cannabisnews.com: Keep Marijuana Out of Medicine Cabinet





Keep Marijuana Out of Medicine Cabinet
Posted by CN Staff on April 26, 2007 at 12:28:23 PT
By Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Illinois -- At a time when recent trends in youth drug use have shown a significant downturn, I was disturbed by your recent editorial "Legalize medical marijuana" in support of state legislation to permit the growth of marijuana for medical purposes.As a former schoolteacher and coach and father of two, I believe in giving our kids a drug-free future. Illegal drugs are responsible for the loss of 17,000 American lives annually, and marijuana is by far the most used and abused of these drugs. 
More kids use marijuana than cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and all other illicit drugs combined. Legislation that allows, supports or recognizes marijuana as a medicine is irresponsible, shortsighted and sends the wrong message to our youth.There is absolutely no sound scientific evidence that marijuana has any medicinal value. The Food and Drug Administration is the only agency that can designate a substance as a medicine and to date has not done so. Marijuana continues to be a Schedule I Controlled Substance, and its use under federal law, for any reason, is a crime. It is clear that if this bill becomes law, it would undermine the medical integrity and safeguards established by the federal drug approval process, compromise law enforcement efforts to combat drug trafficking, and endanger public health and safety. Legalization of any kind will also have unintended consequences: each person injured in driving and work-related accidents committed by those under the influence, and unborn babies harmed by abusing mothers.I urge the General Assembly to think twice about supporting legislation that softens the stance that marijuana is dangerous, addictive and illegal. I would hope that everyone could agree that there is no legitimate place in our society for marijuana use.Note: To legalize it would be risky and irresponsible.Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL) Author: Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)Published: April 26, 2007Copyright: 2007 The Sun-Times Co. Contact: letters suntimes.com Website: http://www.suntimes.com/ Related Articles: Backers Stress Compassion of Medical Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22919.shtmlClergy Join Push To OK Medical Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22910.shtmlLegalize Medical Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22880.shtml
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Comment #46 posted by whig on April 29, 2007 at 12:38:46 PT
user123
They sought private profit from the public purse, and got quite a bit of it.
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Comment #45 posted by user123 on April 29, 2007 at 11:38:49 PT:
GOP
This former Speaker of Duh House is an excellent example of the types of ill-informed idiots the Republican't party stocks themselves with. Why must 50% or so of the population think that running your county into the ground is a good thing? GOP - Greed Over Principle
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Comment #44 posted by whig on April 28, 2007 at 21:13:35 PT
My sleep problems
I never slept well without cannabis. Never.When I was in school, I was chronically underslept. I would sleep in certain classes. I taught myself to listen partially while sleeping so I could respond coherently to direct questions.
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Comment #43 posted by whig on April 28, 2007 at 20:25:22 PT
Truth
It's not for everyone, I guess. I'm smart, I think. I hope that isn't something held against me.
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Comment #42 posted by Truth on April 28, 2007 at 19:51:40 PT
Tea
The smart man's drug.
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Comment #41 posted by whig on April 28, 2007 at 19:41:48 PT
Also
All caffeine is not equal.Drinking an artificially caffeinated soft drink is not the same thing as having a cup of tea. Tea contains more than caffeine, it has a wide number of other chemicals which partially counteract the negative effects of too much caffeine.
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Comment #40 posted by whig on April 28, 2007 at 19:27:21 PT
BGreen
I think the caffeine can be self-medication for sleep deprivation, too. And since they're still sleep deprived, they get made to take stronger stimulants. And since they're still sleep deprived, they get worse.Nothing but more and better sleep to cure sleep deprivation.
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Comment #39 posted by BGreen on April 28, 2007 at 19:23:39 PT
whig, did you read the article from US News?
