cannabisnews.com: PBS: Religion & Ethics: Medical Marijuana





PBS: Religion & Ethics: Medical Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on November 19, 2004 at 16:33:17 PT
Interviews
Source: PBS: Religion & Ethics 
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: This past Election Day, voters in Montana approved the use of marijuana if a doctor recommends it to relieve pain. That brings to 10 the number of states --almost all in the West -- that now permit so-called medical marijuana.But that permission at the state level remains in contradiction to federal law, which forbids marijuana use for any reason. Lucky Severson reports.
LUCKY SEVERSON: This is a privately operated, legally protected pot garden in the U.S. -- at least for now. The garden is located near Santa Cruz in California. The garden belongs to a nonprofit group called Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, known as WAMM. Valerie Corral founded WAMM after a car accident years ago left her with severe epilepsy and unbearable migraines. Her doctor prescribed medicine, but she says it didn't help. Her husband agrees.MIKE CORRAL (Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana): I don't think I can really describe the difficulty and the sadness that we both went through during those years, until we discovered marijuana.SEVERSON: But they won't get a sympathetic hearing from the White House office of national drug control policy. DAVID MURRAY (White House Office of National Drug Control Policy): Unfortunately, the information that we have to date about smoked marijuana is that it is an illusion -- it does not address therapeutic needs of patients. In fact, the likelihood is high that they are actually doing more damage to themselves by taking in this substance.VALERIE CORRAL (Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana): What can I say to somebody who believes they know more about my suffering than I do?SEVERSON: The clash between public policy and personal rights is not lost on the people at this WAMM-sponsored event on a warm Sunday afternoon. Many here say they have a note from their doctor recommending they light up. But Valerie Corral says marijuana is only a small part of what WAMM is about, that it's about people in pain caring for one another. She says she has cared for 140 friends who have died from cancer and other diseases.Ms. CORRAL: I would invite anyone to spend an afternoon with me at the bedside of one of our friends who is dying and to watch that suffering fade away with a small puff of medicine.SEVERSON: David Murray says he does not know Valerie Corral, but he suspects the motives of anyone campaigning for medical marijuana.Mr. MURRAY: I believe the real lack of compassion here is those whose political agenda for legalization is so strong that they are willing to use as hostages and as front people suffering patients in wheelchairs and holding them up as if that is the real reason. They want this drug available to themselves. That is my interpretation. SEVERSON: Murray is not alone in his criticism of medical marijuana advocacy groups. Barrett Duke, with the Southern Baptist Convention, shares his skepticism.Dr. BARRETT DUKE (Southern Baptist Convention): The people who are advocating it just want people to go out in their back yard and plant plants and pick the leaves and smoke them. That doesn't seem to me to be a very healthy approach to medicine.SEVERSON: There are now numerous medical marijuana clubs operating in Northern California where patients can get marijuana in all forms, as well as support and counseling.Since a court decision in 2002 that doctors could not be punished for recommending medical marijuana, the number of patients smoking pot has grown into the thousands. But federal law still defines smoking marijuana for any reason as illegal under the Controlled Substance Act. And in some instances, government agents have vigorously enforced the law.Such was the case in 2002 when Valerie and Mike were arrested by DEA agents, again.Ms. CORRAL: He put the gun to my head right where I have the brain trauma from my car accident. And I have to say at that moment something happened inside of me.SEVERSON: That's when she sued the government and won a temporary injunction to stop federal prosecutions. The court ruled in her favor because she wasn't selling marijuana, she was giving it away.Ms. CORRAL: It is not a law enforcement issue, it is a health issue.PAULA YARR: I have been in so much pain that I cannot move.SEVERSON: Paula Yarr has lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer in remission. She has undergone 12 surgeries and says her medicines only make her sicker. She smokes and says it gives her relief. Ms. YARR: I was once very conservative in my thinking. But that was a long time ago.SEVERSON: A 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit research organization, concluded that marijuana can be helpful treating pain, nausea, and vomiting. There are legally prescribed painkillers, such as Marinol, a marijuana derivative, that can ease pain. Brian Bachmann, who has been HIV positive since 1985, says Marinol and other pharmaceuticals that can have side effects don't work very well for him. BRIAN BACHMANN: I have tried Marinol in the past. I found it to be an overwhelming sedative and not as effective and controllable as smoking marijuana.SEVERSON: Bruce Mirken with the