Who says marijuana is good medicine?
Alex Romero
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TrentOs posted at 3:46 pm on Tue, Aug 17, 2010.
Wow full of BS. What proof you have that teenage pot use or marijuana traffic accidents are on the rise? Seeing how you don't have any sources we can all assume you made it up. The best laugh had to come from your endorsment of cocain. Wow really? Pot is horrible and isn't medicine, but hey coke is a great alround drug huh? People please vote for prop 203. Don't listen to morons like this who collect a salary by preaching the same refer madness from the 50's. Want the real truth just google medical marijuana and read the tons of info for it. While your at it you might aswell read the handful of sites against it. We all need a laugh after all.
AZJeep78 posted at 4:19 pm on Tue, Aug 17, 2010.
The FDA has the gold Standard? So why is it they have all those disclaimers on every drug commercial? If they have a gold stamp shouldn't they be perfectly safe? It only take money to get a drug passed through the FDA, God created Marijuana that's the highest standard I know! It's been time tested to be safe and beneficial for a multitude of uses. If you actually want to find some non-biased information(unlike this article) read the book by Lester Grinspoon M.D. called Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine. That book helped me see that pot was a better option than Vicodin, Celebrex and anti-inflammatories that doctors were pumping me full of. I experienced much better results and I don't fear the long term side effects. All you have to do is open your eyes, it's real easy.[beam]
Accuracy posted at 5:17 pm on Tue, Aug 17, 2010.
TrentOs posted: “Want the real truth just google medical marijuana and read the tons of info for it.”
-------------------------------------
And while you are at it, to be aware of all the dangers of marijuana and all of the provisions of Proposition 203, click on:
http://keepazdrugfree.com/
The initiative called the “Arizona Medical Marijuana Act” will be on the Ballot this November.
California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996. Since then, 13 other states have followed California's lead to allow marijuana for medical use – Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
Advocates say marijuana is effective in treating chronic pain and nausea, and many other ailments.
Marijuana is a narcotic. Like any drug, marijuana is not a harmless substance.
Side effects associated with usage of marijuana may include increased heart rate, decreased blood pressure and dizziness.
Buzzby posted at 6:18 pm on Tue, Aug 17, 2010.
Who says marijuana is good medicine? 5,000 years of recorded history! That's at least how long marijuana has been used medicinally. Queen Victoria used it for menstrual cramps. It was the main component of many OTC remedies in the US during the late 19th and early 20th century.
Marijuana was not banned because it was harmful. It was banned because of racism against Mexicans and Blacks and the greed of corporate robber barons who feared competition from hemp fiber, which had just been made inexpensive by new technology.
By any standard you can name, marijuana is a far safer recreational drug than alcohol or tobacco. Between them, they kill more than half a million Americans every year. Two thousand Americans die every year from aspirin. In 5,000 years, marijuana has not caused a single fatality.
There is no good reason that marijuana should not be legal both for medicinal and recreational purposes.
svBackstreets posted at 7:10 pm on Tue, Aug 17, 2010.
You said:" With pot, what they found is that the medical benefits don’t outweigh its negative effects"
What negative effects are those? You state a number of supposed factts and give no citations.
As a retired California probation officer who specialized for twenty years with caseloads of alcohol and drug abusing probationers I support legalization of marijuana.
What is almost never mentioned is that many people use "medical marijuana" as a "drug" to help them abstain from alcohol which is destroying their marriages, carreers and lives generally.
Have a heart. Even if most medical marijuana patients are gaming the system, there is absolutely no doubt a lot of desperate peole will be helped. Often marijuana will be used as a substitute for prescribed drugs with serious side effects. I think you may be letting "business" interests cloud your judgement on this issue.
svBackstreets posted at 7:25 pm on Tue, Aug 17, 2010.
Accuracy, you said: Side effects associated with usage of marijuana may include increased heart rate, decreased blood pressure and dizziness.
Desreased blood pressure? Isn't that a good thing?
Want to outlaw ibuprofen?