A lot of the symptoms of ADD and ADHD are the same as the symptoms of sleep deprivation in kids. Most kids aren't getting all of the sleep they need, then they're taking massive amounts of caffeine on top of it.Then, when the teachers and parents complain that their kids can't sit still and pay attention, the kids get prescriptions for major amphetamines and other powerful CNS stimulants.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #38 posted by whig on April 28, 2007 at 19:20:50 PT
Watch and Listen
Bill Moyers -- interviews Jon Stewart and Josh Marshallhttp://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04272007/watch.html
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Comment #37 posted by whig on April 28, 2007 at 19:11:14 PT
Buying the war
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html
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Comment #36 posted by whig on April 28, 2007 at 18:59:36 PT
Tea versus amphetamine
How many young people are being dosed with Ritalin that might benefit from a cuppa tea instead?
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Comment #35 posted by whig on April 28, 2007 at 18:57:40 PT
Having said that
Taking too much tea is unpleasant, it causes stomach upset and really does seem to be a rather self-limiting affair. The jitteriness of caffeine can also be extremely unpleasant.I would not consider tea nearly as BENEFICIAL as cannabis.
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Comment #34 posted by whig on April 28, 2007 at 18:55:17 PT
Truth #30
When did anyone say caffeine was not powerful?Cannabis is a POWERFUL herb. It is benign, however.I see no reason to consider Tea otherwise. Please advise if you are aware of any fatal overdose of tea.Synthetic pure caffeine is another whole matter.
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Comment #33 posted by FoM on April 28, 2007 at 17:47:05 PT
kaptinemo 
Doing all right doesn't sound good coming from you. Do take care of yourself. This is the strangest of times. Things are changing very fast in our country. It's so intense it really is hard to sort thru it all and come up with anything solid. This 08 election is really starting early and heaven knows where it all might lead. I am always hanging on to my hat these days.
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Comment #32 posted by kaptinemo on April 28, 2007 at 17:27:35 PT:
Sorry for the tardy response, FoM
Thank you for asking. I am doing all right, as well as any medicinal user can be when the cost of meds remains outrageously inflated. But I'm still breathing...as a lot of prohibs are almost certain to be gnashing their teeth at the news.I have been rather busy of late, but not with the prohibs. They don't come around to the forums I participate in, anymore. Seems they've finally figured out they can expect to receive the Monty Python's 'King Arthur/Black Knight' treatment. Namely, they get rhetorically hacked to pieces while claiming to be untouched. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. (Sigh) But now, they don't want to come out and play. Oh, well...so much for their vaunted convictions. Pa-thet-ic 
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Comment #31 posted by Truth on April 28, 2007 at 09:07:40 PT
This part...
"More kids use marijuana than cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and all other illicit drugs combined."I would think is good news.
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Comment #30 posted by Truth on April 28, 2007 at 09:06:09 PT
Whig
"I tend to think of coffee and tea as benign"A strong dose of caffein is anything but benign. It is a powerful stimulant. 
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Comment #29 posted by whig on April 27, 2007 at 19:06:05 PT
Conventions
This may entail an amendment.
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Comment #28 posted by whig on April 27, 2007 at 19:04:21 PT
Legal basis
I am not happy with commerce clause jurisprudence. It has been used to excuse things having nothing to do with commerce, like the personal growing of in-state non-commercial herbs for medicinal purposes.We cannot regulate without legal basis, so we need to find it or create it by legal process. I hope that is agreeable to people, and I hope we are able to make a consensus.
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Comment #27 posted by BGreen on April 27, 2007 at 19:02:16 PT
Pattern? Why, yes whig, I think there IS a pattern
"There are none so blind as those who will not see."Source: Some really famous book.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #26 posted by whig on April 27, 2007 at 19:01:48 PT
agriculture
We can regulate it. We know how to regulate it. We do regulate it in other crops.
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Comment #25 posted by whig on April 27, 2007 at 18:59:43 PT
Stop genocide
If we're going to end prohibition of cannabis and that is going to happen really quickly now, we need to also take this chance to make it clear how destructive the drug war approach has been for all the other natural plants none of which deserve genocide.
