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Marijuana: A Prescription for Trouble
Posted by CN Staff on March 07, 2010 at 15:10:01 PT
By Chris Endress, Guest Column
Source: Quad-City Times
Iowa -- The supporters of “the compassionate use of marijuana” for the sick and dying have numerous stories of cancer stricken family members that received some benefit from using marijuana. Those stories tug at your heart leaving you with the idea that if it makes them more comfortable before they die, then what is the harm in letting them smoke marijuana? The harm comes when legislators allow patients to grow their own marijuana and grow for other patients. Several states have lost control of their medical marijuana programs, and I want to share their problems with the citizens of Iowa before we make the same mistake.
First, we must accept that marijuana is the most sought after illegal drug in the United States. It is a multi-billion dollar illegal industry.The compassionate use of a marijuana program is intended for people suffering from cancer, AIDS, and other debilitating diseases. However, there is a catchall in the legislation that usually states, “Or any other condition where a doctor believes marijuana would benefit the patient.” This means anyone that wants to smoke marijuana can and will with the right doctor’s recommendation. In a study in San Diego, Calif., only 2 percent of the medical marijuana patients actually had cancer, AIDS or glaucoma. The other 98 percent had reported some form of pain or anxiety. The overwhelming majority of medical marijuana patients were males younger than 40.Who can recommend medical marijuana?A qualifying practitioner is any physician, dentist, podiatrist or veterinarian licensed to prescribe drugs. So yes, you could get a recommendation from your veterinarian to smoke marijuana. In California, it has been reported that doctors have opened up shop in hotel rooms for the weekend advertising medical marijuana recommendations. This is obviously not the legislators’ intent for “compassionate care.”So now you’re a card-carrying medical marijuana patient. This is where it gets really sketchy. According to SF 293 (Iowa’s current bill introducing the Medical Marijuana Act) with your recommendation you can grow 12 marijuana plants, have a caregiver grow your plants for you, and buy 6 ounces of marijuana from a compassion center (every 30 days). This is your opportunity to make a lot of money. High grade marijuana sells for $350 per ounce and $5,000 per pound on the black market. Each plant you grow could yield 1 to 5 pounds of product depending on your gardening skills. Caregivers can grow for up to five patients — that’s 60 plants.And the best part, you don’t have to disclose the location of your garden. There are no inspections to ensure you are not growing more than you are allowed. Only a compassion center is subject to inspection provided they receive 24 hours notice.Can a convicted felon work in a compassion center?No, unless your felony conviction is for manufacturing and delivering marijuana, then it’s OK. Is anyone else seeing a problem here? Now here is where the state loses all control. Law enforcement’s access to the patient and caregiver database will only confirm or deny the person’s status on the registry. Law enforcement is not permitted to know where patients or caregivers are growing marijuana. It is nearly impossible to know who has a legal grow location versus an illegal grow location. Now you have a very small number of sick people using marijuana for medical purposes and the overwhelming majority growing marijuana for profit. Thousands of pounds of black market marijuana are being sold to drugs dealers that distribute marijuana throughout the U.S.In the end you have essentially legalized the most sought after illegal drug in the U.S.Police in the Midwest have been dealing with medical marijuana trafficking for several years now. In just the last seven weeks of 2010, the Illinois State Police in Henry County have seized 500 pounds of medical marijuana grown in California and Oregon destined for sale in Illinois and the East Coast. In each case, the defendant was a medical marijuana patient.The marijuana supporters will tell you that prescription drugs are just as out-of-control and also are sold on the black market. I would have to agree. Prescription oxycontin and hydrocodone are the most widely abused prescription drugs on the market. But, imagine how much worse it would be if your prescription for oxycontin or hydrocodone allowed you to manufacture your own, manufacture for five other patients, and open up oxycontin and hydrocodone dispensaries on every street corner. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?Citizens of Iowa, don’t be fooled into believing the sick and dying have exhausted all medical treatments and can only get relief from smoking marijuana; or that the most effective way to get marijuana to the patient is to allow them to grow their own.Medical marijuana programs have few controls in place to enforce doctor’s making recommendations for profit, they take away your employer’s rights for a drug-free workplace, and handicap the police from enforcing DUI laws and illegal trafficking of marijuana. Let’s do our homework and make medical marijuana a safe prescription pill, pain patch or inhaler. We cannot accept a burning plant with unknown amounts of THC and pesticides as a delivery system for medicine. It is inherently unhealthy and causes more harm than good.SF 293 is dead for the remainder of this year. Legislators, next year introduce a bill that puts the patient first, not tax revenue and drug trafficking. SF 293 was built as a means to legalize marijuana. Similar bills in California, Oregon and Colorado have aided criminal drug organizations to make millions of dollars in the marijuana trade. As a narcotics unit commander at the front lines of this national crime wave, I cannot bite my tongue and watch as the marijuana legalization groups try to pull one over on the citizens of Iowa and the greater Quad-Cities.Chris Endress is director of the Quad-City Metropolitan Enforcement Group, a collaborative unit supported by area sheriffs, police departments and state police.Source: Quad-City Times (IA)Author: Chris EndressPublished: March 6, 2010Copyright: 2010 Quad-City TimesContact: opinions qctimes.comWebsite: http://www.qctimes.comURL: http://drugsense.org/url/dFDMMgpeCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #18 posted by runruff on March 09, 2010 at 07:30:10 PT
Meet Mr. Tea!
Hi all, this morning I woke up in a fit of patriotic frenzy! I was so angry with the state of affairs in our government, I hurled, with great anger, a tea bag into a pot of steaming water! I believe the seismic activity is still rocking the white house!
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on March 09, 2010 at 05:03:25 PT
ekim
We watched Jesse Ventura on Larry King last night. I don't agree with him on everything but when asked about Palin his answer was exactly how I feel. When he was asked about the tea party people his answer was great too. His comment on marijuana was as it always has been and that was very good. Thanks for the heads up.
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Comment #16 posted by John Tyler on March 08, 2010 at 19:13:17 PT
boiling it down
Lets boil this down. Cannabis use prosecution is something like 90% of the drug war. If the cannabis industry were legal there would go 90% of the drug war budget. Now we are looking at huge cuts in certain sections of the police departments across the country. These guys are going to scream and cry and tell every kind of lie imaginable to justify keeping their jobs. Jobs which entail arresting and abusing people because the enjoy using a certain plant. These guys are not going to have an unbiased opinion. They are not to be believed.
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Comment #15 posted by ekim on March 08, 2010 at 16:46:23 PT
Jesse Venture on Larry King
tonight on CNN 9pm
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Comment #14 posted by observer on March 08, 2010 at 13:09:10 PT
Bottom Line Police Bottom Feeders
As a narcotics unit commander at the front lines of this national crime wave I cannot bite my tongue and watch as the marijuana legalization groups try to pull one over on the citizens of Iowa and the greater Quad-Cities.In other words, most of this narcotics unit commander's business involves hunting down, jailing and shooting those who resist. Over cannabis. Over a plant. This joker is pulling, what, $100,000 a year or so with full benefits, to act like a cross between the STASI, SAVAK, and the GRU -- over some pot plants. Can you say, "Blinded by career and paycheck?"When Mammon speaks, government bottom feeders like Chris Endress listen. Let's drop his government benefits and his salary down to that of less than a 7-11 clerk, and let's see how long this joker will don a flak jacket and continue to SWAT-team Grampa and Nanna over a few pot plants.