SIDE EFFECTS: The most common side effects from ibuprofen are rash, ringing in the ears, headaches, dizziness, drowsiness, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, constipation and heartburn. NSAIDs reduce the ability of blood to clot and therefore increase bleeding after an injury. Ibuprofen may cause ulceration of the stomach or intestine, and the ulcers may bleed. Sometimes, ulceration can occur without abdominal pain, and black, tarry stools, weakness, and dizziness upon standing (orthostatic hypotension) due to bleeding may be the only signs of an ulcer. NSAIDs reduce the flow of blood to the kidneys and impair function of the kidneys. The impairment is most likely to occur in patients who already have impaired function of the kidney or congestive heart failure, and use of NSAIDs in these patients should be cautious. People who are allergic to other NSAIDs, including aspirin, should not use ibuprofen. Individuals with asthma are more likely to experience allergic reactions to ibuprofen and other NSAIDs. Fluid retention (edema), blood clots, heart attacks, hypertension and heart failure have also been associated with the use of NSAIDs.
buckeye1 posted at 8:48 pm on Tue, Aug 17, 2010.
Here's a few
The Institute of Medicine, The American Medical Association, Our own National congressional research committee, The New England Journal of Medicine, The American Academy of Family Physicians, American Nurses Association, American Public health Association, British Health Association along with about 100 other state and national health orgainzations.
By the way mas kudos to the East valley Tribune for having an "unbiased" journalist like the cofounder of Arizonians for a drug free youth doing your "story" about marijuana. How about jane Hamsher or neil franklin or Keith Stroup next week so we can have the other side of the stroy. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves for this blatent attempt at biased journalism. He's no journalist and he doesn't deserve one more line of your newspaper
And while he's quoting the American cancer society, the American glaucoma society and the national multiple schlerois society about their stance he should also tell you that all three of those organizations support further research on cannabis and its effects on those illnesses. It's just more Nancy Reagan just say no rhetoric that has been shown to have little to no effect on drug usage and in some cases has shown to have negative consequences.
buckeye1 posted at 9:03 pm on Tue, Aug 17, 2010.
P.S. If Alex is so concerned about the youth of Arizona getting drugs maybe he should look into the majority of studies that have shown that the prohibiton of marijuana has made it easier for kids to get weed than it is to get cigarettes or alcohol.
Keep pretending that Just Say No works. Our kids depend on it
JBinAZ posted at 11:02 pm on Tue, Aug 17, 2010.
buckeye, this article is labeled a commentary -- meaning it is someone's opinion, not an unbiased news story. That would be why it's in the "opinion" section. Get it?
smarshall posted at 7:18 am on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
Who would you rather believe, your physician or a spokesperson for the Arizonans for Drug Free Youth.
What most people don't realize is the the Partnership for a Drug Free America is funded by tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical, and petroleum companies because they realize that hemp and cannabis can replace most of their products have a severe impact on their profits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cefoV_A878&playnext=1&videos=wbz458GESTE
Good try Alex J Romero, if you're ever in California I'll buy you a beer.....you do drink right?
buckeye1 posted at 9:36 am on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
Yes I understand it is opinion, but when you have people putting untrue information, people are going to read it as fact. I had more fsctual information in my reply than he did in his entire "commentary"
fine.......kudos to the east lake Tribune for putting an unbiased "commententary/opinion" like the cofounder of the Arizona for a drug free youth on here to spread some more Reaganesque Just say now lies to the American people
Now since I did a rebuttal, why dont you guys ask him for one
TrentOs posted at 10:58 am on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
Like another poster stated. Marijuana is so easy for our kids to get. We spend billions on this war on drugs but I can assure you, if you go 2 miles in any direction from where you are currently at you can find any drug you can imagin. Your kids can too! When I was in highschool. I could not get smokes or beer. Why? I wasn't old enough. Marijuana on the other hand was being sold by my class mates. I could buy any drug I wanted why? Simple drug dealers don't card. The only way to keep kids off of drugs is to tax and regulate. Its that easy. Its working for tobacco and alcohol. Why wouldn't it work with pot. That's why I'm in favor for California's prop to legalize weed for 21 and older adults. That's the only way to stop kids from getting high. If you want to keep MJ illegal then you are for our children smoking pot. Plain and simple.
