cannabisnews.com: Marijuana is Not Medicine










  Marijuana is Not Medicine

Posted by CN Staff on February 19, 2004 at 19:20:22 PT
By Andrea Barthwell 
Source: Chicago Tribune  

Last November, the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws sponsored the Oregon Medical Cannabis Awards--its own version of the town chili cook-off. For a small fee, state-licensed "medical marijuana" growers could enter their homegrown marijuana to be judged in a best-in-show competition. For a little more money, licensed "medical marijuana" patients could judge the samples themselves. Even children--with a note from a parent, of course--could participate as judges. The very nature of the event exposes medical marijuana opportunists for what they are: people who are looking for the best high, not the best medicine that science has to offer.
With marijuana awards making a mockery of medicine, drug use and addiction, it is no wonder we have a hard time teaching kids how dangerous drugs really are and creating an environment of prohibition. By characterizing the use of illegal drugs as quasi-legal, state-sanctioned, Saturday afternoon fun, legalizers destabilize the societal norm that drug use is dangerous. They undercut the goals of stopping the initiation of drug use to prevent addiction.Organizations seeking to construe marijuana as medicine appeal to the compassion of America. They cite testimonials that only marijuana can provide relief to patients suffering from AIDS, cancer and other painful diseases. In reality, smoked marijuana is not a Federal Drug Administration-approved medicine. As a crude plant, marijuana is so complex, unstable, and harmful that sensible physicians and researchers consider it unethical to expose individuals to the risks associated with smoking it.Smoking marijuana impairs attention, memory, and dexterity, and increases the risk of traffic accidents. Repeated use can lead to respiratory disease and permanent cognitive impairment. Marijuana use is addictive.There is a variety of existing, scientifically proven options available to patients in need of pain relief. Among these is the FDA-approved medicine Marinol. But smoked marijuana advocates refuse to acknowledge Marinol as a viable option. Interestingly enough, the only property that Marinol lacks is the capacity to create a "high."The "Smoking is toking" campaign during the Great American Smoke Out illustrates the impact the marijuana lobby has already had on our children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 13 of 14 major cities, more youngsters smoke marijuana than cigarettes. They know cigarettes are bad for them. Youth smoking prevention efforts are paying off.One can only imagine to what extent our successful anti-smoking efforts would be stymied if there were an unchallenged, well-organized effort promoting "medical tobacco" under the guise of compassion. Unless we give thoughtful deliberation to the consequences of deeming marijuana as medicine, we will be the ones to thank when drug prevention efforts falter and our children suffer the consequences.I witnessed firsthand the impact of the "medical marijuana" movement when I was medical director for the largest youth addiction treatment system in Illinois . Children entering drug abuse treatment routinely report that they heard that "pot is medicine" and, therefore, believed it to be good for them.The best hope for reducing drug use and its consequences is to teach children not to start. The environment is a major influence on whether a child will experiment with drugs. A child is less likely to use if there is a clear warning. The biggest threat to creating an effective environment of prohibition is the active campaign of legalizers to blur the line between dangerous, illegal drugs and medicine.Note: Dr. Andrea Barthwell is a deputy director at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and a past president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)Author: Dr. Andrea BarthwellPublished: February 17, 2004Copyright: 2004 Chicago Tribune CompanyContact: ctc-TribLetter Tribune.comWebsite: http://www.chicagotribune.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Oregon NORMLhttp://www.ornorml.org/Official Tackles Marijuana Mythshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18354.shtmlMarijuana Called New 'Trojan Horse'http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17577.shtmlTranscripts: Online News Hour with Jim Lehrer http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17576.shtml 

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Comment #27 posted by afterburner on May 20, 2004 at 15:46:09 PT
Crude Plant Rebuttal by a Real Doctor of Medicine
