cannabisnews.com: Canada, Maryland Going To Pot





Canada, Maryland Going To Pot
Posted by CN Staff on July 01, 2003 at 22:34:04 PT
By Robert Weiner and Amy Rieth
Source: Washington Times 
Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich recently signed legislation into law allowing patients using medical marijuana, if taken to trial, to raise an "affirmative defense of medical necessity."   Now, as long as the patient successfully shows that his or her use of marijuana is for medical purposes, the maximum fine allowed would be a mere $100. Canada has also changed its marijuana policy, with the courts allowing "medical" use, the government's creating an Office of Cannabis Medical Access and punishing possession of small amounts of marijuana with a lesser fine, similar to a traffic ticket. 
 Since 1996, eight states preceded Maryland in liberalizing or outright legalizing medical use of marijuana or even the so-called harder drugs for medicinal purposes: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon and Washington.   Let's look at the truth here. Legislation permitting the use of medical marijuana is a wedge for those who support drug legalization, undeniably because they desire the high. California found that very few people going to medical marijuana clinics were terminally ill; the vast majority were simply potheads who wanted dope.   It is ironic that advocates for legalizing marijuana to help poor, suffering and pain-stricken individuals do not support the drug in other forms such as patches, suppositories, aerosols, or pill form. They only push for the smoked form of marijuana.   Legalization advocates argue that marijuana helps cure severe headaches, glaucoma and even Parkinson's disease, and say it prevents nausea, reduces pain, sparks the appetite, reduces muscle spasms and decreases eye fluid pressure in glaucoma cases. However, glaucoma treatment is actually just delayed by marijuana, not helped. Medical marijuana is no better than medical gin — taking a shot of it blurs the pain and makes you hungry, too. Marijuana is not a miracle drug. It does not cure anything.   Science, not politics, and not "high hopes," should determine what is safe and effective medicine. Certainly, hot, burning smoke in someone's throat is not it. In comparison to tobacco, Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang of UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center points out that "the carcinogens in marijuana are much stronger than those in tobacco." At the same time, smoking marijuana can lead to tachycardia, a serious increase in heart rate, often accompanied by an increase in blood pressure. Concentration, motor coordination, memory, lungs and reproductive and immune systems are all adversely impacted by marijuana use, according to the National Institutes of Health.   In 1996, the California ballot initiative passed, making the state the first to remove criminal penalties for qualifying patients who grow, possess and use medical marijuana. But such initiatives are funded by people like George Soros, who has contributed more than $15 million to initiatives and propositions pushing for drug legalization (currently, federal and most state campaign laws do not limit personal contributions for initiatives, only candidate races).   The answer to the war on drugs does not lie in decriminalizing marijuana. Doing so could very well mean heading down a dangerous path that will likely require societal and legislative corrections in the future. Do we really want to reproduce problems of the '70s and '80s, when drug use and crime were at their highest?   An annual survey of 100,000 students shows, surprising to legalization advocates, that marijuana is disproportionately involved in crime and violence. Marijuana is also the most used drug for which teens seek treatment, surpassing alcohol. In fact, more teens seek treatment nationally for marijuana than all other drugs combined.   Today, drug use in our country is half of what it was in the late '70s and early '80s; cocaine use is down by 70 percent, and crime is at all-time lows. Legalization of medical marijuana will immediately lead to increased availability of the drug and deflated attitudes about its dangers. This, in turn, will bring increased usage. Is this what our country wants? More people using and even becoming dependent on marijuana, especially if they start taking the drug compulsively, as would most likely be the case for medicinal purposes? Making drugs more available is not a solution, but an aggravation of the problem.   Marijuana does not meet the scientific requirements for efficacy, quality, purity and safety necessary to be considered medicine. How can anyone consider it compassionate or medically responsible to prescribe harmful substances to ill people and delude them into thinking they are improving their health? The American Medical Association, the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Glaucoma Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Cancer Society have all rejected the use of smoked marijuana as medicine. The rest of America should do the same.     