TheBigCannabisLie posted at 12:10 pm on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
No surprise to discover the writer of this classic propaganda, Alex Romero, was (and maybe still is) a board member of Drug Watch International, a shameless mouthpiece of the DEA and the ONDCP that uses fear mongering and blatant lies (statistical sleight of hand) to block access to and obscure the truth about medical cannabis, one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man (since it is part of the ONDCP'S and DEA's mission to block any access to cannabis, including medical access, they regularly use their misguided or ethically-challenged members to disseminate blatant lies...When called on their lies, the liars just move to the next media source and spread the same lies, over and over again. While it is the right of the media to allow for opinion pieces, allowing blatant lies to be spread is antithetical to sound journalism).
Given 75-80 percent of Americans support access to medical cannabis, the FED's continued attempts to block medical access to cannabis are flouting the will of the people and depriving them of safe medical options.
The real momentum behind medical cannabis -- and the inevitability of cannabis re-entering the U.S. Pharmacopeia -- is due to the incredibly broad medical support/evidence and the rapidly growing support from patients who know firsthand that it works for a variety of symptoms and clinical conditions.
Cannabis has been used as a medicine by millions and millions of people for thousands of years -- by cultures all over the world -- said to be first noted as a medicine by the Chinese in c. 2737 BCE. Cannabis medicines, especially cannabis tinctures -- made by big pharma giants like Merck, ParkeDavis, and Eli Lilly -- were widely prescribed in the U.S. from the mid-1800s until 1942, when the enormously foolish and racially-charged “Marihuana Tax Act of 1937" hoodwinked Congress -- despite strong objections from the American Medical Association submitted on record to Congress.
At the peak of its use in the early 1900s, there were over 100 papers written on cannabis’s therapeutic value, and it was one of the most common ingredients in medicine.
According to a must-read article “Medicinal use of cannabis in the United States: Historical perspectives, current trends, and future directions.” released in the May/June 2009 Journal of Opioid Management:
“Cannabinoids, which are classically 21-carbon terpenophenolics, of which cannabis contains 108, along with other bioactive compounds, have many distinct pharmacologic properties, including analgesic, antiemetic, antispasmodic, antioxidative, neuroprotective, antidepressant, anxiolytic, and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as the capacity for glial cell modulation and tumor growth regulation. Their application in pain management is especially promising as cannabinoids inhibit pain in ‘virtually every experimental pain paradigm’ in supraspinal, spinal, and peripheral regions and have no risk of accidental lethal overdose.” [End Quote]
HAS NO RISK OF ACCIDENTAL OVERDOSE!
And while our federal government has been depriving its people of safe, legal access to medical cannabis, the FEDS have been duplicitously dispensing FEDERAL MEDICAL CANNABIS, grown at the University of Mississippi, for more than three decades (The Compassionate Investigational New Drug or IND Study program began in 1978; and though the George H. W. Bush administration closed the program down in 1992, less than ten patients were grandfathered into the program, and 4 patients still receive FEDERAL MEDICAL CANNABIS today. One of the patients in the program is sent 11 ounces every 25-days!!).
And if cannabis isn’t medicine -- as the ignorant and professional liars continue to parrot -- why did the U.S. Government, as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services, file for and receive a patent on cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants? Check out U.S. Patent 6630507 on Patent Storm website.
The Big Cannabis Lie has completely unraveled, and national polls continue to illustrate that 75-80 percent of Americans are tired of being lied to and are demanding access to medical cannabis, an ancient healing plant with incredible therapeutic versatility and no risk of overdose.
Considering FDA-approved medicines kill tens of thousands of people each year and have become a major cause of death in the U.S., it is unconscionable that our government is blocking access to one of few therapeutic substances that cannot kill from toxicity.
Shame on the professional liars who are trying to obscure medical fact.
TheBigCannabisLie posted at 1:10 pm on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
According to the American College of Physicians' (ACP) position paper on medicinal marijuana, “Supporting Research into the Therapeutic Role of Marijuana,” released in February 2008:
“A CLEAR DISCORD [caps added] exists between the scientific community and federal legal and regulatory agencies over the medicinal value of marijuana, which impedes the expansion of research.”