Marijuana Policy Project, a private advocacy group, says Marinol and other pharmaceuticals often don't work. BRUCE MIRKEN (Marijuana Policy Project): Those drugs work for some people, and for those for whom they work, great, God bless them. But any physician will tell you that no drug works for everybody.SEVERSON: He says the Food and Drug Administration is out of step with science, and polls that show two thirds of the public now supporting medical marijuana. The shift in public opinion is one reason an increasing number of churches are giving their blessing to medical marijuana -- among them, the Episcopal Church, the National Baptist Convention, the Presbyterian Church, the United Methodists. This is Reverend Andrew Gunn, retired after 50 years in the ministry.Reverend ANDREW GUNN (Retired Methodist Minister): The United Methodist Church, which has been strongly against drugs, just this past year, three months ago, passed an amendment to be in favor of medical marijuana. And it passed overwhelmingly, which was quite a surprise to most of us.Mr. MURRAY: My impression is that they have been badly briefed, because no aware, passionate, careful, morally charged person, in a church or otherwise, who actually looks at the evidence and the record, could sustain that understanding.SEVERSON: There are still churches that strongly oppose the use of medical marijuana, like the nondenominational church Paula Yarr belongs to.Ms. YARR: They said that I couldn't be in a leadership position. It wouldn't be safe for the kids.SEVERSON: The Southern Baptist Convention is still very strongly opposed to medical marijuana. Dr. DUKE: People's lives are being destroyed by this. There are just too many people taking illicit drugs now. To make medical marijuana more available is simply going to increase the likelihood that more people are going to end up with serious drug problems.SEVERSON: That's the argument most opponents of legally prescribed marijuana make, that it will start an epidemic: that too many people who frequent the marijuana clubs in Northern California are puffing for pleasure, not for pain; that one thing will lead to another. Critics might point to this man, for instance, Joshua John, who has smoked four joints and eaten one rather potent brownie. But he says he requires a heavy dose of marijuana to soften the pain of a severe and rare form of arthritis. JOSHUA JOHN: Am I breaking the law? In my wallet right now, I have a note from a doctor -- a licensed M.D. -- that says he doesn't see any reason why I shouldn't continue what I am doing for my pain, as long as I am not driving and being irresponsible.SEVERSON: The greatest fear seems to be that legalizing medical marijuana will lead to legalizing recreational marijuana.Mr. MIRKEN: Doctors have been able to prescribe cocaine and morphine and methamphetamines since before I was born, and I don't see any movement to legalize those drugs for recreational use.SEVERSON: Reverend Andrew Gunn was always opposed to illegal drug use, until his son, a doctor, recommended it for Reverend Gunn's dying wife. But it is illegal in Maryland, where he lives.Rev. GUNN: I think it is a matter of compassion. A matter of carrying out the will, God's will to love one another, to help one another, and this is a positive way in which we can help people who are very sick and need as much help as they can get.SEVERSON: But Barrett Duke, with the Southern Baptist Convention, defines compassion another way. Dr. DUKE: Christ would call humanity to do everything they could to relieve suffering. I think he calls humanity now to do everything that we can to relieve suffering. While we would help some people, we would create a lot of problems for other people in the long run as a result. SEVERSON: People on both sides say they feel compassion for the sick and dying, for those caught in the middle. The Supreme Court will decide how that compassion should be administered and whether Valerie and Mike Corral can keep their garden. For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Lucky Severson in Santa Cruz, California.ABERNETHY: The high court will hear arguments on November 29 on whether federal law or state law should prevail in medical marijuana cases.Source: PBS: Religion & Ethics Newsweekly (DC)Published: November 19, 2004  Episode no. 812Copyright: 2004 Educational Broadcasting CorporationContact: programming thirteen.orgWebsite: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/DL: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week812/cover.htmlMPPhttp://www.mpp.org/WAMMhttp://www.wamm.org/Interfaith DPIhttp://www.idpi.us/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on November 21, 2004 at 11:35:41 PT
About The Program
More then ever I believe we must talk with church people and help them to understand why we believe that medical marijuana should be able to be used. One point that one minister said was we have to concern ourselves with those it could hurt not just a few people that it might help. Dr. DUKE: Christ would call humanity to do everything they could to relieve suffering. I think he calls humanity now to do everything that we can to relieve suffering. While we would help some people, we would create a lot of problems for other people in the long run as a result. The only thought that came to my mind when he said that was this."Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matt. 25:40.)
