TX: Understanding marijuana advocates 03,29,2010 With all the activity and news articles that are being written by marijuana advocates and proponents,the motives of the advocates are questioned by everyone that is not familiar with the drive that makes people volunteer their own time and energy,the majority,without pay and often causing shunning and treatment as a second class citizen by some of their co-workers and acquaintances. Too understand their anger and fervor,you have to understand the cause. And for that,you should start where the anger started to build. Marijuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding - Table of Contents The above link is the study requested by President Nixon and congress,and paid for with our tax dollars. Instead of following the recommendations of the most thourough study ever done on marijuana's harm and impact on society if legalized,Nixon threw it in the trash and declared the war on drugs. Keep in mind that the studies were done using the most advanced scientific methods of the day. And the anger starts to build. In 1974,the National Institute Of Drug Abuse was created for the strategic support and conduct of research across a broad range of disciplines. The second is ensuring the rapid and effective dissemination and use of the results of that research to significantly improve prevention, treatment and policy as it relates to drug abuse and addiction. Their agenda has never been to search for possible medical applications of any drugs,only the harms. And any of the hundreds of studies they have approved for searching for harm from marijuana that found medical applications for marijuana were discounted and ignored,except that the research turned up enough evidence,that the federal government took out patents on some of the chemical compounds and elements in marijuana,as a medicine. And the federal government set up a medical program involving approximately 70 or 80 patients,mostly for the treatment of glaucoma,furnishing the medicine for the patients,and that program is still active. So when the drug czar stands up in front of America and proclaims that smoked marijuana is not medicine,the anger builds. http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/nylawyer.htm The above link is to the official publication of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, will include a recently released report by the Association's Special Committee on Drugs and the Law. The report is entitled "A Wiser Course: Ending Drug Prohibition" finished in 1994 and ignored by our lawmakers. And the anger builds. http://www.druglibrary.org/olsen/MEDICAL/YOUNG/young1.html The above is the record of a federal courts review and research of marijuana as a medicine in making a decision on whether marijuana should be removed from schedule 1, which states that the drug has no medical applications. The following are excerpts from the hearings: 3. The most obvious concern when dealing with drug safety is the possibility of lethal effects. Can the drug cause death? 4. Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality. 11. A commonly used over-the-counter product like aspirin has a therapeutic ratio of around 1:20. Two aspirins are the recommended dose for adult patients. Twenty times this dose, forty aspirins, may cause a lethal reaction in some patients, and will almost certainly cause gross injury to the digestive system, including extensive internal bleeding. 12. The therapeutic ratio for prescribed drugs is commonly around 1:10 or lower. Valium, a commonly used prescriptive drug, may cause very serious biological damage if patients use ten times the recommended (therapeutic) dose. 13. There are, of course, prescriptive drugs which have much lower therapeutic ratios. Many of the drugs used to treat patients with cancer, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis are highly toxic. The therapeutic ratio of some of the drugs used in anti-neoplastic therapies,for example, are regarded as extremely toxic poisons with therapeutic ratios that may fall below 1:1.5. These drugs also have very low LD-50ratios and can result in toxic, even lethal reactions, while being properly employed. 14. By contrast, marijuana's therapeutic ratio, like its LD-50,is impossible to quantify because it is so high. 15. In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating ten raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. 16. Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest 11. A commonly used over-the-counter product like aspirin has a therapeutic ratio of around 1:20. Two aspirins are the recommended dose for adult patients. Twenty times this dose, forty aspirins, may cause a lethal reaction in some patients, and will almost certainly cause gross injury to the digestive system, including extensive internal bleeding. 12. The therapeutic ratio for prescribed drugs is commonly around 1:10 or lower. Valium, a commonly used prescriptive drug, may cause very serious biological damage if patients use ten times the recommended (therapeutic) dose. 13. There are, of course, prescriptive drugs which have much lower therapeutic ratios. Many of the drugs used to treat patients with cancer, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis are highly toxic. The therapeutic ratio of some of the drugs used in anti-neoplastic therapies, for example, are regarded as extremely toxic poisons with therapeutic ratios that may fall below 1:1.5. These drugs also have very low LD-50 ratios and can result in toxic, even lethal reactions, while being properly employed. 