“Given MARIJUANA'S PROVEN EFFICACY [caps added] at treating certain symptoms and its relatively low toxicity, reclassification would reduce barriers to research and increase availability of cannabinoid drugs to patients who have failed to respond to other treatments.”
“Evidence not only supports the use of medical marijuana in certain conditions but also suggests numerous indications for cannabinoids…”
“The science on medical marijuana should not be obscured or hindered by the debate surrounding the legalization of marijuana for general use.”
“ACP strongly urges protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.”
“ACP urges review of marijuana's status as a Schedule I controlled substance and reclassification into a more appropriate schedule, given the scientific evidence regarding marijuana’s safety and efficacy in some clinical conditions.”
CANNABIS'S MEDICAL USES
“Current available data suggest numerous indications for cannabinoids, especially antiemesis, appetite stimulation, and pain relief.”
“For patients with AIDS or those undergoing chemotherapy, who suffer severe pain, nausea and appetite loss, cannabinoid drugs may provide symptom relief not found in any other medication.”
“Research suggests that cannabinoids may have synergistic effects that may indicate its use as an adjunctive therapy to both antiemetics for nausea and vomiting and opioids for pain relief.”
DISADVANTAGES OF SYNTHETIC, ORAL THC (MARINOL®)
"While useful for some, these drugs [Marinol® and Nabilone®] have serious limitations. The oral route of administration hampers the effectiveness of THC because of slow absorption. In addition, for patients with severe nausea and vomiting, for whom oral THC is indicated, swallowing a pill may not be feasible.”
“The oral, synthetic THC has low and variable bioavailability. Oral THC is slow in onset of action but produces more pronounced, and often unfavorable, psychoactive effects that last much longer than those experienced with smoking. On the other hand, smoked THC is quickly absorbed into the blood and effects experienced immediately. Studies have found that patients prefer the immediate effect on symptoms that occurs after smoking marijuana.”
VAPORIZATION ANSWERS CONCERNS REGARDING SMOKING
“The development of a vapor route for THC delivery offers promise for the future of medical marijuana research. A recent study found that THC administered through the Volcano vaporizer resulted in higher plasma THC levels compared to smoked marijuana at both 30 and 60 minutes post administration. It also found that exhaled carbon monoxide increased very little after vapor compared with smoking. ... Vaporization of THC offers the rapid onset of symptom relief without the negative effects from smoking. It allows patients to self regulate their dosage immediately by ceasing inhalation when or if psychoactive effects become unpleasant.”
MEDICAL MARIJUANA AND THE GATEWAY "THEORY"
"Marijuana has not been proven to be the cause or even the most serious predictor of serious drug abuse. It is also important to note that the data on marijuana’s role in illicit drug use progression only pertains to its non-medical use.” [END QUOTE from the ACP].
[For many patients, cannabis helps patients reduce or eliminate the need for opioids].
The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization group in the United States, representing 124,000 members specializing in internal medicine and related subspecialties, including cardiology, neurology, pulmonary disease, oncology and infectious diseases.
The ACP publishes "Annals of Internal Medicine," the most widely cited medical specialty journal in the world. I am listening to the real authorities on this subject, like the ACP, not the propagandists, perpetuating more reckless, irresponsible, fear-based "reefer madness."
jway86 posted at 1:29 pm on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
If the prohibition stopped people smoking then we wouldn't have a problem, but it doesn't. Instead, it creates a situation of zero legal supply amid unrelenting demand.
This is why the Mexican cartels can make $10 billion a year selling marijuana in the U.S. It's also why they torture, murder and dismember innocent people in order to protect this cash flow.
These horrific murders will continue until the demand for cartel weed ends!
Do you have a plan to end the demand for cartel weed, Alex? Or is the butchering of innocent fathers, mothers, lawyers, reporters and politicians ok with you?
TheBigCannabisLie posted at 1:57 pm on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
Who says marijuana is good medicine?
According to the American Public Health Association (APHA):
"Marijuana has an extremely wide acute margin of safety for use under medical supervision and cannot cause lethal reactions … Greater harm is caused by the legal consequences of its prohibition than possible risks of medicinal use."