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Comment #13 posted by konagold on March 08, 2010 at 10:19:37 PT
1 to 5 pounds
"High grade marijuana sells for $350 per ounce and $5,000 per pound on the black market. Each plant you grow could yield 1 to 5 pounds of product depending on your gardening skills."most plants yield 1 to 4 ounces even outdoorsfear-mongering the tried and true tool of prohibitionist tools
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Comment #12 posted by James Crosby on March 08, 2010 at 09:38:38 PT:
OCTA
This article is exactly what we don't want to happen with medical cannabis... Medical cannabis isn't getting any better people, let's legalize before we DON'T HAVE THE CHANCE ANYMORE! If we don't support the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, we may be screwed. http://blog.norml.org/2010/03/03/medical-marijuanas-not-getting-any-better-the-time-for-re-legalization-is-now/ (Medical marijuana’s not getting any better – the time for RE-legalization is NOW!)
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Comment #11 posted by JoeCitizen on March 08, 2010 at 09:32:25 PT
What a contemptible pack of lies
You all have already pointed out how illogical (not to mention immoral) it is for a police officer, who's funding is directly dependent on cannabis prohibition, to play the roles of both doctor and unbiased commentator.But the sophistries that "Officer" Endress uses are truly contemptible."The compassionate use of a marijuana program is intended for people suffering from cancer, AIDS, and other debilitating diseases. However, there is a catchall in the legislation that usually states, 'Or any other condition where a doctor believes marijuana would benefit the patient.' This means anyone that wants to smoke marijuana can and will with the right doctor’s recommendation. In a study in San Diego, Calif., only 2 percent of the medical marijuana patients actually had cancer, AIDS or glaucoma."He actually QUOTES the part about "other debilitating diseases" in the first part of that 'graph, then manages to utterly forget about by the last line.When I was running my local NORML chapter, I saw all types of medical uses. My best officers were a guy with Multiple Sclerosis, and another who had crushed 3 vertebrae in his back from falling off a ladder onto concrete, leaving him with terrible permanent back pain. I saw other trauma victims (a motorcycle-accident survivor who's body was a twisted wreck), other diseases (a woman with Ehler-Danlos syndrome, a nightmarish condition involving the body's connective tissues), an epileptic, several patients with bipolar disorder, and also the cancer and AIDS patients that Endress seems to deem as the only valid users."So yes, you could get a recommendation from your veterinarian to smoke marijuana."You can get a prescription from a veterinarian for all sorts of narcotic pain killers, muscle relaxants, tranquilizers for your dog/cat, whatever. The drugs are chemically the same as the ones for people, nothing stopping you from taking them yourself. The converse is true, you may want to get cannabis to make a preparation for your pet. What's the problem with that?"In California, it has been reported that doctors have opened up shop in hotel rooms for the weekend advertising medical marijuana recommendations."It's also been "reported" that Elvis is alive and well and carrying around a UFO baby. That doesn't make it true. Notice that he quotes no specific instance, just hides behind that word "reported.""High grade marijuana sells for $350 per ounce and $5,000 per pound on the black market." $350/oz, $5000/lb are best case scenarios, rarely seen when there is a decent supply on the market, which is exactly what he's complaining about! Doesn't the man understand supply and demand? If he want to take the profit out of it, legalize it entirely, let the market drive it down to the real price, not the prohibition inflated one."Each plant you grow could yield 1 to 5 pounds of product depending on your gardening skills. Caregivers can grow for up to five patients — that’s 60 plants."BWAHAHAHA!!! Indoor grown plants yield 1-3 ounces if grown tall, much less than that if grown as plantlets. A HUGE outdoor plant might yield multiple pounds, but it is literally the size of a small tree. There is no way on Earth you could grow 60 of them. Most people couldn't grow even one, and the climates/conditions where it is favorable to do so are limited, especially in states with medical cannabis laws. Typical number inflation by a cop with an agenda."And the best part, you don’t have to disclose the location of your garden. There are no inspections to ensure you are not growing more than you are allowed."If you have