14. By contrast, marijuana's therapeutic ratio, like its LD-50, is impossible to quantify because it is so high. 15. In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating ten raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. 16. Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care. Based upon the facts established in this record and set out above one must reasonably conclude that there is accepted safety for use of marijuana under medical supervision. To conclude otherwise, on this record, would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious. The administrative law judge recommends that the Administrator conclude that the marijuana plant considered as a whole has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, that there is no lack of accepted safety for use of it under medical supervision and that it may lawfully be transferred from Schedule I to Schedule II. The judge recommends that the Administrator transfer marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II. And the DEA administrator ignored the court,and the anger builds. http://www.druglibrary.org/SCHAFFER/library/studies/iom/IOMReport.htm The above is the link to the Institute of Medicine's research of marijuana as a medicine,requested by congress. Excerpt: Recommendation 1: Research should continue into the physiological effects of synthetic and plant-derived cannabinoids and the natural function of cannabinoids found in the body. Because different cannabinoids appear to have different effects, cannabinoid research should include, but not be restricted to effects attributable to THC alone. The accumulated data indicate a potential therapeutic value for cannabinoid drugs, particularly for symptoms such as pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation. The therapeutic effects of cannabinoids are best established for THC, which is generally one of the two most abundant of the cannabinoids in marijuana. (Cannabidiol, the precursor of THC, is generally the other most abundant cannabinoid.) Even though the report showed that marijuana has possible therapeutic value,our legislators ignored the study and refused to move marijuana from schedule 1,and the anger builds. Every study requested by congress of marijuana has recommended that marijuana be removed from schedule 1,and they have ignored them,the anger builds. The AMA,one of America's oldest and most respected association's of medical doctors recently recommended that marijuana be removed from schedule1 so that clinical trials and research of marijuana could be done. And our lawmakers ignore them,the anger builds. http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/CMCR_REPORT_FEB17.pdf The above is a link to the recently completed clinical studies of smoked marijuana as a medicine. They were performed under the same procedures and methods required by the FDA for approval of any medicine. They gave scientific proof that smoked marijuana was an effective and safe medication, The studies were approved by the DEA and the NIDA,and all the marijuana used in the studies was furnished by the NIDA,as per federal regulations. Upon receipt of the studies,the Administrator of the ONDCP responded that he had issues with the studies. No explanation of what those issues are has been made public yet,and the anger builds. Which brings us to where we are now. A nation that has spent over a trillion dollars since Nixon threw the science in the trash and declared war on America. And the very large majority of those tax dollars was spent enforcing the laws against marijuana and hundreds of harm studies of marijuana. No other plant on Earth has been researched and tested as thoroughly as marijuana. The NIDA has given up on finding any significant harm or addiction level of organic marijuana and has resorted to isolating chemical compounds found in marijuana for their harm studies,which,if the same technique is applied to any substance,will result in possible harm to humans,and the anger builds. At a recent speaking engagement in CA,while speaking to the Ca Chief of Police Assc,the drug czar's only scientifically proven harm from marijuana that he used in his pep talk to fellow law enforcement was that marijuana causes dependence. Dependence is "I need". A person that can't start their day without a cup of coffee,has a dependence, and caffeine causes a stronger "dependence" than marijuana does. People form dependence on many things in their life and yet,it is such a dangerous thing that it is what he relies on as justification that marijuana needs to stay prohibited,and the anger builds. The insanity of this war on marijuana needs to be ended. The spending of billions of tax dollars fighting a plant that can grow anywhere needs to be ended. And if the ONDCP or the DEA were working in the private sector,where performance and achievement is judged,they would be job hunting,because there is more marijuana available and more people using marijuana than ever,but they work for a bureaucratic empire that only has to ask politicians for funding that are either bought and paid for by special interest groups or are scared to ask the right questions or refuse the funding because they will be judged soft on crime,and the anger builds.