"The American Public Health Association encourages research of the therapeutic properties of various cannabinoids and combinations of cannabinoids, and ... urges the Administration and Congress to move expeditiously to make cannabis available as a legal medicine."
-- Reference: Resolution #9513: "Access to Therapeutic Marijuana/Cannabis:"
The American Public Health Association (APHA) is the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world. The APHA represents more than 50,000 members and has been effectively influencing policies and setting priorities in public health since 1872. The APHA stood up for patient access to medical cannabis almost 15 years ago!
Our elected leaders need to catch up!
TheBigCannabisLie posted at 2:41 pm on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
Who says marijuana is good medicine?
Mr. Romero, earlier comments touched on this already, but here is a list of a few credible health organizations "Standing up for Patients" and supporting access to medicinal cannabis (this small but formidable list buries the “no medical support” or “not good medicine” myth that has been perpetuated by the mainstream media for decades -- thanks to professional myth-creating and myth-perpetuating groups like the DEA/ONDCP/CASA):
American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Physicians, American Medical Student Association, American Nurses Association, American Preventive Medical Association, American Public Health Association, American Psychiatric Association Assembly, American Society of Addiction Medicine, Medical Student Section of the American Medical Association, Arthritis Research Campaign (United Kingdom), Australian Medical Association (New South Wales), Limited Australian National Task Force on Cannabis, Belgian Ministry of Health, British House of Lords Select Committee On Science and Technology (First & Second Report), British Medical Association, Canadian AIDS Society, Canadian Special Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs, Dr. Dean Edell (surgeon and nationally syndicated radio host), Health Canada, Kaiser Permanente, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Lymphoma Foundation of America, Multiple Sclerosis Society (Canada), The Multiple Sclerosis Society (United Kingdom), National Association for Public Health Policy, National Nurses Society on Addictions, Netherlands Ministry of Health, New South Wales (Australia), New England Journal of Medicine, AIDS Action Council, AIDS Treatment News, Parliamentary Working Party on the Use of Cannabis for Medical Purposes, Dr. Andrew Weil, Alaska Nurses Association, Being Alive: People With HIV/AIDS Action Committee (San Diego, CA), California Academy of Family Physicians, California Nurses Association, California Pharmacists, Colorado Nurses Association, Connecticut Nurses Association, Florida Governor's Red Ribbon Panel on AIDS, Florida Medical Association, Hawaii Nurses Association, Illinois Nurses Association, Life Extension Foundation, Medical Society of the State of New York, the Minnesota AIDS Council, Mississippi Nurses Association, New Jersey State Nurses Association, New Mexico Medical Society, New Mexico Nurses Association, New York County Medical Society, New York State Nurses Association, North Carolina Nurses Association, Rhode Island Medical Society, Rhode Island State Nurses Association, San Francisco Mayor's Summit on AIDS and HIV, San Francisco Medical Society, Vermont Medical Marijuana Study Committee, Virginia Nurses Association, Whitman-Walker Clinic (Washington, DC), Wisconsin Nurses Association, etc..
This list is a small sampling of the global support for medical cannabis, which is legal by prescription in its whole-plant form in Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. Israel, Finland, and Austria have also started some type of national medical cannabis programs; and Germany is on the verge of starting their national program.
In the U.S., medical cannabis has been RE-LEGALIZED in 14 States and in Washington D.C. Currently, more than a dozen states are considering re-legalizing cannabis for medical purposes.
[If anybody would like to know more about a specific group’s endorsement, I have the position statements and/or the positive endorsements.]
RecoveryDoc posted at 8:36 pm on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
Every fact in this editorial is documented either at http://www.stop203.com or http://www.keepazdrugfree.com.
Rich posted at 10:37 pm on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
Here's where you miss the boat Dr. "Either there’s a huge conspiracy and these organizations are intentionally depriving their own members of good treatment, or else marijuana is being oversold by people with another agenda." It isn't an either/or proposition. The organizations you cite are basically corrupt PACs making a whole lot of money under false pretenses and yes they deprive a lot of people of good medicine. However, marijuana is being oversold by people with another agenda.