cannabis plants the size of small trees in your yard, your location is NOT going to be secret. Even if it's all indoors, more than a handful of plants generates a very strong smell, High-Intensity Lights radiate a lot of heat, plants give off humidity. Hiding 60 growing plants would be as much or more work than actually growing them."Can a convicted felon work in a compassion center? No, unless your felony conviction is for manufacturing and delivering marijuana, then it’s OK. Is anyone else seeing a problem here?"No, I don't see any problem there at all, Officer Endress. The U.S. Government, as well as many major private security firms, hire former criminal hackers to do computer security. Why? BECAUSE THEY KNOW THE MOST ABOUT IT. Given the stupid state of our laws, anyone who extensively experiments with cannabis growing and has empirically learned the most about it is also the person most likely to have run afoul of the laws and gotten a record. I'm sure herbdoc215 might have few thoughts about that topic! Being caught up by stupid laws and labeled a criminal doesn't negate their extensive, applicable experience in the area of growing plants. You want they should hire novices and failed growers instead?"Now here is where the state loses all control. Law enforcement’s access to the patient and caregiver database will only confirm or deny the person’s status on the registry. Law enforcement is not permitted to know where patients or caregivers are growing marijuana. It is nearly impossible to know who has a legal grow location versus an illegal grow location."This is because Law Enforcement refuses to stop acting like jack-booted thugs, and continues to engage in "bust first and ask questions later" sweeps, putting legitimate growers in jeopardy, and ripping up and killing plants that cannot be instantly replaced. If they did the same thing with pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, there would be a huge uproar. Pfizer, Merck, Glaxo, would have their asses in court in a heartbeat. But they act with impunity against State MMJ laws, sometimes even resisting Court orders to return what they have stolen from the growers."Police in the Midwest have been dealing with medical marijuana trafficking for several years now. In just the last seven weeks of 2010, the Illinois State Police in Henry County have seized 500 pounds of medical marijuana grown in California and Oregon destined for sale in Illinois and the East Coast. In each case, the defendant was a medical marijuana patient."This sounds like complete BS to me. Cannabis grown in a state with MMJ laws isn't automatically medical, nor does being owned or carried by someone who is a patient make it medical. He gives no breakdown, just a gross amount over a time period of seven weeks. Seven weeks is an odd time period, it's not a week, a month, a quarter of a year. I strongly suspect that he picked that time period because there was one big bust in the seventh week (from the end of the year) that made that number much bigger and scarier sounding.Leaving that aside, the Federal government's own IND program which legally supplies cannabis to the handful of patients remaining in the program (such as Irv Rosenfeld and Elvy Musikka) gives them over 7 pounds a year! Even given Endress' probably inflated numbers, that's only about a year's supply for each of 70 patients, or 10 patients a week for the 7 weeks he mentioned. That's not that scary when you break it down, even if it is a lie."But, imagine how much worse it would be if your prescription for oxycontin or hydrocodone allowed you to manufacture your own, manufacture for five other patients, and open up oxycontin and hydrocodone dispensaries on every street corner. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?"Of course it sounds ridiculous. Oxycontin and Hydrocodone have very low LD50s (the level of death at which half the test animals died of poisoning), especially to people who haven't built up tolerance to them. If everyone and his brother were making and taking those things, people would be dying left and right. People would be disabled by horrible addictions and neglect their work and families. Addicts would be stealing and robbing to get enough to pay for their next "fix", because even if it was common and cheap, that's still not free.In short, it would look NOTHING whatsoever like what California does now. A specious comparison, made just to sound scary."Citizens of Iowa, don’t be fooled into believing the sick and dying have exhausted all medical treatments and can only get relief from smoking marijuana; or that the most effective way to get marijuana to the patient is to allow them to grow their own."Oh, this burns me up more than anything else