cannabisnews.com: Let States Decide Medicinal Pot Use





Let States Decide Medicinal Pot Use
Posted by CN Staff on December 04, 2004 at 13:03:41 PT
Denver Post Editorial
Source: Denver Post 
Many doctors recognize marijuana's medicinal role in helping seriously ill people cope with pain. So do 11 states, including Colorado, where voters have approved the medical use of the drug. But the federal government asserts in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that even the medical use of marijuana is illegal and that the federal view should supercede the states. We disagree. States should be allowed to continue to decide the matter for themselves.
The court heard arguments on the issue last Monday. Attorneys representing patients in California argued that Congress has no authority to ban the drug's medicinal use because it is not part of the stream of illegal drug traffic that crosses state borders. It is grown and used, under a doctor's order, within a state that has made such drug use legal.The Justice Department argued that state laws allowing medicinal use of marijuana violate the 1970 federal Controlled Substances Act, which prohibits use of marijuana even for medicinal purposes. The government also used the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution to argue that homegrown pot could affect interstate commerce, if it drives down the street price of the drug and gets into the hands of people who are not sick. Allowing states to decide the medicinal issue erodes congressional powers over interstate commerce, the argument went.The Justice Department seemed to go out of its way to challenge state laws that allow sick or dying people to use homegrown marijuana, and to claim that such laws encourage drug abuse. It seems the height of absurdity. If Chief Justice Rehnquist used marijuana to ease the discomfort of his recently diagnosed cancer, as one lawyer suggested, how does that encourage drug use or impact interstate commerce? It doesn't.Snipped:Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/letstates.htmNewshawk: MayanSource: Denver Post (CO)Published: Saturday, December 04, 2004 Copyright: 2004 The Denver Post Contact: openforum denverpost.comWebsite: http://www.denverpost.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Angel Raich v. Ashcroft Newshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/raich.htmMedical Pot or Not? High Court To Decide http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19973.shtmlSanity's AWOL in War on Drugshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19972.shtmlMarijuana Use Isn't Commercehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19971.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #18 posted by Hope on December 06, 2004 at 12:37:44 PT
Re: Viva La Bam on MTV
No one see it?Probably just as well...probably looks as bad as the pic that's online of he and his sis and Bam...and they had waited for five hours in line to see him.Beautiful babies...but in the online picture...I saved the pic but lost the url, he was still addled, and tickled hugely, by the Bam slap. When it was his turn to speak to Bam he just said, "Slap me!" Bam looked at his mother and asked if it was alright and she gave the go ahead and he slapped the thunder out of him. After that all the other kids in line started to ask to be slapped. His friends said they saw it on the show.Years ago on a long road trip he was being hard to bear from the back seat. I was losing my patience with him and asked him, "Have you ever been slapped?" Of course, the answer was a 'no'...but he was rather too stunned at my question to answer and we all immediately started laughing. Well, he's been slapped now, at his own request...and on national TV by Bam himself.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #17 posted by Hope on December 06, 2004 at 11:42:02 PT
The U.S.