Frankly, I've always felt that if a sick person wants to smoke a bad tasting cigarette and tell me it make them feel better, I have no problem with giving them the cigarette. I never could figure out why it's anybody else's business, particularly the government or busybodies like the good doctor here. It's harmless until the government gets involved, the harm is caused by regulation, not weed.
TheBigCannabisLie posted at 10:37 pm on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
Mr. Romero,
You claim "98 percent of the pot goes to people with no serious medical problems at all."
Where'd you come up with that one? Not even the propaganda machine CASA or the politically-fueled ONDCP would back that whopper. If people weren't being harmed because of your lies, they'd be funny, as they are so outrageous. At least try to make the lies believable, and try not to start your lies with "98 percent..."
Fact is, cannabis has been used medicinally for millenia. In the U.S., from the mid-1800s until 1942, cannabis products -- especially cannabis tinctures -- were widely prescribed for migraines, arthritis, and other conditions where pain was a primary symptom, as cannabis is an excellent analgesic and anti-inflammatory. That's why many of the several hundred thousand U.S. patients do indeed use cannabis for pain, quite often severe pain.
Given "Gold Standard" FDA-approved medicines kill tens of thousands of people each year (Vioxx alone killed 27,785 in just a few years, according to FDA estimates you can actuall verify) and grossly injure many more, helping to block medical access to cannabis -- an ancient healing herb that cannot kill from toxicity and has been treasured for its medicinal benefits, by cultures all over the world -- is either terribly foolish or evil.
RecoveryDoc posted at 11:03 pm on Wed, Aug 18, 2010.
The evidence that states with medical marijuana states have higher rates of teenage drug use and that, in Montana, traffic fatalities involving marijuana increased with enactment of this law, and many more well-documented facts, can be found at http://www.stop203.com. Marijuana, it turns out, works like every other addictive drug.
wdgnas posted at 4:56 am on Thu, Aug 19, 2010.
if smoking marijuana grew hair and made old men hard it would have legalized years ago...
TheBigCannabisLie posted at 11:19 am on Thu, Aug 19, 2010.
MORE DISTORTIONS AND LIES
One of the most common distortions or statistical sleight of hand that propagandists like the DEA, the ONDCP, Drug Watch International, CASA, etc... use is the claim that the medicinal use of cannabis leads to or causes increased teen drug abuse of illicit drugs, including cannabis.
One of the ways the propagandists make medicinal cannabis appear so scary is they conflate CORRELATION with CAUSATION.
For instance, there is a huge "link" between heroin users and people who consume water or people who were breast-fed by their mothers, but this "link" is just a correlation and certainly doesn't prove that water or mother's milk CAUSES youth to use heroin later in life.
If you haven't been told yet, Mr. Romero, most of your sources, like Dr.Gabriel Nahas, CASA and the ONDCP have been thoroughly exposed for spreading blatant lies and are not taken seriously by the real scientific community.
According to the esteemed Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences' report "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base":
"There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs."
And:
"There is a broad social concern that sanctioning the medical use of marijuana might increase its use among the general population. At this point there are no convincing data to support this concern."
And to wrap it up, a few words from one of my favorite hippies (snicker, lol, etc...):
"The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, DEPRIVING THE SICK OF NEEDED HELP [caps added], and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents... Narcotics police are an enormous, corrupt international bureaucracy ... and now fund a coterie of researchers who provide them with 'scientific support' ... fanatics who distort the legitimate research of others"
-- William F. Buckley, Commentary in The National Review, April 29, 1983, p. 495
EBlack posted at 10:19 am on Fri, Aug 20, 2010.
This is a sickening article by someone who's clearly made bad decisions and now must repent to make himself whole again. I can't believe people will just lie for the sake of pushing an agenda. I didn't see one claim backed up by evidence (a link to another article, research paper, study?).
Even more pathetic is your dismissal of those who find relief from cannabis as a medicine, yet you endorse the use of cocaine for medicinal purposes because the "Gold Standard" of the FDA has granted it worthy of fixing ailments. Really? So if medicinal marijuana passed the FDA's tests, you'd be ok with it?
By the way, this is the same FDA whose standards have caused TENS OF THOUSANDS of deaths due to insufficient clinical trials of unsafe "Gold Standard"-level medications.
