cannabisnews.com: MMJ Proposal Debated in Legislative Committee










  MMJ Proposal Debated in Legislative Committee

Posted by CN Staff on November 13, 2007 at 14:29:37 PT
By  Kristin M. Hall, Associated Press Writer 
Source: Associated Press 

Nashville, TN -- Tennessee lawmakers heard testimony today on legalizing the medicinal use of marijuana, although the idea has failed in the General Assembly before and its future is uncertain.A bill sponsored by former state Sen. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, was rejected by a Senate committee last year before being pushed off to a summer study committee.
Members of the House Health and Human Resources Committee heard testimony on a similar bill sponsored by Rep. Sherry Jones, a Nashville Democrat.Opponents of the bill, including law enforcement and family advocates, say current research does not show that marijuana is an effective and safe drug for treating symptoms of chronic illnesses.According to the Marijuana Policy Project, which supports decriminalizing the drug, 26 legislatures are considering similar bills.But William Benson, assistant director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said the bill could present complications for law enforcement because Tennessee is a leading producer of marijuana.Dr. Kent Shih with the Tennessee Oncology Association said marijuana is an impractical drug that does not have sustained effects and cancer patients have other legal medications that are as effective.‘‘I believe there are safer drugs,’’ he said.Opponents such as David Fowler, a former state senator who is president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, said organizations that support the use of medical marijuana could use the legislation to open the door to overall legalization.But Jones, the bill’s sponsor, denied that argument.‘‘This is not about making marijuana legal across the state. This is strictly for medical reasons, only to help people feel better,’’ Jones said. ‘‘Any suggestion that there might be something hidden in the legislation is absurd.’’Jones said that the bill would restrict medical use to terminal patients and the production and distribution of marijuana to those patients would be regulated.Dr. David Murray, chief scientist with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said lawmakers shouldn’t sidestep the Food and Drug Administration, which has safeguards in place to ensure safe and effective medications.‘‘My concern is we’re doing more harm than good with these measures,’’ he said.Nathan Miller, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, said 12 states now have medical marijuana laws and said there is no evidence that it sends the wrong message to young people.Miller said studies of 11 states with medical marijuana laws showed that all but one had a decrease in marijuana use by teenagers. Federal reports indicate marijuana use by teenagers has decreased nationwide in recent years.The committee also heard testimony from Bernie Ellis, who is currently serving federal probation for growing marijuana after his Maury County farm was raided in 2002.Ellis, who has a public health background, said marijuana was once a major component of medicine before its prohibition and shared testimonials from cancer and AIDS/HIV patients who said marijuana helped them control nausea, increase appetite and ease pain.‘‘We would not be here urging you to make medical marijuana legal again in the state if it were not safe and effective,’’ Ellis said.Jones said she was not sure where the bill would go after the study committee but was open to input on changes that would make the bill more likely to advance for consideration in next year’s session. Source: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Kristin M. Hall, Associated Press WriterPublished: November 13, 2007Copyright: 2007 Associated Press Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml

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Comment #18 posted by Hope on November 14, 2007 at 07:08:15 PT

Thanks, Yanxor.
They build "walls" that can't be passed through, under, over, or around. They say, "Look, there's an impassable wall, the "esteemed" FDA. You can't get past that."They started off with a pretty good structure...then shored it up with rotten wood ever since... lies, graft, deceptions, equivocations, foul conspiracies, greed, and untruths. History is fraught with tumbling and crumbling walls.This one doesn't have to be marched around for seven days, or trumpets blown. This rotten FDA "wall" is doing a pretty good job of crumbling from within, on it's own.
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Comment #17 posted by OverwhelmSam on November 14, 2007 at 06:53:49 PT

Damgerous?
Pundits are quick to point out how dangerous marijuana is, but I have yet to see the anti-marijuana pundits explain how marijuana is dangerous and why other drugs are safer. 
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Comment #16 posted by Yanxor on November 14, 2007 at 05:46:37 PT

Comment #11 - You're right hope
According to Wiki - "Before the 1990s, the FDA was funded solely by appropriations from the federal government. In response to a variety of issues, Congress adopted various laws in the 1990s that imposed a fee on entities that applied for FDA approval of a drug, biologic or medical device.""To test a new drug experimentally in humans, a sponsor must first file Investigational New Drug Application (IND). The sponsor must show it has learned enough about the drug from animal and laboratory studies to give the drug safely to healthy volunteers. An IND is automatically approved unless the FDA objects. After an initial IND filing, a sponsor must submit annual reports, scientific reports about every study conducted and reports of adverse events.""The FDA initial review of an NDA also includes a chemical assessment of the drug molecule. The sponsor must demonstrate a capacity to manufacture and package the drug at the specified potency without contamination or impurities and the with specified chemical characteristics."So, in short, the FDA is geared very specifically towards review of pharmaceutically supported drugs. The standards make it obvious why cannabis has not been approaved by the FDA:1. No company is willing to spend millions of dollars to get approval for a medication that any average joe can grow in his backyard. 2. No company is able to spend millions of dollars giving the drug to animals because it is controlled by the government and very tightly dispensed to scientific entities.3. The very nature of cannabis being an herb, means that it will have different amounts of chemicals in different proportions, which excludes it from FDA approval. The only thing that the FDA will approve is some sort of standarnized ratio of chemicals (difficult for plants, easy for pills).Therefore it is thoroughly important to side-step the FDA on this issue. Or if not side-step, then heavily rework FDA policies just for this issue.
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Comment #15 posted by afterburner on November 13, 2007 at 22:19:14 PT