Maybe they mean well (I seriously doubt it...it's a big pharmaceutical thing and more "unreasonable" searches)...but it won't be a good thing. It, no doubt will definitely add more paving for the road to you know where.It would be one thing if it (mental health screening) was available to those who want it...it's an entirely different matter when it's required by the government. It can't be anything but bad."...though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #16 posted by Hope on December 06, 2004 at 11:32:54 PT
Tragic
Yes, Afterburner...it sure is.Two are children of daughters...and they listen to my worrying sometimes. One is the child of a son...so I'm the mother-in-law of the mom and she doesn't pay any attention to me...unless it's something to rake me over the coals about.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #15 posted by Hope on December 06, 2004 at 11:25:23 PT
Viva La Bam
If anyone watched it last night. One of my "babies" was on it or in it or whatever the right term is.I didn't get to see it...and he missed it, too...but his friends said he was on there. We'll catch it in reruns.Bam slapped him a week or so ago and it was on MTV last night, I've heard.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #14 posted by FoM on December 06, 2004 at 11:24:04 PT
afterburner
I sure agree with you. I really mind Bush and how I'm saying it is being kind. I can't type how I really feel because it is really bad.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #13 posted by afterburner on December 06, 2004 at 10:52:44 PT
Hope, Tragic What They're Doing to your Grandkids
With Bush's so-called New Freedom Initiative we can expect more of this "treatment" of our loved ones!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #12 posted by Hope on December 06, 2004 at 08:05:37 PT
Goneposthole, "side effects just for Ritalin"
Another of my "babies"...my beloved grandchildren…a vibrant, brilliant seven year old, too good at doing things his way and being able to ignore parents and teachers has been prescribed one of those mind altering drugs. He's the third one...out of six. Three different sets of parents.One, the first one, a boy didn't grow for the entire year that he took the stuff. My daughter had to put him through six months of intense university study to get a stack of papers two inches deep proving he did NOT have any of the disorders Ritalin is prescribed for. After the year of not growing and other worrisome side effects, she took him off it. One teacher raised hell and refused to teach him without it. That's why we had to do all the in depth testing. To prove to her and the school officials that nothing was wrong with him. The look on that god awful teacher's face was priceless when she was handed that huge manila envelope filled with the results of the intense...two four hour sessions a week... six month study.The second one, a girl, cried every evening after school...for no reason. Her mother couldn't bear it.Now this boy, the one I call "Beamer" because of the light that radiates from his beautiful face sometimes, is breaking down in tears...for no reason...about eleven o'clock every morning that he takes the pill.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #11 posted by runruff on December 05, 2004 at 09:47:22 PT:
Guilt by association.
This has been a part of the prohibs tactic since Reefer Maddness. This and the kid card. Two button issues used all the time. Knovac was clumsy in his way of associating Herb with the two harder drugs but these are the two button pushing issues they bring up whenever they are losing on common since grounds.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #10 posted by The GCW on December 05, 2004 at 07:25:10 PT
The Denver Post is shooting arrows,
“It seems the height of absurdity.”BULLS-EYE!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by goneposthole on December 05, 2004 at 06:17:59 PT
question for Robert Novak
Kind bud is nice to sick people. The Supreme Court isn't, that's for sure. If Justice Rhenquist had an ounce of compassion for himself, he would be nice to himself and use kind bud. I am sure he is quite convinced that chemotherapy treatments are not that kind. His hunt for some kind of relief would be over and he would be eternally grateful.In America, if you are sick and dying, you must suffer. If you're not, you will be made to suffer... courtesy of the Supreme Court.If I were a drinking man, I'd be drinking 'Sufferin' Bastards'.Plenty of pills out there that make you suffer, FDA approved, of course. Vioxx, Prozac, Nexium, Ritalin, Zoloft all have negative side effects and are now known to have deadly consequences, also.Here are some of the side effects just for Ritalin (methylphenidate):Reduced appetiteReboundHeadacheJittery feelingGastrointestinal upsetSleep difficultyIrritabilityDepressionAnxietyBlood glucose changesIncreased blood pressurePsychosis or paranoiaTics and stereotyped (repetitive) movementshttp://www.ncpamd.com/Stimulant_Side_Effects.htmHere is some more: Prozac linked to brain cancer.http://www.becomehealthynow.com/category/drugs/Just so you know. Mr. Novak, you've got a lot to learn.Why suffer when there is kind bud out there at least to relieve some of the suffering? Can you answer me that, Mr. Novak? Appearances can be deceiving, Mr. Novak. The FDA, along with the pharmaceutical companies, might not be all that they are cracked up to be.Crackpots might be a more appropriate word for them. I'll use my kind bud and forego the FDA approved palliatives. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by Dark Star on December 05, 2004 at 04:27:41 PT
Capital Gang
I viewed this show, and Bright Star and I were shocked to see Kate not toe the party line on this issue. Usually she comes across as Attila the Hun-ette, princess of darkness---. My sense is that Kate has had a relative or close friend with cancer, where she saw first hand the blessed relief that the healing herb brought. That is enough to convert a person of almost any political stripe.Obviously, the same has never occurred to Bob Novak.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by Nick Thimmesch on December 05, 2004 at 03:59:13 PT:
CNN's Capitalist Gangsters..