he's lied about so far. Mr. Cop, probably without even a college degree, wants to play M.D. First of all, yes, some patients HAVE tried every legal drug for relief first, even the nasty, nasty toxic ones with terrible side effects. Some of them did so because they believed the very kinds of lies that Endress traffics in, and only tried cannabis when every other route failed for them and they were literally dying. Why should they have to go through that gauntlet to get to a KNOWN, EFFECTIVE treatment? Some patients tried 30+ drugs for nausea or pain before finding cannabis. That's a lot of time, a lot of pain, a lot of vomiting, FOR NO GOOD REASON AT ALL.Second, the most effective way to get cannabis to patients is NOT to "let" (i.e force) them to grow their own. The most effective way would be to allow them buy good quality cannabis at a pharmacy or over-the-counter, like we do all sorts of other medicines. Growing your own is a good fallback when you can't by it legally, but it is not as easy as it's made out, and it is quite labor intensive, which is beyond the ability of many sick and disabled people. Which brings us back to the very growers and distributors that Endress attacks at the beginning. Can't have it both ways, Officer Endress. If I'm sick and can't buy it legally in a store, can't grow it myself, and can't get if from someone else who grows it, what am I supposed to do, wish it into existence?"Medical marijuana programs have few controls in place to enforce doctor’s making recommendations for profit, they take away your employer’s rights for a drug-free workplace, and handicap the police from enforcing DUI laws and illegal trafficking of marijuana."Doctors in almost every situation except charity work practice medicine for profit. Every time they pick up their prescription pad, they are working for profit. Whether the prescription/recommendation is rightly made is the issue, not the profit.Oh, and they take away MY EMPLOYER'S RIGHTS?!! Your employer has no right to tell you not to take medicine, that would be AGAINST THE LAW. Endress is conflating the concept of a workplace free from illegal recreational drugs with one where no one can take ANY drugs, medicinal or not. Hand over your painkillers, your insulin, your heart medicine before work all you drones. We must be a DRUG-FREE WORKPLACE. Wait, isn't caffeine a drug? Quick, unplug the coffeepot!"Let’s do our homework and make medical marijuana a safe prescription pill, pain patch or inhaler. We cannot accept a burning plant with unknown amounts of THC and pesticides as a delivery system for medicine. It is inherently unhealthy and causes more harm than good."He of course, leave out vaporization, which would totally undercut his argument. How conveeeenient.Growing plants with standardized amounts of THC (and other medically active cannabinoids) is exactly what GW Pharmaceuticals and others are doing, rather successfully. And of course, they don't use any form of persistent pesticide. It's only the actions of heavy-handed law enforcement that keeps it underground, unregulated, and introduces any sort of danger. If your food was grown as surreptitiously as cannabis is, if the very seeds and equipment you needed to be a farmer were watched and made suspect, your food quality would suffer enormously. It's actually a wonder that cannabis is produced as cleanly and in the high quality that it currently is, a tribute to strong demand of the market, and the dedication and knowledge of those who grow it."As a narcotics unit commander at the front lines of this national crime wave, I cannot bite my tongue and watch as the marijuana legalization groups try to pull one over on the citizens of Iowa and the greater Quad-Cities."Well, that's your problem right there, Officer Endress. Cannabis is NOT a narcotic. Your experience and viewpoint are totally inappropriate to even be commenting on this situation. Since I know very little about police work, maybe I should write an extensive editorial on that subject.Do you think the Quad-Cities Times would publish THAT?I'm guessing not.Sorry to be so extensive in my responses, this one really got me good and angry. Every once and awhile, you just have to answer EVERY lie with the truth.
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Comment #10 posted by The GCW on March 08, 2010 at 01:15:37 PT
Interesting back-room in-sight.
Aurora (Metro Denver) budget woes could put cuffs on police staffinghttp://www.denverpost.com/ci_14631490...according to the police union...which competes with citizen's --- ... budget woes, Aurora has closed libraries and may have to do the same to recreation centers. ???are they also laying off teachers???This seems to be a competion between unions.