You also state in no uncertain terms that illegitimate doctors are the only ones prescribing/recommending marijuana to their patients and that "legitimate" physicians would never do such a thing. Do you know this for a fact? If so, how? Word-of-mouth from your church friends? Read it online somewhere? If you're going to make claims, back them up. What are you afraid of?
You harp on the pain patients the most. What I'm reading is that you think pain is a flimsy excuse to get a prescription. Really? So chronic and debilitating pain is probably just in most people's heads, huh? Would you rather them pop a few "FDA-approved" Oxycontin pills instead? (You know, the stuff that's killing people?) They have "Gold Standard" written all over them, don't they? That work better for you, Alex?
Finally, so what if Marijuana becomes legal? What do you think could possibly happen? Kids (the little people the anti-pot crowd just love to use as scapegoats) can get it easier now than alcohol. Why? BECAUSE THEY NEED AN ADULT TO GET THEM ALCOHOL!!!! If it's treated like alcohol it will be just as difficult to get and an adult would be held responsible for helping a child obtain it.
Your arguments are not baseless, they are based in fear. Fear is what caused marijuana to become illegal in the first place and it's what causes it to remain illegal today. Over 20,000 studies on Marijuana have been conducted. Please do some research before spewing ignorance to your fellow Valley residents.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/20-000-studies-on-marijuana-what-don-t-scientists-%E2%80%98know%E2%80%99-yet
EBlack posted at 11:27 am on Fri, Aug 20, 2010.
Even the name of your organization is a lie. "Keep AZ Drug Free." I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but AZ is far from drug free and there are more pressing issues an anti-drug group should be concentrating on. Like the state's Meth problem or the opiate epidemic or the failures of the FDA to properly test the drugs they're pushing. Those are real problems that need addressing, not catering to the lowest common denominator and keeping a plant with beneficial properties illegal.
@RecoveryDoc: the citations on stop203.com are, for the most part, a joke. Very little actual research is cited; it's mostly politically-charged commentary by people with agendas. It's really kind of sad what you and Mr. Romero are trying to do.
TrentOs posted at 7:01 pm on Fri, Aug 20, 2010.
Makes me so happy to see these replys and know my fellow arizonins are not mindless zombies that belive what ever there told. Every story on the net about 203 is full of comments from intelligent people that don't buy into the bull. Soon my friends the suffering in Arizona will be able to use a natural medicine that works. Vote yes on prop 203 vote yes to save lives.
AlwaysRight posted at 6:54 pm on Mon, Sep 6, 2010.
Hey Alex. I live in San Diego and just got back from a dispensary visit with a friend who is fighting myeloma.
Do you really think that all of the meds given to chemo patients work? Yeah, right. He is the real deal patient who uses a vaporizer for pain and nausea. There are many more, too, who prefer to stay anonymous.
We are not young scammers as is convenient to stereotype. We are seasoned professionals just like you.
And for your edification on young people: The great majority of those under 25 prefer alcohol by a wide margin. And if young people want to smoke it, they already are. . . and contributing to the illegal cartels.
Haven't I read that many AZ citizens have a few concerns around the border towns? I wonder why?
Curwen posted at 10:17 pm on Mon, Sep 6, 2010.
I say it is.
Kiss off you sanctimonious @ss. A lot more youth have suffered from being jailed over pot than from pot itself. And the horse you rode in on too, buddy.
Who's paying your bills, Jack?
tbeird posted at 9:40 am on Thu, Sep 23, 2010.
Because of immature, naive, and unworldly people like this man, policy gets ruined for the rest of us. I wonder what kind of degree he holds... any college graduate can tell you that correlation does not mean causation- specifically referring to this man's claim "traffic fatalities [are] caused by marijuana." Try this one on for size man: if one were to get in an accident shortly after taking aspirin, was it the aspirin that caused the accident? This variety of (so-called) logic is in line with the "gateway drug" fallacy, to which I propose another mental experiment: lets assume all motorcyclists rode bikes when they were children, does this mean that all children who ride bikes will grow up to ride motorcycles?