"As a crude plant, marijuana is so complex, unstable, and harmful that sensible physicians and researchers consider it unethical to expose individuals to the risks associated with smoking it." --Andrea Barthwell, Ph.D.US CA: Column: Honor Complexity 
by Fred Gardner, (19 May 2004) Anderson Valley Advertiser California http://www.mapinc.org/newscc/v04/n752/a08.html?397'....' [Dr. Andrew] Weil's UCLA talk drew a crowd of about 200, including medical students and physicians who were getting Continuing Medical Education credit. The following excerpt seems particularly apt, given the neo-prohibitionist party line -repeated ad nauseum at the recent Souder subcommittee hearings- about marijuana containing one or more beneficial molecules that the pharmaceutical industry will, in due course, identify and produce for us in a form that is "pure." ' Weil[, MD] said, "One of the most dramatic advantages of learning to use plants in medicine is their relative lack of toxicity compared to isolated derivatives of plants. This should be obvious. If you find something in nature that has a biological effect, that affects animals, and you attempt to concentrate that therapeutic power, you inevitably concentrate toxicity because they're one and the same thing. ....' "...When you present the body with a complex array, you're giving it choice in how it responds. That's fundamentally a different kind of pharmaco-therapeutics from giving a person a purified, isolated molecule that's a shove in one direction. ' "I think both those kinds of medicine have their place. But I have to tell you, as somebody who's practiced botanical medicines for many years, there's often great value in using these natural mixtures. ' "The reason that pharmacologists and most physicians have such trouble with this concept is that we are strongly under the spell of reductionism. Reductionism is a useful tool. It makes life simpler. It is very difficult to study complex substances. How do you study a plant with 50 complex molecules, all of which might contribute to its activity? It is much simpler to say that one of these equals the whole, and to isolate that and study it. But you're missing out on the clinical relevance of the whole plant, which may be very different from that of the isolated molecule..." ' "In other areas of science -outside of medicine-there's a rising interest in complexity... If you want to describe changes in weather patterns or the shapes of clouds, you can't use simplistic, classical formulas, you have to use new mathematical models based in complexity. The rise of complexity theory and its success in physics, mathematics and other disciplines has not made the slightest inroad into medicine. Pharmacology is locked into reductionist ways of thinking, especially when it approaches natural products. We're dealing with the most complex phenomenon that nature has produced, the human organism. It seems to me it makes much more sense, if you're treating a complex thing, to treat it with a complementary complex thing." ' 
Medical Freedom Amendment for 2004, let the medical professionals of all integrative medicine fields make their own judgements without illegal federal oversight.
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Comment #26 posted by OrNORML Secretary on March 04, 2004 at 11:01:26 PT:
Oregon NORML Responds to Barthwell
I am Steven M. Cooper, Secretary of Oregon NORML and the Chair of the 2003 Oregon Medical Cannabis Awards (OMCA), which Ms. Barthwell attacks in her Chicago Tribune article of Tuesday, February 17th 2004. Ms. Barthwell characterizes the event as “the town chili cook-off”. This event, the only of its kind in the United States, is open only to patients & caregivers registered with the state of Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP). Anyone may attend the Awards – it is a smoke-free event – because all judging has been done in the privacy of the patient/Judge’s home in the weeks prior to the Awards event. All entrants and judges must prove they are legal under Oregon state law before being allowed to participate.During the day of the Awards banquet there are speakers and discussion groups covering many subjects related to the legal, medicinal use of cannabis (marijuana) in Oregon. There is no public consumption of cannabis allowed at any time by any person. Hardly ‘the town chili cook-off’ as Ms. Barthwell claims.Ms. Barthwell complains, “Even children - with a note from a parent, of course - could participate as judges. The very nature of the event exposes medical marijuana opportunists for what they are: people who are looking for the best high, not the best medicine that science has to offer.” There are at least two points to address here.Oregon law allows a minor to be a registered OMMP patient, with approval of parents or guardians, under medical supervision(1). Under Oregon law we would be violating the rights of a patient if we discriminated against him or her based solely on age. Event rules required minors to include, with their event application package, written permission from his or her parents or guardians for participation in the event, and that the parent’s or guardian’s signatures be notarized. This is far from willy-nilly suborning children, as Ms. Barthwell insinuates. The position of Oregon NORML regarding drugs (including caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, & over-the-counter medications) and children is simple – children & drugs should mix only under the care of a physician. Remember, there are many things in life that are OK for responsible adults that are not OK for children – marriage, signing contracts, smoking, alcohol consumption, X-rated movies, driving, and on and on.Ms. Barthwell incorrectly characterizes the reason for the OMCA. We are not ‘looking for the best high’ as she claims. We are primarily interested in determining which strains of cannabis are most effective for various medical conditions or symptoms, thus enabling a patient to grow the proper strain for their needs without wasting time (4 to 6 months), money, and energy growing a strain that does not help them. Oregon NORML has posted the results from 2003 on its website, at http://www.ornorml.org/omca/index.php. Some other reasons for the OMCA include the education of the public attending – patients and non-patients alike, social companionship and networking for patients and caregivers, and giving recognition to caregivers for helping patients. Ms. Barthwell mocks the use of medical cannabis, disregarding over 4,700 years of documented medical use of this plant(2). She ignores studies and reports, some sponsored by the White House, documenting the medical usefulness of cannabis(3). DEA Chief Administrative Judge Francis Young stated in a 1988 administrative law decision, “In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating ten raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death.”(4) Organizations that support the medical use of cannabis (marijuana) include:Physicians for Social Responsibility (Oregon) - 1998
National Nurses Society on Addictions (NNSA) - 1995
New England Journal of Medicine - 1997
Kaiser Permanente - 1997
American Medical Students Association - 1993
American Public Health Association (APHA) - 1995
California Medical Association - 1994
Colorado Nurses Association - 1995
Consumer Reports Magazine - 199
Episcopal Church of the U.S. - 1982
Institute of Medicine - 1982 & 1999
Wisconsin Public Health Association - 1999There is a list of over 100 such supporting organizations (from which these have been drawn) that has been compiled by Patients Out of Time, at http://www.medicalcannabis.com/.The rest of Ms. Barthwell’s article is as full of inaccuracies, partial truths, and ‘spin’ as the first paragraph has been. Unlike her, I include references for verification of my statements. To refute her assertions for the rest of the article is a proposition I will leave for later. Very truly yours,/s/ Steven M. Cooper 
Secretary, Oregon NORML
Chair, OMCA 2003
secretary OrNORML.org
www.OrNORML.org
PO Box 16057
Portland, Or 97292
503-239-6110Footnotes:
1. 1999 CE; Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 475.309(3)
2. 2737 BCE; Shen Nung’s “Pen Ts’ao”, China
3. 1998 CE; Institute of Medicine, “Marijuana and Medicine”, USA
4. 1988 CE; Marijuana Rescheduling Petition, Docket No. 86-22
http://www.ornorml.org
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Comment #25 posted by den on February 21, 2004 at 16:38:56 PT:
andrea barthwell is only one tiny cog in the wheel
 When you ask a prohibitionist, why they want to lock People up who haven't committed any crime, they will tell you it's because our government cares about us... Yes they care about their citizens so much that they have "free traded 10's of millions of our jobs away, causing massive poverty, divorce, crime, drug abuse etc... They let Industries poison us with 30,000 differant chemicals in our food, along with exessive salt, sugar, fat and genetically altered foods... Yes our government really cares so much about us that they let the corporations rule every aspect of our lives... The war on drugs has always been about control over World recources, it is about keeping hemp illegal so that global corporations can pollute the Earth and cut down all of our trees, while making enough money to rule the World... bush now has about 6.66 million people in our criminal justice system. If this doesn't have religeous implications, it is definately a human rights atrocity, and andrea barthwell is only one tiny cog in this evil wheel that we call global corporate dominance.
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Comment #24 posted by escapegoat on February 21, 2004 at 10:48:03 PT
Andrea Barthwell, BS artist.