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Comment #24 posted by whig on April 27, 2007 at 18:56:15 PT
BGreen
And herbal opium? Is there a pattern here?
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Comment #23 posted by BGreen on April 27, 2007 at 18:02:08 PT
Yeah, and how about this one?
And, in the extreme, there are tragedies like that of James Stone, a 19-year-old from Wallingford, Conn., who died last November of cardiac arrest after taking nearly two dozen caffeine pills. His parents say he had been putting in long hours on a job search.You're also right about coca. There are no known deaths caused by chewing coca leaves. Millions have used coca with nothing but beneficial results. It wasn't until the chemists got a hold of the plant in an effort to isolate and synthesize the "active ingredient" that they created a poison.I really think they want to isolate and synthesize a cannabinoid that kills people, because that's the only way they'll ever manufacture "proof" that cannabis is deadly.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #22 posted by whig on April 27, 2007 at 17:48:47 PT
BGreen
"the 14-year-old boy who earlier this year showed up at a Minneapolis emergency room in respiratory distress after washing down caffeine pills with energy drinks"Well, pills.Why do people think that medicine in pill form is safer??
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Comment #21 posted by whig on April 27, 2007 at 17:40:35 PT
BGreen
I guess I've read that herbal coca is also relatively benign, though clearly cocaine is quite dangerous.
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Comment #20 posted by BGreen on April 27, 2007 at 16:19:29 PT
I found a link to the story
Speed Freakshttp://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/070415/23caffeine.htm
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Comment #19 posted by BGreen on April 27, 2007 at 16:14:20 PT
U.S News & World Report - 4/23/07 Cover Story
entitled "Speed Freaks."You're exactly right. Caffeine wasn't a potentially fatal drug until high potency pills and "energy drinks."That's why it scares the crap out of me thinking what kind of poison they might create trying to isolate and synthesize cannabinoids instead of just leaving the whole plant alone.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #18 posted by whig on April 27, 2007 at 15:20:48 PT
BGreen
I tend to think of coffee and tea as benign, and I'm unaware of any fatal overdose of either plant or decoction.To fatally overdose on caffeine would almost require a synthetic form. Herbal tea and coffee should be regarded as relatively safe and beneficial for many people.As is cannabis.
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Comment #17 posted by BGreen on April 27, 2007 at 15:08:33 PT
How to remove cannabis from #1 illegal substance
Legalize cannabis and it will go from number one illegal substance to at least number four legal recreational substance, behind alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, all three of which are known to have fatal side effects, something never experienced with cannabis despite thousands of years of documented use.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on April 27, 2007 at 14:14:45 PT
kaptinemo
It's good to see you. I hope all is well.
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Comment #15 posted by kaptinemo on April 27, 2007 at 13:41:11 PT:
Sometimes I feel I'm trapped
in a old Little Rascals vignette. The one where two kids try to be peddlers, and one says to the other, "Now don't you show your iggerance!". The irony should be obvious; the ignorant leading the ignorant. That's the DrugWarrior High Command as it dispenses its' own 'iggerance' to equally ignorant pols...who shamelessly display theirs regarding cannabis with distressing regularity.Someone here long ago coined the phrase Ignoids to describe the preternaturally dense DrugWarriors who keep repeating nonsense in the face of factual information that refutes them. Haster is a Class One Ignoid if ever there was one.
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Comment #14 posted by potpal on April 27, 2007 at 07:22:52 PT
Message
Illegal drugs are responsible for the loss of 17,000 American lives annually, and marijuana is by far the most used and abused of these drugs. And not one of the 17000 was by cannabis. How many were caused by the illegal use of pharmaceutical drugs? Why isn't he concerned about the 500,000 killed every year via tobacco, or the 150,000 from alcohol. Does he wish to prohibit all pharmaceutical medicines, since it sends a message that those drugs are okay to use. Such bent and twisted logic on Mr. Has(been)tert is typical. The message he is sending loud and clear is that he is ignorant, that he rather have sick people suffer to protect the corporate interest that have him in their pocket. Prohibition: The convenient lieMeet a sad sack prohibitionist...
Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on April 26, 2007 at 18:57:27 PT
"Shoo! Shoo!" , Hastert seems to be trying 
to say, with all the deceit and bluster he's displaying,"Shoo! Shoo! Don't touch the cash cow! Shoo!"
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Comment #12 posted by mayan on April 26, 2007 at 17:11:03 PT
Hastert
A five year old could see through his lies. His credibility is toast. Nevermind, he didn't have any to begin with! GOP = Greedy Old Pedophiles** No offense to Ron Paul aand Gary Johnson!
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Comment #11 posted by MikeEEEEE on April 26, 2007 at 17:05:46 PT
Oh my! The "Childrunnn" and unborn babies
I heard today that SUV's back up and kill 50 kids a week, here in the land of the free.Using this idiot's logic above: All SUV's should be outlawed to protect the kiddies.Using his logic again:
We should outlaw industries that pour millions of toxins in the air, because they cause high levels of autism in newborns. 
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Comment #10 posted by RevrayGreen on April 26, 2007 at 14:53:24 PT
Send an email
an load up the inbox to letters suntimes.com and tell them how full of sh*t Hasert is.
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Comment #9 posted by BGreen on April 26, 2007 at 14:25:09 PT
Hastert = Major cover-up of pedophilia
Remember the last time we heard from Dennis Hastert?He was in trouble for covering up the "page scandal," which involved sexual advances by congressmen to underage boys.So, Hastert thinks it's OK for adults to sexually violate children but it's not OK for adults to have access to medical cannabis.One word for you, you fat pervert, shutthehellup!The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on April 26, 2007 at 13:17:50 PT
17,000 and prescription drugs
I was reading an interesting article the other day. It said that 100,000 people are killed every year from prescription drugs - side effects, etc. That I already knew.What I did NOT know is that ANOTHER 100,000 people are killed every year because of human error is prescribing and delivering the drugs. i.e., doctor error or pharmacy error. Wow! That is staggering. It's mostly because doctors are so arrogant that they have refused any suggestion to use something electronic (computer or notepad device) for precriptions - their insistence on hand-writing over the last 10-15 years has killed nearly a million people! The good news is that they're finally being forced by the business-side of health care to use electronic devices.
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on April 26, 2007 at 13:17:16 PT
cannabis can't kill you....
but you better watch out for those cannaibs. They are dangerous and will kill over cannabis at the drop of a hat...or warrant.
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on April 26, 2007 at 13:14:12 PT
"cannaibs"?
Might start using that in reference to cannabis prohibition zealots. Bunch of cannaibs.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on April 26, 2007 at 13:11:55 PT
Oh, Lord!
"Illegal drugs are responsible for the loss of 17,000 American lives annually, and marijuana is by far the most used and abused of these drugs."Do they go to a school somewhere to learn how to talk like that? Marijuana/cannaibs cannot kill it's consumer, ever. Yet here, this fellow Murkan, and expert and reliable "trustworthy" politician, is saying that marijuana "is by far the most used and abused of these drugs." "Of these drugs"? He takes us all for fools.He is actually saying marijuana killed most of those 17,000 Americans he's so artfully and artificially "concerned" about. The fumes!This is hard to read...the fumes are just overwhelming.
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on April 26, 2007 at 12:59:56 PT
Lie fumes!
This piece reeks hideously of them!
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Comment #3 posted by museman on April 26, 2007 at 12:55:44 PT
the R word
Did you notice the 'R' next to his title. R for red, r for (w)rong, r for repugnant, r for rich, r for ruling class, r for Roman, r for religious right...Mr. Hastert U R Ill
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Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on April 26, 2007 at 12:49:50 PT
damage done
"As a former schoolteacher and coach and father of two"poor, poor children
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on April 26, 2007 at 12:45:09 PT
Hastert
I would hope that everyone could agree there is no legitimate place in our society for YOU!
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