Robert Weiner, a public affairs consultant, is a former public affairs director for the White House Drug Policy Office (1995-2001) and former communications director for the House Narcotics Committee (1986-1990). Amy Rieth, a sophomore at North Carolina State University, is an advocate of drug-free communities.   Source: Washington Times (DC)Author: Robert Weiner and Amy RiethPublished: July 02, 2003 Copyright: 2003 News World Communications, Inc. Website: http://www.washtimes.com/Contact: letters washingtontimes.comRelated Articles & Web Sites:Cannabis Medical Accesshttp://www.medicalmarihuana.ca/Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmEhrlich Signs Marijuana Bill http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16364.shtml Pot Regulations Violate Charter: Ontario Court http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15158.shtml
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Comment #16 posted by Lehder on July 03, 2003 at 05:08:14 PT
courtesy pays
Rainbow makes some truly pertinent comments on the pollution in Los Angeles, its effects on the lungs, and the speciousness of drug warriors' concerns for our health. But he makes a logical argument, and drug warriors are not respectful of logical arguments.I've been to Los Angeles twice, 1975 and 1994. Within a half hour of deplaning my eyes were red and burning. I looked like I had been smoking marijuana. In both cases I had been smoking marijuana, but my eyes did not burn until after landing.No, I was not smoking marijuana on the plane. I smoked before boarding. I had shared a joint with my girl as she drove me to the airport. She had bought the marijuana from a juvenile probation officer, one of her many connections.You are not allowed to smoke marijuana on airplanes. I found this out from the same girl who smoked a reefer on a night flight out of San Francisco. She reported to me that there were only a very few passengers on the entire flight, that she sat alone and far from the others, and that the one joint was all she had with her. Why not, she thought, and sparked up. She was nearly finished with her very smelly joint when a very polite stewardess approached and asked, "Would you mind extinguishing your cigarette, please?" "Not at all," my lady replied with a smile and snuffed it out in the handy ash tray installed in the seat arm for exactly that purpose. Everyone was happy, and there was no trouble.You're not allowed to smoke marijuana on city buses either, at least not in Albuquerque. On the Central Avenue bus one morning on my way to the soup kitchen two passengers stood up in the aisle and struggled to open the overhead ventilator hatch and let out a big cloud of marijuana smoke that they had released while riding in back. A very small woman drank from a paper bag and paddled her legs happily as she gave a running and extremely profane commentary on the proceedings. The driver stopped and ordered the two passengers off the bus: "No marijuana smoking allowed on the bus," she said. The driver was so outraged that she radioed back to the bus ten minutes behind us that there were two passengers waiting who should not be picked up, forcing them to wait twenty minutes, instead of ten, for the third bus and possibly missing lunch. But the two exited the bus without trouble, offering their profuse apologies to the driver, and the case was closed.All in all, everything worked out rather well, both on the airplanes and the bus. See how just a little courtesy can replace an expensive drug war? Only in Los Angeles, where the burning pollution is county wide, could nothing be done and no escape from the smoke be found.
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Comment #15 posted by Rainbow on July 02, 2003 at 19:22:20 PT
Isn't pollution worse?
I am wondering why they do not think about comparing
Los Angeles and Atlanta with smoking. if whinner is so worried about our lungs he ought to go after the big polluters.Insidious Ailment?  We need a metaphor to make a
subtle, but important point. We have friends who've lived in Los Angeles. They report that when the smog in Los Angeles is light, they don't feel like they're suffering.
However, epidemiologists say Los Angeleans suffer
health effects similar to a pack-a-day smoking habit. They are paying the price of low awareness.Yes and we might be able to increase the awareness
that hey we need to prohibit smog if we are so worried about the pollutants that get in our bodies.
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Comment #14 posted by John Tyler on July 02, 2003 at 09:58:29 PT
What?
I can't believe it took two people to write this erroneous rehashed drivel.
