cannabisnews.com: Medicinal Pot Use Not Government's Concern Medicinal Pot Use Not Government's Concern Posted by CN Staff on December 02, 2004 at 23:46:52 PT By Kathleen Butler Source: Wichita Eagle It's ironic that Chief Justice William Rehnquist, a man with cancer, could be the one who will write the U.S. Supreme Court opinion expected to cut Angel Raich off from the marijuana she needs to keep functioning.I've never had a brain tumor, but I've had cancer. So I can sure relate to what Ms. Raich is going through. But the argument goes a lot deeper than medicinal pot use. Having a half million people in prison for no other reason than that they wanted to get high seems pretty stupid, too. If we would admit that the "war on drugs" is a lost cause, legalize marijuana and build rehab centers instead of prisons, Ms. Raich's use of marijuana for her chronic pain would be a moot point, and the U.S. Supreme Court could mind its own business.Unlike the court members and members of Congress making laws on Capitol Hill, working people like Ms. Raich and I have few options.When I was fighting cancer seven years ago, I couldn't "work at home" like Mr. Rehnquist. I would schedule my biweekly three-hour chemotherapy treatments for Thursdays after work, so I could spend the weekends puking and be ready to work on Monday mornings.Sure, I had insurance. But sick or not, children need attention, and the bill collectors want their money.I've never used pot, but I can agree with Ms. Raich: Most other pain medication makes you practically worthless.That the jury is still out on pot's medicinal benefits is neither here nor there. Ms. Raich is dying, and the pot helps her -- that should be enough. She's trying to keep body and soul together.Why can't this "compassionate, conservative" (don't make me laugh) government get that? I mean, come on -- this is an administration that would like to make criminals of its old people who go to Canada to get drugs, and give grief to states such as California that look after the very people that the government is too in hock to help.The Supreme Court should do the right thing and rule in Ms. Raich's favor. And while it is at it, write an opinion that is a scathing indictment on an administration that would rather make war than spend the millions of dollars it would take to take care of people like Ms. Raich and her family.Kathleen Butler lives in Wichita. Source: Wichita Eagle (KS)Author: Kathleen Butler Published: December 03, 2004Copyright: 2004 The Wichita EagleContact: letters wichitaeagle.comWebsite: http://www.wichitaeagle.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Angel Raich v. Ashcroft Newshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/raich.htmOur Right To Be Free from Painhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19954.shtmlSupreme Court Looks at Medical Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19952.shtmlMed Marijuana Case Tests Limits of Federalismhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19951.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #9 posted by Hope on December 04, 2004 at 16:08:59 PT Kap, Morality Quiz? Thank goodness, I was never exposed to such teaching. Why didn't they just drop the "morality" lie and call it what they were really teaching..."Eugenics"?My answer to such a question would have to have been, "Somebody, maybe me, has got to get off their rump and find or build some more dialysis machines."Eugenics clothed as morality teaching. (shudder) [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Hope on December 03, 2004 at 17:06:55 PT GW Pharma hit by cannabis-based drug setback I wonder who...really...is responsible for this. We are resisting cunning, devious, piously disturbed, power mad, obsessive control freaks who have no respect for what they consider, obviously, to be "lower" level humans than they are! [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by FoM on December 03, 2004 at 15:49:30 PT The GCW Thank you. I fixed it. I really appreciate when you or anyone finds an error and lets me know. I try to check for mistakes and that's what I was doing and saw you post. Thanks again! [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by The GCW on December 03, 2004 at 11:05:02 PT FoM, notice the date of publication; it's Dec. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by 13th step on December 03, 2004 at 08:07:09 PT Hey folks, they are winning the drug war! Report on cocaine, heroin prices suggests U.S. is losing war on drugsBY PABLO BACHELETKnight Ridder NewspapersWASHINGTON - (KRT) - Prices for cocaine and heroin have reached 20-year lows, according to a report released Tuesday.The Washington Office on Latin America, which usually is critical of U.S. policies in Latin America, said the low prices called into question the effectiveness of the two-decade U.S. war on drugs. A White House official said the numbers were old and didn't reflect recent efforts in Colombia to curb drug cultivation.The Washington Office on Latin America, citing the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the street price of 2 grams of cocaine averaged $106 in the first half of 2003, down 14 percent from the previous year's average and the lowest price in 20 years.http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/10306453.htmYep...A gram or 2 of coke is cheaper than an eigth of an ounce of cannabis around my neck of the woods... Oh, but that's ok, 'cos they're medically useful, right?Ugh. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on December 03, 2004 at 07:01:11 PT: The 'Biiiig Pictuuuure!' vesus the trenches The same old problem. The dichotomy between national policy thought up by ivory tower, self-assigned moral proctor types unaffected by it and those who are crushed by such ostensibly well-meaning nonsense. This woman's point is the same as mine. Those who are best left to handle their own affairs through intimate knowledge of the situation are penalized for doing so because someone who has no connection with either circumstances or problem are in a position to interfere.When I was in high school, our Social Studies teachers would pull things like the 'morality quiz' on us: You have one kidney dialysis machine and only one person can use it, but 7 people need to. Who gets to use it? You were given the background information of each and told to choose who gets to live. The purpose of the exercise was to determine what your OWN values were, and how you had either received them or arrived at them. I found such questions more than morally repugnant; I found it disturbing that such decisions are, in actuality, made every day by faceless bureaucrats and pols alike. Only those who have been subjected to such institutionalized caprice - like MMJ patients - can truly understand just how insane it is. Yet, as we can see, this is happening all the time.The ivory tower types keep forgetting that every 'Big Picture' is made up of individual pixels; it is the individual which is the foundation of society. You can't have a 'Big Picture' without them. Let us hope (hopefully, not against hope) that the Supremeses remember this fact in their deliberations...unless they want to slapped with the epithet of Communists. Because only a Communist would treat the individual as a 'fungible'. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Craiig on December 03, 2004 at 06:26:36 PT GW Pharma hit by cannabis-based drug setback LONDON (Reuters) - GW Pharmaceuticals said on Friday it had been asked by an advisory body to regulators to conduct a further study of its pioneering cannabis-based medicine, delaying its launch and hitting the firm's shares.At 1:50 p.m. on Friday, the shares GWP.L were 30 percent lower at 99 pence."Although we will have to wait longer for Sativex to be launched, the board do consider that the probability of ultimate regulatory success is as great, if not greater, now than at any time previously," Executive Chairman Geoffrey Guy said in a statementhttp://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=stocksAndSharesNews&storyID=632440§ion=finance [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by The GCW on December 03, 2004 at 05:56:36 PT This person's soul got a bulls-eye. Stopping the practice of caging humans for using the plant cannabis is not being liberal or conservative, it is being obedient to Christ God Our Father who sent Us. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by goneposthole on December 03, 2004 at 05:15:21 PT Just the symptoms of the drug war... is all we ever hear.The drug war itself is the cause of all of this misery.Can you hear it? Hear what?The canary [ Post Comment ] Post Comment