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Comment #9 posted by The GCW on March 08, 2010 at 00:34:35 PT
NOT ONLY DOES THIS SOUND REDICULOUS
Imagine if law enforcement organizations also were in the position of deciding who was able to receive pain medications, what religion We believed in, what music We listed to, how We dressed, cut Our hair, what recreation, If We own and carry guns, where We vacationed, eat, who We socialize with and don't, who We discriminate against and don't, etc. etc.I think some of the last people I'd like to have effect the way I live are cops and their unions.And that makes Me wonder why there are so many police types to begin with and who's responsible for that.Down with police. DOWN!Kind of like dogs. They're good when they're well behaived but if they jump on You they're are less acceptable.And that makes Me question how and when that group uses or does not use public reltions ficers. Notice We don't often hear of LEO public relations people making this news. NO, it seems as though maybe it's the ones who want to jump into politics within their own arena. And politics in their twisted circus acts effects the rest of the community. POLICE PECKING ORDER EFFECTS PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF THEIR CORAL - and I don't like that. What if a herd of horse's pecking order effected Our lives?We don't often favor circus people running government, or deciding how We live, why let LEO's and their unions decide how We live? Who gives them that platform and oppertunity?An increasing population is carrying concealed weapons, supposedly to protect themselves from thieves etc. At what point will the public perceive the LEO's are thieves? This gets into the subject of what I believe runruff was eluding too a few days ago; in ways, this is a related topic. It's (realy) all relative.Do police just perceive Us as their whoopi cushion?Can society conduct a research to determine if in fact cops are a product of bad parenting and if so allow society to limit their influence on normal society?Down, boy, down!
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Comment #8 posted by tintala on March 07, 2010 at 19:11:17 PT:
NOW DOESN' T THIS SOUND REDICULOUS
"imagine how much worse it would be if your prescription for oxycontin or hydrocodone allowed you to manufacture your own, manufacture for five other patients, and open up oxycontin and hydrocodone dispensaries on every street corner. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?"Yep because comparing cannabis to narcotics is utterly absurd, pills kills , death by cannabis=0.........nuff said really.
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on March 07, 2010 at 18:23:03 PT
Bad parenting = Chris Endress
I feel as though Chris Endress is an example of bad parenting.
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Comment #6 posted by Paint with light on March 07, 2010 at 18:04:05 PT
What wasn't said
I also wish he had addressed what he sees as the harm in using cannabis.All he did was talk about the supply/demand/criminal injustice triangle.We are winning more hearts and minds each day and they can't stand it.Legal like alcohol.
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Comment #5 posted by runruff on March 07, 2010 at 17:32:57 PT
De coppity cop cop, eh?
Sounds like the desperate screams and pleas of a beaten man to me?He is describing what he perceives as the carnage strewn battlefield of budget battles which he is visibly loosing!He did not bother to go into all the evil and dark social ramifications of the WEED on the loose?The tired old stories of Green Bogeymen under every bed has become too laughable even for their purpose.I see ol' copity cop here as a voice crying out in the budget ravaged wilderness. A hearty diet of locust and honey might be the purge he needs!
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Comment #4 posted by Micheal Byers on March 07, 2010 at 16:45:59 PT
That Endress Jack Ass.....
It's people like this Endress S.O.B. that are the issue he wants money!!!!! some one pay's this prick to do this he should be taken out back and beat with a stick.(piece of s #$%it!)What a loser this guy just wants to rob and steel from people how help others cuz i'm tell'in you man they don't care if you die.don't you know your sick and that makes you a a lawless. SO.... HERE THEY COME WITH THERE GUNS..... jack offs....
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Comment #3 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on March 07, 2010 at 16:37:56 PT
Rev #1 - I'll say it! Endress is a ......
COP!!!
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on March 07, 2010 at 16:10:20 PT
RevRayGreen
You're so sweet. I really mind posting articles like this but I think it's necessary so people can see why it is so frustrating for us since police are taking on a role that the citizens and doctors should only do.I remember we were told police don't make the laws they just enforce them. When did this change? They said if you don't like the law change it.Why won't they just let us do that? It really is getting so obvious why to almost anyone you ask.
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Comment #1 posted by RevRayGreen on March 07, 2010 at 15:49:16 PT
Endress is a
name I cannot post here out of respect to FoM.
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