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Comment #13 posted by afterburner on July 02, 2003 at 08:11:46 PT:
These Writers Didn't Do Their Homework
"It is ironic that advocates for legalizing marijuana to help poor, suffering and pain-stricken individuals do not support the drug in other forms such as patches, suppositories, aerosols, or pill form. They only push for the smoked form of marijuana." Mrs Ivol told the court she came up with the idea for what she called her "special Belgian chocolates" [cannachoc] after agreeing to help a non-smoking MS sufferer. She developed a formula for the drug-laced confectionery as well as cannabis patches which can be directly applied to the skin. -Cannabis Case Woman 'Overdoses' http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread16745.shtml"GW Pharmaceuticals said Sativex, which contains extracts from whole cannabis plants, is on track for release subject to approval by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Because it contains the class C drug, Sativex would also require a change in the law, but Home Secretary David Blunkett has indicated he would be willing to make an amendment if the drug was approved.GW, based in Salisbury, grows 40,000 cannabis plants a year at a secret site. The drug is administered as a spray in the mouth and works to alleviate pain and relax muscle spasms.-Cannabis Drug Set for End of Year Release http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/16/thread16649.shtml
ego destruction leads to ego transcendence, we've had eighty years of one, how about a few years of the other?
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on July 02, 2003 at 07:23:54 PT
CorvallisEric
You're right. Chemo can kill cancer cells. I guess I was thinking of a mood altering drug that can cure. I was being very general and I know better then that but this article made me angry.
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Comment #11 posted by Sam Adams on July 02, 2003 at 06:04:13 PT
Alcohol
It's interesting that Weiner says that cannabis is just like "medical gin".Interesting that alcohol, a drug which any adult can freely buy and use, kills 150,000 per year. Cannabis, which kills no one, is not legal to use even if your doctor urges you to and gives you a written recommendation.No surprise that this guy is promoted to the top by the US Govt. Lying is, of course, one of the Big Three core American values, along with hypocrisy and greed.
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Comment #10 posted by BigDawg on July 02, 2003 at 05:54:36 PT
I love the logic
Because now that he has stated his position, I guess he will now campaign against opiate and synthetic pain killers. They don't CURE anything.I saw we ban ALL pain meds...I mean they have no curative properties... right? And have great potential for abuse.It's only logical.
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Comment #9 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on July 02, 2003 at 05:31:38 PT
LTE
Sirs,  Bob Weiner says, "Marijuana is not a miracle drug. It does not cure anything." Then perhaps he hasn't heard of the study which was just released July 1st from the Allegheny General Hospital study which says that cannabis limits the trauma caused by serious head injuries? Perhaps he can explain someone like Steve Kubby, diagnosed with a rare form of adrenal cancer, whose own doctor said his chances were very slim... twenty years ago. Steve has taken no medication except cannabis, and is now living peacefully in Canada after California's narks and quacks tried repeatedly to take away the one thing that has kept him alive. Perhaps Mr. Weiner can explain why he thinks sending sick people through the legal system is good for their health?-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Just because WE can smell this article for what it really is does not excuse us from rebutting to it. Matter of fact, when weiners like Bob open their mouth and stick their feet in it so deep you can't see their riding boots, I think we have a moral obligation to reply.
Doesn't cure anything inDEED
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Comment #8 posted by cloud7 on July 02, 2003 at 05:26:51 PT
GRRRR!!!
"the vast majority were simply potheads who wanted dope"What's your source for this information and is using derogatory slang the most professional way to get your point across?"They ONLY push for the smoked form of marijuana"BS, how many times have we read about vaporizers or whole cannabis extract inhalers as being promoted? Of course, the schedule one lie is already apparent with Marinol, but with the whole extract available it would be hard to maintain any dignity while spouting propoganda about "no medical use.""the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration ... have all rejected the use of smoked marijuana as medicine." ?? Since when does the DEA have any authority on what is medicine and what is not. Are they now a subsidary of the other nanny organization, the FDA?? Im sure it has nothing to do with self interest, the DEA just cares so much and they dont want the idiot public to delude themselves. Also, how much arm twisting did it take for the multiple sclerosis and glaucoma societies to take this position?"Robert Weiner, a public affairs consultant, is a former public affairs director for the White House Drug Policy"Well, anyone who reads far enough into the article to see this will take a second glance at what was said before. This wasnt even written by someone impartial, their very livelihood once depended on the war on plants.
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Comment #7 posted by Kegan on July 02, 2003 at 02:33:45 PT
Plays right into our hands
More horse shit like this, and WE won't have to campaign any more.Even the dumbest bumkin would read THAT and raise and incredulous eyebrow.Everytime one of the prohibs talk...... we look good.