FoM #1
"The committee also heard testimony from Steven Steiner, who said he has been impacted personally by the loss of a child to drug abuse." Ah, yes, Steven Steiner again, the founder of DAMMADD.Comment #29 posted by FoM on June 29, 2005 at 12:54:18 PT. 
Richard Cowan Asked Me To Post This For Him [press release from Steven Steiner of Dads and Mad Moms Against Drug Dealers]. 
IN Beyond The Myth, There's Relief for The Pain. 
Posted by CN Staff on June 28, 2005 at 22:49:07 PT.
By Bob Kerr. 
Source: Providence Journal 
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/20/thread20916.shtml#29Excerpt: { DAMMADD was founded by a couple who lost their son to an overdose of a "prescription drug", but somehow they are fanatically opposed to medical cannabis, and fanatically supportive of the prohibition that failed to protect their son. }
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Comment #14 posted by runruff on November 13, 2007 at 20:32:08 PT:

The FDA!!!!!
You can go back into the ol' 20th century and have a look.
The FDA was created for the drug companies by the drug companies to protect the drug companies. Give me a break! The FDA doesn't even have a research lab of their own. They Pharm out their research to the drug companies. The head of the FDA is selected for his service and loyalty to the pham industry. Are these people just stupid or do they expect us to be? Actually up untill now it hasn't mattered much, has it? When an industry spends 167 million in congress every two years they will have their way public be damned! Right.These rusty old mouthpieces in Tenn. are spewing the same old tired rhetoric with logic and reason full of holes.
Of course that old piece horses behind is on the take! 
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Comment #13 posted by dankhank on November 13, 2007 at 19:21:04 PT

these ...
Thalidomide, Baycol, Vioxx, Fen-Phenany more i missed?
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Comment #12 posted by mayan on November 13, 2007 at 18:22:24 PT

Safer Drugs???
Dr. Kent Shih with the Tennessee Oncology Association said marijuana is an impractical drug that does not have sustained effects and cancer patients have other legal medications that are as effective.‘‘I believe there are safer drugs,’’ he said.Safer drugs? I would really like to know what they are! It wouldn't surprise me if Dr. Shih was in bed with a drug-rep (former cheerleader) this very moment.Some frightening news..."Drug War" Puts Blackwater Back in the Running: 
http://infowars.com/articles/ps/blackwater_drugwar_puts_blackwater_back_in_the_running.htmTHE WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN...BBC To Apologize For 9/11 Truth Hit Piece?
http://infowars.com/articles/sept11/bbc_hit_piece_bbc_to_appologize.htmRepublic Magazine Covers WeAreChange:
http://911blogger.com/node/12523Richard Gage to Be Interviewed on Two Arizona Radio Stations:
http://911blogger.com/node/125209/11 Truth for Dummies:
http://infowars.net/articles/november2007/121107pers.htm9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB - OUR NATION IS IN PERIL:
http://www.911sharethetruth.com/
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on November 13, 2007 at 17:55:06 PT

God and the FDA
"...lawmakers shouldn’t sidestep the Food and Drug Administration, which has safeguards in place to ensure safe and effective medications."Ensure "safe and effective" medications? "Safeguards" that didn't catch Vioxx, and what else? FDA needs to "approve" of an herb that has been used for thousands of years by humans, and virtually every creature that will eat seeds and plants? Who is going to pay for all that "FDA Approval"? God, the Inventor and Creator of cannabis? Right. I'm sure He'll get a check in the mail right away. He really wants that FDA Approval."Approval" by the FDA probably doesn't happen without cost. Somebody, somewhere has got to pay some money to someone for some sort of fee and paper passing episode. Somebody has to pay somebody for it. The longer it can be dragged out and running the gamuts of a bureaucracy, the more people will get paid and the more money "generated".
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on November 13, 2007 at 17:20:25 PT

Hope
They also had a steroid in the drops. He was angry and cranky even when I wasn't putting drops in his eyes. We thought we were going to have to have him castrated. Now he is sweet. All he wants us to do is pet him. Lucky for him too! LOL!
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Comment #9 posted by The GCW on November 13, 2007 at 16:58:34 PT

This publication has the story.
The Jackson Sunhttp://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071113/NEWS01/71113017Medical marijuana proposal debated in legislative committeeBy KRISTIN M. HALL
Associated Press Writer
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on November 13, 2007 at 16:55:55 PT