Dear Editor, The Chicago Tribune:Like it or not, medical marijuana is here to stay. It's legal here in Canada and in many U.S. states. The sidelong glances, allusions to possible corruption of children, people having -- God-forbid -- a bit of fun, and other ad hominem words of a doctor like Andrea Barthwell -- someone who profits from the addiction industry -- are largely ignored.Instead, people across the world have witnessed the immense positive effects that marijuana has on patients with multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other illnesses. The hearts and minds of the people of America, and of Canada, are sold on medical marijuana, and public relations tactics from the Office of National Drug Control Policy is largely wasted money.We're not the snake oil salesmen -- your government is, and every day, more Americans are realizing it.
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Comment #23 posted by charmed quark on February 21, 2004 at 07:09:38 PT
Dr. Barthwell, get you basic facts straight
Dr. Barthwell stated that "Interestingly enough, the only property that Marinol lacks is the capacity to create a "high."" She is completely wrong on this. Such a statement would be very embarrassing professionally to any person who has the least knowledge of these drug issues. She should reframe from speaking publically until she gets her basic facts straight. Otherwise, she will look like a fool and hurts her position.Marinol is pure THC in sesame oil. THC is the primary agent in cannabis/marijuana that gets people "high". You are absolutely incorrect in stating that Marinol/dronabinol does not case a high. There are two major objections to Marinol for medical use:1. It gets one too high. Natural cannabis contains other cannabinoids such as CBD. CBD adds its own pain reduction and anti-inflammatory medical effects and actually moderates the "high" of THC.Marinol requires a much stronger high to achieve the same medical effects as cannabis. Lacking the other cannabinoids, it may not work as well for condtions such as MS spasticity regardless of the amount of "high" the user is willing to tolerate.Medical users who use either cannabis or Marinol on a daily basis DO adapt to the drug so that they no longer feel a strong high. But this is not what Dr. Barthwell said or meant.2. The other main objection to Marinol is the oral administraton. This delays full action for about 2 hours, making it hard to tirate and making it less useful for acute applications. The breakdown of the drug when taken orally also causes some other undesirable effects.This can be overcomed by developing a vaporizer type inhaler. Such vaporizers already are commonly used by medical cannabis users.-Pete
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Comment #22 posted by ekim on February 20, 2004 at 20:30:00 PT
Praying for inlightenment for those who lead us
the Kalamazoo Gazette has done many articals on the farm over the last two years. The last i recall was on the law suit by Rollies people. and Playboy did Oct o3 with 10 pages. Today the Kal Gaz frontpage started out with our Gov. saying MI is hurting and can not compete with global wages of just pennys. I wish Jenny would see how much this drug war on some drugs is costing us taxpayers. She was AG in MI when the farm went down. Now she is Gov. and facing billions in short fall. Lost jobs, and high prison costs. What will it take for this poor woman to see we bear gifts and encourage thinking, honoring the farmer and the land. Having a Gov that has spent much time as AG and jailing many is a chance to educate in a time of real need.
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Comment #21 posted by John Tyler on February 20, 2004 at 20:21:52 PT
the best high
people who are looking for the best high... What is wrong with that? The best high brings peace and comfort to the sick and the well alike. The best high put you in touch with your inner spirit, the pathway to the devine. The best high lets you taste the fruit of the orchard. Again, what is wrong with that? 
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Comment #20 posted by Patrick on February 20, 2004 at 20:06:22 PT
westnyc
Funny now that you mention it, Bush was also in Michigan that weekend. As were the 150 cops on Tom's land to bust him for pot while at the same time 19 hijackers were freely busy making their final week preps for 9/11 terrorism. And the media, well they were foucused on a shark bite or something instead of a small time politicians Labor Day grab at another mans land that resulted in the man and his partners murder by cop. Your right westnyc the media had "no comment." That's my recollection anyway and I am sticking to it.
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Comment #19 posted by westnyc on February 20, 2004 at 07:28:36 PT
Patrick
Funny you should mention Rainbow Farms. I actually live in Southwestern Michigan; and, only on this website did I learn about what happened in my own "neck of the woods." I have NEVER seen anything on the local news about this incident. A total media blackout at all levels by the media. 