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Comment #6 posted by CorvallisEric on July 02, 2003 at 00:52:14 PT
Re: FoM Comment #4
I don't know of any drug that cures anything. Does anyone?I have no professional qualification in this area. Anyway, I guess something like chemotherary for cancer would be considered a cure since it actually helps kill cancer cells - hopefully faster than it kills the rest of the patient. Cannabis, used by the patient to make chemo tolerable, would be considered only a remedy. But what if the patient refuses treatment because of the side-effects of chemo? Can't cannabis then be considered part of the cure?What do we call the use of dexanabinol (and presumably cannabis) for cases of brain injury? Maybe prophylactic. But it actually *does* something. It isn't just a "feel good."Wiener's statement about "cure" really is just silly rhetoric. Lots of useful drugs are no more cure than cannabis: morphine, aspirin, corticosteroids, antidepressants. I don't think drug companies care about the difference between cure and remedy.
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Comment #5 posted by JHarshaw on July 02, 2003 at 00:04:12 PT
What's in a name?
Hi Was this guy aptly named or what! ....Weiner indeed!peace and pot
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on July 01, 2003 at 23:04:22 PT
Question
They said: Marijuana is not a miracle drug. It does not cure anything. I say: I don't know of any drug that cures anything. Does anyone?
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Comment #3 posted by medicinal toker on July 01, 2003 at 22:55:56 PT
Time for another Weiner roast!
Weiner must be on some powrerful drugs! Delusional!
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 01, 2003 at 22:48:03 PT
Press Release from U.S. Newswire
Ex-White House Drug Spokesman Bob Weiner: Canada and Maryland Go To Pot; Decries New Medical Marijuana LawsJuly 2, 2003In an op-ed column, "Maryland and Canada Are Going to Pot," in today's Washington Times, former White House Drug Policy Spokesman Bob Weiner, joined by North Carolina State University sophomore Amy Rieth, decry new medical marijuana laws in Maryland and Canada. Weiner and Rieth state:"Science, not politics, and not 'high hopes,' should determine what is safe and effective medicine. "Legislation (as recently enacted in Canada, Maryland and previously in eight states) permitting the use of medical marijuana is a wedge for those who support drug legalization. Making drugs more available is not a solution, but an aggravation of the problem. California found that very few people going to 'medical' marijuana clinics were actually ill; the vast majority were simply potheads who wanted dope."It is ironic that advocates for legalizing marijuana to help poor, suffering, and pain-stricken individuals do not support the drug in other forms such as patches, suppositories, aerosols, or pill form. They ONLY push for the smoked form of marijuana"Legalization advocates argue that marijuana helps cure severe headaches and glaucoma, and prevents nausea, reduces pain, and sparks the appetite. However, glaucoma treatment is actually just delayed by marijuana, not helped. 'Medical' marijuana is no better than 'medical' gin - taking a shot of it blurs the pain and makes you hungry too."Marijuana is not a miracle drug. Certainly hot, burning smoke in someone's throat is not it. It does not cure anything. Smoking marijuana can lead to a serious increase in heart rate, accompanied by increase in blood pressure. Concentration, motor coordination, memory, lungs, reproductive and immune systems are all adversely impacted. Marijuana is also the most used drug for which teens seek treatment."Pro-Marijuana initiatives are funded by people like George Soros who has contributed over $15 million pushing for drug legalization. The answer to the war on drugs does not lie in decriminalizing marijuana. Do we really want to reproduce problems of the 70's and 80's when drug use and crime were at their highest?"Today, drug use in our country is half of what it was in the late 70's and early 80's; cocaine use is down by 70 percent, and crime is at all time lows. Legalization of medical marijuana will immediately lead to increased availability and deflated attitudes about the dangers of drugs. This in turn will bring increased usage. Is this what our country wants?"Robert Weiner was public affairs director for the White House Drug Policy Office 1995-2001. Amy Rieth is a sophomore at North Carolina State University.Copyright: 2003 U.S. Newswire
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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on July 01, 2003 at 22:40:54 PT
It does not make it true just because you say it
Is this an entry into the 4th of July Prohibitionists Lying Contest or reverse psychology? I wish the NYT would publish it. It would help our side. 
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