cannabisnews.com: Timid Politicians in Smokescreen of Med Marijuana
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Timid Politicians in Smokescreen of Med Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on January 07, 2010 at 05:47:40 PT
By Burt Constable, Daily Herald Columnist
Source: Daily Herald
Illinois -- Activists in Illinois have been fighting for years, even decades, to add marijuana to the arsenal of drugs available to help sick people. Considering that optimism for medical marijuana has been high every year since Richard Nixon was president, supporters need short-term memory loss just to give them the strength to continue banging their heads against the wall."It's like the 'Groundhog Day' movie," says Dan Linn, the 27-year-old Lake County native who serves as executive director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML). "Every legislative session the bill gets introduced and doesn't do anything."
There is an easy explanation for that."I have to say it's just good, old-fashioned political fear," says state Rep. Lou Lang, the Skokie Democrat who is sponsoring the latest medical marijuana bill in the House. "It's all about politics. It's all about fear. It's all about living in the past."When politicians tell Lang that they support the idea of legalizing marijuana for sick people but don't want to vote for it because "people will think I'm soft on crime," Lang responds, "What crime?""This isn't about drugs," says Lang, who adds that he's never smoked pot. "This is about health care."Sponsoring the medical marijuana bill in the Senate is grandfather and Vietnam veteran William R. Haine, an Alton Democrat who served 14 years as Madison County's state's attorney. Even straight-laced Republican governor candidate Jim Ryan, who used to be the state's top law enforcement official, recently told The Associated Press that he could support marijuana for sick people who meet strict legal requirements.A legal way to use marijuana would be welcome for Lisa Lange, a 54-year-old Lindenhurst mom who admits to being "a criminal" now. She uses marijuana to treat the muscle and bone ills she suffers from arthritis, joint replacements, spine fusions and the pain from tumors caused by Dercum's disease.When Lange lobbied publicly for the pot she smokes in secret, her two kids, 18 and 23, "were shocked," Lange says. "I never do it in front of the kids."Saying that she's responding to the "demonization" of pot, Lange notes that she keeps her marijuana locked in a safe. "But I don't lock up any of my other medicines," adds Lang, who credits marijuana for weaning her off narcotic painkillers and anti-depressants with serious side effects."I'm in better shape now than I've probably been in the last 25 or 30 years, and cannabis has a great deal to do with this," Lange says. "Cannabis is helping me regain my life."Even if marijuana can help some people, it simply is too dangerous to be allowed as a medication, counters Judy Kreamer, 65, president of Educating Voices, a Naperville-based group that aims to help people "avoid the dangers and destruction of drugs through drug education, research, technical assistance, networking and Pray for the Children Drug-Free and Safe effort."I think Kreamer, a Naperville grandmother, falls prey to unrealistic fears when she e-mails me stories supporting her assertions that medical marijuana would lead to growers causing deadly fires and mold, lowered property values and might even result in Mexican drug cartels using guns to break into suburban homes.But Kreamer is correct about marijuana being more potent today and not going through the government-mandated screenings that FDA-approved drugs do. She's right about pot causing problems for some users, especially kids and teens. She's even right in her insistence that some people might abuse legal marijuana in the same way that some people currently obtain fraudulent prescriptions or otherwise bypass the laws for other legal drugs.But banning marijuana from the assortment of drugs available for sick people obviously hasn't kept pot away from kids and other users now, Lang argues. The current law just punishes law-abiding sick people."If it's OK with the doctor and OK with the patient, legislators should respect that doctor-patient relationship," Linn says. "Republicans from the collar counties who support minimal government, the medical marijuana bill fits right into that."Thirteen states allow medical marijuana now, another dozen have bills pending, and the U.S. attorney now discourages prosecutors from going after state-legal pot retailers. In November, the American Medical Association asked the federal government to reconsider the position of marijuana as a schedule one narcotic with "no accepted medical use."Lang points to polls that show 68 percent of Illinois residents support medical marijuana. When it comes to society's view of pot, the times they are a-changin'. If he can just lock up the votes, Lang says this might be the year Illinois changes, too.Source: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)Author: Burt Constable, Daily Herald ColumnistPublished: January 7, 2010Copyright: 2010 The Daily Herald CompanyContact: fencepost dailyherald.comWebsite: http://www.dailyherald.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/jbhIcSHlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on January 07, 2010 at 16:24:40 PT:
I practice what I preach
I just used the link to contact the paper. Let's see if Mr. Constable has the journalistic stones to follow through.
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Comment #8 posted by kaptinemo on January 07, 2010 at 16:04:26 PT:
Educating Voices is led by none other than the
former Number Two at the ONDCP, "Dr." Andrea Barthwell, who made a living off of the people's hard-earned taxpayer dollars lying to the public about how cannabis had no medicinal value.That is, she claimed it had no medicinal value whatsoever, calling it a 'cruel hoax'...until she left Gub'mint 'service' and took a position with GW Pharmaceuticals, which is trying to market a liquified cannabis extract spray called Sativex.Once she joined GWP, her tune changed; only 'smoked cannabis' had no medicinal value. Her company's cannabis magically did, of course...and only her company's.These prohibs have absolutely no shame, being inveterate liars and hypocrites. They use an astroturf group such as 'Educating Voices' to continue to spread ignorance and lies about cannabis while quietly hoping to monopolize the coming cannabis medicine industry...and supporting laws that make criminals of their expected future customers.Someone should inform Mr. Constable of "Dr." Barthwell's volteface on cannabis actually having medicinal value came after becoming a GW Pharma employee (and almost simultaneously setting up 'Educating Voices' to act as a smoke screen). Such blatant, in-your-face mendacity and hypocrisy is tender red, dripping meat just begging for a journalistic carving knife.
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Comment #7 posted by Storm Crow on January 07, 2010 at 14:07:51 PT
Don't know how many it would take........
To save one child from a life of drug abuse after using cannabis, but there WAS a study about how many cannabis users you'd have to prevent from using to prevent one case of schizophrenia - they called it the "number needed to prevent" or the NNP". Of course, the number varied among the sexes and ages, but here's the slightly cleaned up results(I just removed the "confidence interval" of 90% for each category to make it easier to read).Results- In men the annual mean NNP for heavy cannabis and schizophrenia ranged from 2800 in those aged 20-24 years to 4700 in those aged 35-39. In women, mean NNP for heavy cannabis use and schizophrenia ranged from 5470 in those aged 25-29 to 10,870 in 35-39-year-olds. Equivalent mean NNP for heavy cannabis use and psychosis were lower, from 1360 (90% CI 1007-2124) in men aged 20-24 and 2480 (90% CI 1408-3518) in women aged 16-19. The mean and median number of light cannabis users that would need to be prevented in order to prevent one case of schizophrenia or psychosis per year are four to five times greater than among heavy users."from "If cannabis caused schizophrenia-how many cannabis users may need to be prevented in order to prevent one case of schizophrenia? England and Wales calculations." (which is in my new update of my list-Granny Storm Crow's MMJ Reference list" - It is up at "Grass City" and "International Cannagraphic" and is going up at more sites today).
 
So according to the study, we'd need to prevent roughly between 1,500 to 10,000 people from using cannabis to prevent ONE single case of schizophrenia! I just wonder if the numbers are similar between preventing schizophrenia and preventing drug addiction? Wouldn't surprise me at all! Poor prohibs, their lies are falling all around them! Soon, they will have nothing to hide behind and the light of truth will fall on them. Will they like what they see when they finally look at themselves? Liars, home-wreckers, enslavers and de facto murderers, every one, and all over the use of a safe medicinal herb! 
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on January 07, 2010 at 11:18:13 PT
Kreamer
The problem with people like Kreamer... How many real children are they allowed to cause the death of to save that one mythical, imaginary child from a life of drug abuse?
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on January 07, 2010 at 11:14:42 PT
using guns to break into suburban homes
Hmmm?Like SWAT teams? For evidence of a narcotics crime?
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on January 07, 2010 at 11:08:56 PT
using guns to break into suburban homes
Hmmm?Like SWAT teams? 
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Comment #3 posted by HempWorld on January 07, 2010 at 08:11:54 PT
Lol
"supporters need short-term memory loss just to give them the strength to continue banging their heads against the wall""Republicans from the collar counties who support minimal government"Yeah, but somehow they turn into fascists when it comes to marijuana, medical or not!
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Comment #2 posted by runruff on January 07, 2010 at 07:04:49 PT
Lang responds, "What crime?"
What crime indeed?This is the most important judicial question of the new millenium!
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Comment #1 posted by runruff on January 07, 2010 at 07:00:28 PT
Decrepit of mind?-I rest my case!
"it simply is too dangerous to be allowed as a medication, counters Judy Kreamer, 65," 
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