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Comment #18 posted by Patrick on February 20, 2004 at 07:22:56 PT
westnyc
I've always had a feeling that cannabis prohibition will end after we suffer a "Kent State" or "Waco" type of incident. I think that is when the People will finally say "ENOUGH." The cannabis prohibition list of victims is quite long. I thought Tom & Rollie's death was a "Kent State / Waco event big enough to get the People to say ENOUGH but alas it was quickly overshadowed a week later by 9/11.
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Comment #17 posted by Treeanna on February 20, 2004 at 07:14:45 PT
Idea
Everyone take all this outrage and solidify it into a letter to the editor of that paper :)
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Comment #16 posted by westnyc on February 20, 2004 at 06:48:31 PT
On the increase!
People! You will continue to see more of these sorts of people bringing forth their beliefs; and, it is a belief which science clearly doesn't support. Witness the prohibition events of the last two-months. These will continue to be reported by all the major media outlets. Remember - it is because the reality and ridiculousness of cannabis prohibition is starting to be realized by the American public; and, this is their "last ditch" effort.I've always had a feeling that cannabis prohibition will end after we suffer a "Kent State" or "Waco" type of incident. I think that is when the People will finally say "ENOUGH." It's also a very good point that lilgrasshoppah pointed out - these pseudo doctors are not doctors of body or mind; but rather, like Dr. Laura - people who pretend and get paid huge amounts of money to express their moral objectives. Thanks for pointing that out!
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Comment #15 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on February 20, 2004 at 05:50:53 PT
Illini, please contact your legislators
If you live in Illinois and haven't done so yet, please consider contacting your state officials to let them know your views on S.B. 2440 and H.B. 4868. NORML provides a very easy method to do just that at the link below:
http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=5047396&type=ST
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Comment #14 posted by jose melendez on February 20, 2004 at 05:42:53 PT
here's a chink in the armour
Barthwell is CHARGING for 'workshops'http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/community/article/0,1651,TCP_1175_2655812,00.htmlUnited Way had better be ready for a backlash . . .
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Comment #13 posted by jose melendez on February 20, 2004 at 05:25:47 PT
also
Note that despite the multi million dollar mantra that smoked marijuana is not medicine, ONDCP remains silent at pending FDA regulation of filtered tobacco cigarettes as medical devices.Also, note the admission by Barthwell that youth cigarette use dropped without a single charge of posession or distribution.ONDCP, DEA, and FDA ought to be investigated by the FTC and our "Justice" Department for price fixing, racketeering and fraud.I'm looking to hire an attorney to file such charges and more, please email me at legalize( )marijuana.com (remove parentheses for valid email address)apologies to FoM for the double post, feel free to delete previous 
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Comment #12 posted by jose melendez on February 20, 2004 at 05:24:03 PT
also
Note that despite the multi million dollar mantra the smoked marijuana is not medicine, ONDCP remains silent at pending FDA regulation of filtered tobacco cigarettes as medical devices.Also, despite an admission by Barthwell that youth cigarette use dropped without a single charge of posession or distribution.ONDCP, DEA, and FDA ought to be investigated by the FTC and our "Justice" Department for price fixing, racketeering and fraud.I'm looking to hire an attorney to file such charges and more, please email me at legalize( )marijuana.com (remove parentheses for valid email address)
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Comment #11 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on February 20, 2004 at 05:00:24 PT
LTE
Sirs,  Jail is not medicine. Why does Dr. Barthwell support jailing people who use marijuana under a doctor's supervision? The federal government itself still supplies medical marijuana to six people under the Compassionate Investigative New Drug plan from the 1970s, which was closed to new applicants almost as soon as it opened. THC, a main ingredient in marijuana, is available as a prescribable pill called Marinol. Many patients say they prefer smoked or vaporized marijuana, something no pharmacy on this continent currently dispenses. Is that because smoked marijuana is really more dangerous to patients, or is it just less profitable to pharmaceutical companies? Remember, they can patent molecules they find in the plant, but not the plant itself.  The real reason Dr. Barthwell of the ONDCP wrote her editorial is not mentioned. She is outraged that Illinois has just become yet another state to consider medical marijuana legislation. She's so opposed to S.B. 2440 and H.B. 4868 that she didn't even mention them, because then you would need to devote equal space to the other side. The Sun-Times has already called for swift passage of these bills; perhaps the Tribune could at least debate the issue openly?