...weigh-in on medicinal marijuana (note that the conservative National Review's Kate O'Beirne stands up for mmj/states' rights):HUNT: Welcome back to the second half of THE CAPITAL GANG.This week the Supreme Court heard an appeal regarding patients who use medical marijuana.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it wasn't for Canada I really would not be here today talking to you and fighting for my rights.RANDY BENNETT, ATTY. FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS: The idea here is that the existence of states and state's laws protects liberty and in this case it's the liberty of people to use medical cannabis.CALVINA FAY, DRUG FREE AMERICA FOUNDATION: None of this is being driven by doctors. It's not. It's been rejected. Marijuana is rejected as a medicine by all of the major medical associations. It's a handful of people who want to see not just marijuana but all drugs legalized.(END VIDEO CLIP)HUNT: Should medicinal use of marijuana be sanctioned by the courts, pro or con -- Bob Novak?NOVAK: It shouldn't be. This is a scam. This is people who want to legalize marijuana want to ride in under this medical marijuana thing. The idea that you smoke something to get well, I understand there are pills. The idea in this day and age, the fact that I'm alive shows the wonderful thing of American medicine. That you have to go to marijuana to relieve pain is ridiculous. This is all a scam to legalize marijuana. If you want to have a fight to legalize marijuana go ahead. Welcome to it. I don't think you'd win it.HUNT: You know that you'd be cheering her if you had marijuana Bob.CARLSON: Bob, when you broke your hip and the doctor said take two tokes and call me in the morning you would have been much better off, much better off. Listen, another reason for people to go to Canada, sick people to go to Canada. Of course that may be the administration's...NOVAK: Pro or con?CARLSON: I'm pro in that I think it's been shown to relieve people's pain and there's no reason, you know, not to do it. It's just that politicians don't want to be seen in a Cheech and Chong category of people so they don't want to stand up and be for it.HUNT: Kate O'Beirne.O'BEIRNE: I am pro, provisions, referendum to permit the medical use of marijuana have passed in almost a dozen states, not because all of the people who voted in favor of it favor drug legalization. I don't for one favor drug legalization. I think a credible case has been made that the use of marijuana as prescribed by a doctor can relieve people's suffering and I think that the drug -- one of the most ridiculous aspects of this drug war, which we are conspicuously not winning, is denying people who are suffering the use of something that might provide some relief in the name of fighting the drug war.HUNT: I associate myself very much with the gentle lady, Ms. O'Beirne from the "National Review." I think that if you have tight controls, I think you have to have tight controls. I don't want everybody to be able to go over the counter and buy pot but with tight controls, with doctor supervision, it seems to me if there is a medical case for it, I see absolutely no harm. We have actual drugs that are given to people that are far more lethal than marijuana and I see no reason why marijuana should be different.CARLSON: The side effects of marijuana are less than the side effects say for morphine.NOVAK: As the years go by I am stunned by the naivety I encounter at this table.HUNT: Really are you?CARLSON: Do you think we're all going to work high...HUNT: Is it universal?CARLSON: ...with medical marijuana?NOVAK: Well, if I could say that I really -- I really am particularly stunned by Kate who is a savvy politician, understands how things go and this is all a scam. It is all -- they don't care about these sick people. What they want is they want to change the culture of America, make them pot smokers, to change -- to change the young people into all good blue voters and it's all...CARLSON: If you're high you're going to vote blue?HUNT: Kate, have you really put on beads and sandals?O'BEIRNE: Bob, you have to excuse my naivety, chalk it up to my youth, Bob. I'll just -- I'm not quite as experienced as you are yet. All of those people, those people who voted to permit this medical use of marijuana do not favor drug legalization. Whatever, now some people who make the medical marijuana case obviously want to go much further but that shouldn't discredit the case on the merits that people make on behalf of suffering patients.NOVAK: But that's a naivety. It's not that they're for medical marijuana. It's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) them. It's bringing them into this drug legalization thing through the back door through this thing of gee we got to be nice to the sick people.CARLSON: Not everything (UNINTELLIGIBLE).HUNT: You don't believe -- you don't believe we should be nice to sick people necessarily, right?CARLSON: No. Yes, these bleeding heart liberals with their sick people.HUNT: On the record.CARLSON: Yes.HUNT: You know (UNINTELLIGIBLE) want to be nice to sick people.CARLSON: Yes.HUNT: You know, I am not for legalizing drugs in general either, Kate, but I do think we waste a lot of time trying to bust people for pot. That just is not what law enforcement...NOVAK: Let them go. Let them break the laws just as much as they want, right?HUNT: Is that what you're for?NOVAK: No, is that what you're saying?HUNT: No.CARLSON: No, but not using law enforcement to enforce a law that doesn't...O'BEIRNE: I agree with Al that it has to be strictly regulated and what we're learning in the states that have permitted is you'll see examples of what state does it right, where are patient registries kept, where are there not abuses? It's one of the wonderful things about (UNINTELLIGIBLE) system.CARLSON: And there haven't been any runaway states (UNINTELLIGIBLE).NOVAK: I think when your daughter after you legalize marijuana she goes down to the corner marijuana store for a toke, I think you'll say Novak was right.HUNT: Bob, is that where you go for marijuana you go to the corner store?NOVAK: Under legalization you will.HUNT: Oh, okay.NOVAK: Under legalization.O'BEIRNE: Marijuana is not available -- it won't be available or isn't except for the medical use.NOVAK: You can get anything. You can get cocaine. You can get heroin.HUNT: Right. I just want to say speaking for Margaret and Kate that we are pro sick people but in any event, pro taking care of sick people.CARLSON: Pro getting better.HUNT: Exactly.Coming up THE CAPITAL GANG classic, Bush's new economic team named two years ago.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)ANNOUNCER: Here's your CAPITAL GANG trivia question of the week. How many states have active medical marijuana programs; a) 7; b) 10; or c) 15? We'll have the answer right after the break.(END VIDEO CLIP)(COMMERCIAL BREAK)(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)ANNOUNCER: Before the break we asked how many states have active medical marijuana programs. The answer is B, 10.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/04/cg.01.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by breeze on December 04, 2004 at 22:20:22 PT
re-The GCW- comment #3
This isn't the first time I have heard of someone commiting homicide or suicide because of Zoloft. Had a conversation about this very PHARMACEUTICAL today- in where a young man in his late teens locked himself in a garage and left his car running till there was no more life in him. Zoloft doesn't work as well as people try to pretend it does, it has a tendency to lock away emotions and change personalities. Not all pills play fair.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by FoM on December 04, 2004 at 21:03:09 PT
Just a Comment
I guess I am really hard on Ohio. It's a good state, it's my home and there are nice people here. I am beginning to think why the east coast people are deeper thinking people is because there isn't a lot of country. Many people live in smaller areas and conversation and exchanging ideas become an important part of life. In the rural parts of Ohio you can do more outside and there is way more space between towns and lots more country. Maybe the differences are due to the demographics and I never really thought of it that way. Just trying to figure out why. Thanks for reading my rant.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by FoM on December 04, 2004 at 15:50:42 PT
The GCW
I like the link ekim posted last night. It made me smile.http://www.blueohioan.com/I have lived in Ohio since 73 but my brain and thoughts still are from where people really think and that's Pa. I refuse to be red. It's makes me feel ill. Ohio is a nice place to have a business or buy a home but I have never been able to relate to the narrow minded thinking here. They love guns to boot. We never had a gun in the house when I was growing up. I never had a friend that had a gun in their house either. It was a non issue. I'm glad I have all you to socialize with.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by The GCW on December 04, 2004 at 15:14:36 PT
Zoloft, has great risks but is legal... 
Dec 4, 5:37 PM ESTDad Cites Boy's Antidepressants in Deaths By JEFFREY COLLINS
Associated Press WriterCOLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Authorities say three years ago, Christopher Pittman, then 12, shot his grandparents as they slept because they had scolded him for fighting. But Christopher's father, Joe Pittman, thinks his son killed because his sense of right and wrong was clouded by the anti-depressant Zoloft.Joe Pittman spoke out against the drug in a Food and Drug Administration hearing early this year. The boy, who had threatened suicide, was put on the drug three weeks before the slayings, and his dose was doubled just two days earlier. cont.http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/Z/ZOLOFT_DEFENSE?SITE=COFRI&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by The GCW on December 04, 2004 at 15:06:43 PT
Ohio goes on recount.
400 Demand Recount at Ohio Statehouse By JOHN McCARTHY
Associated Press Writerhttp://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OHIO_VOTE?SITE=COFRI&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT"On Friday, a federal judge in Columbus ruled that a recount may proceed if two minority party candidates who sued for it can pay for it. Green and Libertarian party officials say they can." Cont.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by breeze on December 04, 2004 at 13:44:37 PT
Alabama has joined the fight...
Alabama has joined the fight, though an unlikely ally- here is more information...http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=ap/medical_marijuana
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment