Vastly improved education of the populace DrugWarRant / Pete Guither / 1,21,2011 Now and then the ignorance of the masses depresses me when I read bizarre comments related to a drug war news item (usually at Yahoo news, for some reason). Yet, on the whole, I am incredibly impressed with the knowledge of commenters at news sites. What a difference from even 5 years ago! This inspires me to optimism. Case in point. Really bad letter in the Springfield, Illinois, State Journal-Register by Dora Dixie, M.D.: Smoking marijuana is not medicine It was full of the kind of nonsense that gets my blood boiling, from someone who is Immediate past president of the Illinois Society of Addiction Medicine in Chicago. I stand with thousands of physicians across our country and around the world who know that smoking marijuana is not medicine. [...] It is apparent that the legislators for legalization of medical marijuana are minimizing the potential harm to public health and safety [...] Is it possible that they are far more interested in the millions of dollars that stand to line pockets and political coffers? People who need alternative therapies for pain relief and other symptoms associated with end-stage illness have plenty of options that don't require them to smoke. Those options should be determined by patients and their reputable health-care providers, not Illinois legislators. [...] I urge more physicians to stand up to the medical-marijuana industry and the drug-legalization movement and to refuse to allow responsible medicine to be compromised by them. I also urge Illinoisans to contact their legislators and insist that they just say no to Rep. Lang and his latest medical marijuana proposal, SB 1381. As I was reading the letter, the obvious retorts were screaming in my brain, and yet.. check out what I found in comments before I even had a chance. Clear. To the point.artie: From the penultimate paragraph, ‘Those options should be determined by patients and their reputable health-care providers, not Illinois legislators.' I agree entirely. Legalize it and let the decision be with patients and their reputable health-care providers, not Illinois legislators. lunarschooner:well, you have a stake in ‘drug' rehabilitation don't you? dg48: Here we have another professional drug warrior who spent over twenty years being part of the problem instead of part of the solution and cannot now ever admit this to herself. It is unfortunate that she would sell so many suffering people down the river just to justify her career choice. MrM: I wonder if Dr. Dixie has actually read the bill. The bill does not allow for a medical marijuana industry. It allows a patient and 1 caregiver to grow their own plants. The number and size of plants is quite limited. The amount of marijuana that the patient and caregiver are allowed to possess is 2 ounces. Where is all of this ‘millions of dollars that stand to line pockets and political coffers' going to come from? Boom. With only about a dozen comments, the visitors had covered vaporizing marijuana as medicine, the hypocrisy of supporting more dangerous prescribed drugs, and more. Nice to see. Good job, “ army†(although it didn't appear to be any of ours directly commenting, the work everyone does feeds into the knowledge base of the citizenry). Onward,thru the fog!!!!!
Nice to see Illinois residents that understand the truth. For some reason I feel like we aren't that far off from MMJ or even legalization, just waiting for that one domino to fall. Great find.
watching all these states go green around NY and cuomo says "we can raise revenue another way" fuck new york
Wow, I never even thought about it. Man, if New York fell to Medical MJ it would be a real short time to federal legalization. OK, Add Texas too, then it would be guaranteed.
What the post is about is the improved knowledge being imparted through all the websites,such as this one,which has improved our responses in all the local papers around the country. It has made it easier to find documented proof (mostly from Federal sources)of the safety,medical efficacy and the unbounded practical applications for the most beneficial plant on this planet,,,,the hemp plant. It is so much better having civil,intelligent responses than the stoned dude hanging on the microphone and slurring out "They should just legalize it man",over and over,which is all the mainstream media will ever show. Our GC community is one of the most viewed marijuana sites on the net and many of those viewers are the very people that need the facts and information furnished by posters and responders to override the propaganda and skewed statistics being pushed down their throats by our government and one of the largest bureaucratic empires in it,the ONDCP and all it's spin-off industries/agencies. They need these facts and proofs so they can reach an intelligent decision the day they get to walk into that voting booth and make their mark and only when the proper "education level" is reached will we be able to take our right to cannabis back from our government. GOOD JOB PEOPLE