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Comment #10 posted by The GCW on February 20, 2004 at 04:28:54 PT
Ph.D, not MD.. QUACK.
 Quack doctor, Quack educator?Biblically quacky educator.Doctor? More like beast, in Biblical terms.The crack of educators.Biblically discredited, government subsidized, Cannabis prohibitionists should be controlled like the plague. Quack, quack, quack…Crack, crack, crack… 
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Comment #9 posted by billos on February 20, 2004 at 03:02:20 PT:
Ph.D, not MD..
makes a big difference. I know of a few Ph.D's who are orthodox morons. Apparently she is one of them.
Let me give you an analogy. I am Polish. (Not that there is something wrong with that!)
I went to college. However....I could go to school for 100 years and I would still be Polish! See the point??? 
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Comment #8 posted by E_Johnson on February 20, 2004 at 00:13:34 PT
She has a Ph.D. not an M.D.
Her doctorate degree is in education I believe.It's a doctor of philisophy not medicine.That's all she's qualified to treat -- your philosophy.And she didn't have to promise to "do no harm" either.
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Comment #7 posted by greenmed on February 19, 2004 at 23:31:09 PT
UCS protests misuse of science
The Union of Concerned Scientists calls for a return of scientific integrity to federal policymaking:http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/rsi/rsirelease.html
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on February 19, 2004 at 22:33:30 PT
lilgrasshoppah77 
I understand why you didn't want to call her Doctor. It was hard for me too.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on February 19, 2004 at 22:29:02 PT
BGreen
It's important for us to know how those that fight us feel. It's called knowing your enemy. When we speak out about a person it isn't hard to think of ways of saying how we feel without insults that aren't helpful at all. It takes time to put feelings in words but we do it all the time. 
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Comment #4 posted by lilgrasshoppah77 on February 19, 2004 at 22:26:43 PT:
Andrea Barthwell makes me ill.
She makes her money off prohibition folks! She is a SALARIED prohibitionist... ergo a liar with an agenda. That should tell you all you need to know about Andrea Barthwell.She is, to quote Malcolm X, a "house negro"... tamed and compliant. She has lived with the master and has learned to love the master. She does not feel the lash with the regularity of her cotton-picking, field negro brethren. She confuses a loack of violence against her person as freedom and equality, she has forgotten that he master views her as a slave... as subordinate to him. She thinks because she makes the choice to crawl on her belly and grovel that she is free.Every responsible, independent investigation into cannabis for the last one hundred plus years has confirmed its medical efficacy, not to mention it's safter. Her predecessors produced a document from that very office (the IOM report) that recommended using cannabis as medicine. This artivcle is so littered with lies and prevarications that I don't know where to begin.Let's start at the beginning>>>The very nature of the event exposes medical marijuana opportunists for what they are: people who are looking for the best high, not the best medicine that science has to offer. When the lead scientists of Pfizer get together to discuss the formulation in their latest antidepressent/ analgesic/ antiemetic... is that conference proof that the scientists are somehow conspiring to achieve the best high? Is it the more or less informal setting that irritates Ms Barthwell? Next time should the organizers spring for white lab coats for the judges?>>>>With marijuana awards making a mockery of medicine, drug use and addiction, it is no wonder we have a hard time teaching kids how dangerous drugs really are and creating an environment of prohibition. By characterizing the use of illegal drugs as quasi-legal, state-sanctioned, Saturday afternoon fun, legalizers destabilize the societal norm that drug use is dangerous. They undercut the goals of stopping the initiation of drug use to prevent addiction.First of all, nice to see Ms Barthwell take NO responsibility for the present state of affairs. I mean, her office is responsible for all of the antidrug info/propoganda/public service announcements in the past twenty years. Does she never think that it is overheated drivel like this that causes the youth to doubt the official story about drugs? I guess not. In her world, the only reason teenagers take drugs is because a few sick people use medicine.
