This is not an attempt to embarrass the (Drug Enforcement Administration), but rather a compassionate gathering in support of sick people who need their medicine."The federal government, according to DEA chief Asa Hutchinson, doesn't object to the use of marijuana's active ingredient, THC, for medicinal purposes - providing it is prescribed by physicians in that form. The drug, he says, ought to be subject to the same rigorous tests as other prescription drugs. The problem with marijuana as an inhaled product, he adds, is that the patient also ingests carcinogens similar to those in cigarettes.Cigarettes, of course, are addictive, legal products with no medicinal purpose, which suggests some inconsistency in Hutchinson's position. Curiously, the government manages to think more flexibly and realistically about other, harder drugs. For instance, it outlaws - as it should - the recreational use of morphine, but permits doctors to prescribe the narcotic to kill pain.Why can't marijuana in inhaled form enjoy similar, dual status? After all, the experts note that it provides relief to terminally ill patients. It's possible that part of the medicinal effect is psychological - the ritual of smoking a joint. So what? Some patients prefer marijuana to morphine as a painkiller because the former keeps them more alert. Yet, irrationally, federal policy steers patients to the more addictive drug.Federal law ought to permit doctors to prescribe marijuana where appropriate. Sure, the authorities would have to monitor its sale to guard against abuse, just as they do with other prescription drugs. But if Congress lacks the gumption to pass such a law, the federal government at least ought to stay out of the way of states doing the right thing.Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Oct. 5, 2002.Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)Published: October 5, 2002Copyright: 2002 Milwaukee Journal SentinelContact: jsedit onwis.comWebsite: http://www.jsonline.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:WAMMhttp://www.wamm.org/Pictures From WAMM Protesthttp://freedomtoexhale.com/eventpics.htmThe Thrashing of a Dying Dinosaur's Tail http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14202.shtmlWhy I'm Fighting Federal Drug Laws From City Hallhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14195.shtml 
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Comment #5 posted by charmed quark on October 05, 2002 at 12:09:12 PT:
It's also empowering to grow your own medicine
Another point about cannabis versus Marinol is that it is very self-enpowering to be able to grow your own medicine. If you've ever had a chronic illness you'd know how horrible it is to have control of your disease taken out of your hands by doctors and pharmaceutical companies. To take part in growing your own cannabis and working out your own treatment plan must be wonderful. Not to mention so much cheaper. And there are other reasons whole cannabis is better than synthetic THC, of course.I grew and processed feverfew and other herbs for my migraines last year. A great experience taking control of my medicine, even though it didn't work. I hope to be able to do that with cannabis one day.-Pete
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Comment #4 posted by goneposthole on October 05, 2002 at 04:51:12 PT
No, nope
Can't do it. There will be no cannabis used for medicine. Are you nuts?Smoke cannabis and you feel better???The terminally ill find relief???
 
You are nuts!Cannabis has never helped anyone.We have laws that prove it.See here? It says it's illegal, right here; it's the law.Now, get out of here and leave me alone 'cuz it's the law.
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Comment #3 posted by DdC on October 04, 2002 at 23:35:13 PT
Asa Isa Assa
Asa and Me
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread9898.shtmlThe conversion of Asa
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/12/hutchinson/index.htmlAsa Isa Assa 
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionprohibitionistwodjunkies.showMessage?topicID=31.topicAsacondA
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/40/40163.gifCannabis in Japan Cannabis(Taima) / Hemp(Asa) ¶8)
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitioncannabisnewsandinformation.showMessage?topicID=15.topic
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Comment #2 posted by DdC on October 04, 2002 at 23:20:46 PT
Behind Czarist 'Truths' - Deception 
"The dogmatic heartlessness of the war on drugs was on flaming display Monday in Flagler and Volusia counties as national drug 'czar' John Walters brought a message high on zero tolerance and dubious facts to a high school and a drug treatment center. Walters' sophomoric claims and punishing solutions illustrate exactly why a record 74 percent of Americans believe the war on drugs is a failure and why claims like Walters' cannot be trusted: They are irresponsibly blind to reality."From "Behind Czarist 'Truths' - Deception No Way To Wage Drug War," an editorial published by Daytona Beach News-Journal. 
http://www.n-jcenter.com/2002/Sep/26/OPN2.htm for the complete editorial.Weed with roots in Hell
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/34/34417.gifDevils Harvest
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/37/37588.jpg "Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
Reichsmarschall.Hermann Goering,Nazi Air Force(Luftwaffe)commander,the Nuremberg Trials http://www.narcoterror.org"Terrorist operatives infiltrate our communities, plotting, planning and waiting to kill again....To those who scare peace loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists." United States Attorney General John Ashcroft OPINION: All You Really Need To Know About John Ashcroft
http://www.hightimes.com/News/2002_01/opinion.htmlTHIEVES STEAL DRUGS, MONEY FROM DRUG TASK FORCE OFFICE
Pubdate: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)Someone broke into the offices of the Lauderdale County Drug Task Force and stole marijuana, Oxycontin and money from evidence lockers.A variety of street drugs and an undisclosed amount of money were taken, according to police records. Police Chief Rick Singleton said he's asked the Alabama Bureau of Investigation to investigate.Task force members worked Sunday night and early Monday morning. Upon returning to the office at about 3 a.m., officers found that someone apparently kicked in the office door, said Singleton. Continued... http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1858/a03.htmlMARIJUANA DISAPPEARANCE SPURS FEDERAL PROBE
Pubdate: Wed, 02 Oct 2002
Source: Tribune Review (PA)
Author: Karen ZapfFederal authorities are investigating the disappearance of an unspecified amount of marijuana from the Plum police department, police said Tuesday.Plum police Sgt. Matthew Feldmeier, the department's acting supervisor in charge, said the marijuana was seized in an "old case" but would not say how much of the drug is missing."The federal (authorities) are looking into it," Feldmeier said. "They are handling it." Continued... 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1859/a02.htmlWhy I Support Marijuana Prohibition
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionstuff.showMessage?topicID=122.topic"There is a point at which the law becomes immoral and unethical. That point is reached when it becomes a cloak for the cowardice that dares not stand up against blatant violations of justice. A state that supresses all freedom of speech, and which by imposing the most terrible punishments, treats each and every attempt at criticism, however morally justified, and every suggestion for improvement as plotting to high treason, is a state that breaks an unwritten
law." - Kurt Huber [The head of White Rose], killed by the Nazis in 1943. Cannabis Hemp: The Invisible Prohibition Revealed
http://www.sumeria.net/politics/invpro.html
D.E.A.th Deceptions
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Comment #1 posted by Gary Storck on October 04, 2002 at 23:19:32 PT
Fantastic!
Great to see such a common sense, rational viewpoint from Wisconsin's largest newspaper!I am very proud to see them do this on the heels of a visit to the Milwaukee area by Asa Hutchinson, on his never-ending "Meth Tour". This is a major development. Milwaukee is not Santa Cruz. They're not buying the b.s. in Milwaukee, either.Gary
Drug Policy Forum of WI
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