Rott's eyes
I bet they burned and made him have abnormal eye misery and you were the one doing it to him, too.My mother's glaucoma medicine makes her eyes, and around her eyes, look awful and miserable and she says it is miserable.
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on November 13, 2007 at 16:43:22 PT

Hope
My son's grandmother said to me one time that she was sorry that her generation thought that pharmaceuticals would be the answer for my generation. She was a nurse and saw the damage done by legal drugs. She takes her dogs to a Vet that uses natural medicine now or at least when I talked to her last which was years ago. She couldn't keep her dogs alive for very long. She has healthy dogs which are much healthier after she gave up drugs for them everytime the vet said they needed some. She sadly said that we bought into a lie. She is a tough lady and always scared me so when she was so strong in her comment I listened.PS: Remember when my Rott bite me? He was on eye drops for a condition the Vet said would cause him to go blind and he needed the medicine for the rest of his life. When I stopped this medicine he became nice again and has never attempted to bite me since that time. He is up in years and is healthy for a big dog that must weigh 175 pounds now. He really is a big pony! LOL!
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Comment #6 posted by The GCW on November 13, 2007 at 16:37:46 PT

What kind of people is Fowler?
Fowler is the one doing the manipulating.I think Fowler and the Family Action Council of Tennessee is worse than an idiot.He doesn't speak for My family.What kind of people support persecuting, prohibiting and exterminating what God says is good on the very 1st page of the Bible?-see: Gen 1:11-12 & 29-30. 

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Comment #5 posted by Hope on November 13, 2007 at 16:14:57 PT

On what scale of safety?
"‘‘I believe there are safer drugs,’’ he said."I believe he, Dr. Kent Shih, a medical doctor, believes wrong, and it's a shame, in so many ways, that he believes something like that. Another guy mentions that Medical Marijuana's great fault is that it does not offer "sustained" relief. I guess he means like, the forty five minute or hour, or so, of relief that one or two bits of cannabis, tea, cooked cannabis, inhaling vapor, or smoke, which of course can be "sustained" very well by re-upping in forty five minutes to an hour, as compared to the three or four hour relief, or promises of a blessed twelve hours of relief, often available in liver killing and stomach devastating legally available medications? 
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on November 13, 2007 at 15:56:44 PT

"Why?", indeed.
"Mr. Fowler said, "Approval of a narcotic by legislative processes is highly irregular and we must ask ourselves why, if this is such good ’medicine,’ the FDA has not approved its use as it has with other drugs or why the American Medical Association does not support its use.”"
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on November 13, 2007 at 15:46:41 PT

Hope
Yes they are that paranoid. 
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on November 13, 2007 at 15:38:43 PT

Can they really be that paranoid?
"Nor can we allow that compassion to be manipulated by those who have, as their ultimate agenda, the legalization of marijuana and even other drugs.”
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on November 13, 2007 at 14:32:43 PT

Related Article from Chattanoogan.com 
Fowler Witnesses Testify Against Marijuana For Medicinal PurposesNovember 13, 2007Members of the House Health and Human Services Committee of the Tennessee House of Representatives on Tuesday heard testimony opposed to the legalization of marijuana for “medicinal” purposes from Dr. David Murray, chief scientist for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President, and Dr. Kent Shih, an oncologist currently practicing in the Nashville area. The committee also heard testimony from Steven Steiner, who said he has been impacted personally by the loss of a child to drug abuse. The Family Action Council of Tennessee, that is headed by former Chattanoogan David Fowler, secured the presence of the three witnesses.The committee met to study and make a proposal regarding HB0486 (the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes) sponsored by Rep. Sherry Jones (D-Nashville). “We appreciate the willingness of these individuals to come, at their own expense, to educate the Committee members about what is really at stake in the debate over ‘medical marijuana,’” said Mr. Fowler, president of the Family Action Council and a former state senator. “Having seen my own mother suffer and die from cancer, I know how much we all desire to see relief for those we love. But we cannot allow the compassion of the average American to overcome good science and good medicine. Nor can we allow that compassion to be manipulated by those who have, as their ultimate agenda, the legalization of marijuana and even other drugs.” Mr. Fowler said, "Approval of a narcotic by legislative processes is highly irregular and we must ask ourselves why, if this is such good ’medicine,’ the FDA has not approved its use as it has with other drugs or why the American Medical Association does not support its use.” Mr. Fowler also said the bill "would inevitably lead to increased public consumption of marijuana and make a mockery of our criminal drug laws. What has been observed in other states is that marijuana distribution becomes uncontrollable in society at large even when it is restricted to ‘medicinal uses.’ With an individual able to produce up to 13,000 joints per year under this bill, it is naïve to think that those joints won’t wind up in the wrong hands.” Mr. Fowler also predicted that enforcement of the criminal law regarding marijuana will become impracticable. “In North Hollywood, there are now more medical pot clubs than there are Starbucks. In fact, the co-founder of the California medical pot referendum has now said that most of the medical pot dispensaries in California are ‘little more than dope dealers with store fronts.’”Copyright: 2007 Site designed and copyrighted by Three HDhttp://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_116958.asp

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