Secondly, how does she think the paradigm operates... that a completely healthy person decides to cynically use the sick and dying as a cover for their own drug use? That is false. Look at the number of people in the movement with serious, verifiable illnesses. Maybe Ms Barthwell thinks they intentionally contracted their conditions just so they could smoke pot...? "Billy, why are you microwaving your dick?" "So I can get cancer and get to smoke pot mommy!"
Thirdly, how is the government showing greater compassion for the sick and dying by terrorizing them and incarcerating them? This is where the prohibitionist model consistantly falls flat on its face. Prohibitionists KILL patients. They arrest them. They rob them. They subject the most vulnerable segments of society to the greatest amount of harm. Who's being cynical now, Ms. Barthwell?>>>As a crude plant, marijuana is so complex, unstable, and harmful that sensible physicians and researchers consider it unethical to expose individuals to the risks associated with smoking it.Smoking marijuana impairs attention, memory, and dexterity, and increases the risk of traffic accidents. Repeated use can lead to respiratory disease and permanent cognitive impairment. Marijuana use is addictive.Complete and utter falsehood, proven false from Ms. Barthwell's own office. Now I know she's a liar.>>>There is a variety of existing, scientifically proven options available to patients in need of pain relief. Among these is the FDA-approved medicine Marinol. But smoked marijuana advocates refuse to acknowledge Marinol as a viable option. Interestingly enough, the only property that Marinol lacks is the capacity to create a "high."A prevarication. Smoked marijuana advocates, do in fact, acknowledge Marinol as a viable option. Just as Tylenol is. And Aspirin is. And Gravol is. But historically, all of these drugs are inferior to he complete cannabis plant. Smoked marijuana advocates want the OPTION to use the herb of their CHOICE, without fear of ARREST, IMPRISONMENT OR ASSET FORFEITURE.>>>I witnessed firsthand the impact of the "medical marijuana" movement when I was medical director for the largest youth addiction treatment system in Illinois . Children entering drug abuse treatment routinely report that they heard that "pot is medicine" and, therefore, believed it to be good for them.The best hope for reducing drug use and its consequences is to teach children not to start. The environment is a major influence on whether a child will experiment with drugs. A child is less likely to use if there is a clear warning. The biggest threat to creating an effective environment of prohibition is the active campaign of legalizers to blur the line between dangerous, illegal drugs and medicine.There you have it kids... pop oxycontin and ritalin like smarties candy. According to Andrea Barthwell, any drug that is legal for medical purposes is deemed completely SAFE and appropriate for recreational use.PS: you may have noticed that I have refrained from using Ms. Barthwell's title of Doctor. This is because she fails the first precept of the medical profession "first do no harm". She is an oathbreaker, and she does not deserve the honorific "Dr." for that reason.
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Comment #3 posted by BGreen on February 19, 2004 at 22:19:26 PT
Barthwell Lies and Backs Up Lies With Lies
Lies are from the Devil and NOT God, thus those who espouse lies, especially when they hurt so many people, are evil tools of the devil.Nothing good can be said about demons of Satan. They are out to kill and destroy, and are exemplified by Andrea Barthwell.I am TOTALLY offended by the words that come out of her mouth. Nobody should be able to slander an entire sub-class of people the way Barthwell did to myself and the rest of us at CNews.I'm sorry nobody sees fit to censor the words of the demonic Barthwell who's masquerading as a "healer."The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 19, 2004 at 22:05:11 PT
SystemGoneDown
I received an email from a person and they were very upset about what you called the Doctor. I edited it. 
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Comment #1 posted by SystemGoneDown on February 19, 2004 at 20:17:39 PT

Who the F--- wrote this sh--?!?!?!
Marinol is proven by the scientific community to be significantly less useful as smoked marijuana. And this stupid * &%# will use the NODCP tactic of underestimating the intelligence of the reader. I got 1 thing to say: PR, it's all PR. MP is the name, propaganda's the game.... NOTE: I can't believe I wasted my time reading this. If I would have known it was from that ugly bitch from the NODCP, I wouldn't have bothered.
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