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Comment #8 posted by global_warming on November 19, 2004 at 18:45:58 PT
Education
Imagine a young man or women, having set through the turmoil of an education, and in the end, they are awarded an phd, for sitting through our education system, it pays to be patient, for even the most mindless humans can get a degree, and then are awarded leadership positions, where their opinions are closely watched as by some divine edict, they are the authorities of our reality, they become the final judges of our world.I bow deeply to a learned person, and would follow such a person into oblivion, the many superficial experts are nothing but junk science, they are ignorant and faithless, they lead us to into deeper ignorance, for their greed rides before their faithless injunctions, for to follow such ignorance, to follow such untested youthful exuberance, is a folly that will shortly be revealed.This folly and madness, if not exposed, will endanger the psychic health of our civilization.gw
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Comment #7 posted by mayan on November 19, 2004 at 18:34:02 PT
try this one...
Don't know what went wrong with the first link.Marijuana, tobacco petitions advance in Nevada:
http://tinyurl.com/6tu7u
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on November 19, 2004 at 18:25:35 PT
A Comment
The FDA is out of step. At least this wonderful medicinal plant hasn't ever killed anyone.He says the Food and Drug Administration is out of step with science, and polls that show two thirds of the public now supporting medical marijuana. 
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Comment #5 posted by global_warming on November 19, 2004 at 18:25:12 PT
On A Roll
"Ms. CORRAL: I would invite anyone to spend an afternoon with me at the bedside of one of our friends who is dying and to watch that suffering fade away with a small puff of medicine."Wake up Jesus, our world is so effed up, please come and liberate us.My prayer, is for the healthy, so that they might catch a glimpse of their salvation, this anger and confusion, is more media hype than genuine.gw
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Comment #4 posted by mayan on November 19, 2004 at 18:16:34 PT
Say No More
VALERIE CORRAL (Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana): What can I say to somebody who believes they know more about my suffering than I do?You said it all right there, Valerie. Sorry if these have been posted...
 Dutch mayor wants to create "weed boulevard" for drug tourists:
http://tinyurl.com/69s8jMarijuana, tobacco petitions advance in Nevada:
http://tinyurl.com/4a9jsDoctor, criminologist, patients support medical marijuana use:
http://www.dallasvoice.com/articles/dispArticle.cfm?Article_ID=5378The way out is the way in...9/11 Families and Survivors Group File 
Expanded Complaint Urging New Spitzer-led 
Investigations into 9/11: 
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041119122358922Peak Oil, Stolen Elections, Energy Wars - An Interview with Michael Ruppert:
http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/content/issue19/features/ruppert.phpCrossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil - by Michael C. Ruppert: 
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/announce.shtml9/11 Truth LA:
http://www.911truthla.us/
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Comment #3 posted by dr slider on November 19, 2004 at 18:13:15 PT:
well framed
This ONDCP mouthpiece purports every one of us (here) is unaware, dispassionate, reckless, and morally dead. From "there is no SAFE CIGARETTE" thru "police claim that there was no CONNECTION BETWEEN DRUGS AND THIS MURDER" and "it is clear that there is no CONNECTION BETWEEN SADDAM AND 9/11" to "officials are unaware of any link between MARIJUANA AND SADOMASOCHISTIC CHILD MOLESTING SATAN WORSHIPPING.When TV tells you about something that isn't, it is most often an attempt to create the link that they are denying.Crazyworld indeed.
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Comment #2 posted by Taylor121 on November 19, 2004 at 17:48:27 PT:
Anger
It just makes me furious to listen to that southern baptist and the office of national drug control policy about compassion. It makes me sick as the same time.Support the new bill in the Senate and spread the word to your friends and family!http://www.mpp.org/trials
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on November 19, 2004 at 16:34:56 PT
There's a Video on This Link
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week812/cover.html
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