Marijuana alone has not been shown to be toxic or carcinogenic, furthermore a lethal dosage has yet to be established (even when the marijuana is smoked, which is the quickest way for any substance to cross the blood-brain barrier and reach the nervous system.) To say that "medical benefits of marijuana don’t outweigh negative [side-effects]" is incorrect because there is a certain element of ambiguity in this claim that makes it unfalsifiable. This man has conveniently failed to mention several confounding variables: operational definitions of "medical benefits" and "negative"; the necessary mechanism of means of consumption; form and strength of plant or plant product; demographics of user; set, setting and place matrix; and the animal on which the experiment is being performed* to name a few.
*Results from animal studies are more or less the only way the government (NIH/NIDA) establishes inferences about a substances: lethality, potential for abuse/ dependence, effects on motor function, etc. Somewhere online there is some ethically and morally questionable archive footage of a government funded study with a monkey as the single-subject. In order to support (conservative) political motives, these researchers were trying to establish a lethal dosage for marijuana by strapping a gas mask to said monkey (now that I think about it, could have been a chimp) and forcing him to inhale while nearly 100 lit joints were affixed to the intake; the monkey was fine, other than acute irritation of his respiratory track due to smoke inhalation.
Source: my own research of peer reviewed articles. But don't take my word for it man, try finding your information by doing your own literature review, you might be surprised at how easy this is today- try a Google scholar search for keywords like: "marijuana," "lethal dosage," "adolescents," "effects," or "usage."
FUN FACT: The main founder of Alcoholics Anonymous overcame his dependence on alcohol after only one session of taking LCD, and never touched the stuff (alcohol! lolz) again.
tbeird posted at 10:13 am on Thu, Sep 23, 2010.
Typo on my last post, 2nd to last line: supposed to be LSD (d-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) not liquid crystal display... but I'd say that's a pretty good way to describe an acid trip, all liquid crystally and sh**.
Open your mind, open your heart, open your hands.
Duncan20903 posted at 11:29 pm on Wed, Nov 17, 2010.
wdgnas, I hate to tell you, but there are bald men using topical salve made from cannabis and are reporting that they're growing hair. It's not so farfetched if you look into the large concentration of CB2 receptors there are in the scalp. Still, it's just anecdotal to date.
I also hate to disappoint Dr. Romero but topical salve doesn't get you high, because that needs to involve the CB1 receptor. Cannabinoid salve is most often used by severe burn victims because large masses of scar tissue lead to chronic discomfort. Yes, hardly a serious medical condition Dr. Romero. I'm really unsure why you think that medicine should be reservered only for the seriously ill. Again, cannabinoid salve doesn't get users high.
Oh hey, where did you say you got your medical degree Dr. Romero? Where did you do your residency? Are you board certified? Are you licensed to practice medicine? In which state? Inquiring minds want to know your medical qualifications before they accept your assertions as if they were factual. Which they aren't, just like you're not a doctor, or an accredited researcher. Perhaps you're a pharmacist? If so what is your opinion of the unanimous vote of the Iowa Board of Pharmacy to move cannabis to schedule 2 earlier this year after they did a study of whether it was a good idea? A study which took a lawsuit and a court order to get them to do? Is it unreasonable to infer from their subsequent unanimous vote to acknowledge the medical utility of cannabis that the evidence that cannabis is in fact a valid medicine is overwhelming? I really don't think it is, but then I'm not a medical professional. But they are, all 6 of them. All of them fanatically anti-cannabis. All of them acknowledge that it is a valid medicine. Unanimously.
Did you research how those who brought Prop 215 to California before you posted your silly belief that the people who did that have some ulterior motive to promote legalization?
It was Dennis Peron that was the principle behind Prop 215. Care to guess how he railed and lobbied against the passage of Prop 19?
http://stash.norml.org/prop-215-co-author-dennis-peron-opposes-prop-19-marijuana-legalization
The FDA canard isn't going to work anymore "Dr" Romero. Canada, Holland and Israel have qualified scientists that decide what is or isn't medicine, and have all approved cannabis as medicine. They don't have a fanatical bunch of anti-cannabis zealots though like we do at the DEA, which refuse to listen to even their own administrative law judges.
Yeah I realize the submission is late, but I've got a truth fetish and just can't help myself when I see unqualified people claiming that poppycock is fact.