Marijuana As Medicine - Prohibition kills the patient
Marijuana has been used as medicine for centuries, even millennia, research has shown that THC, the active ingredient in the herb, has anti-cancer properties, but courts in the US (and elsewhere) say no. Patients who use marijuana to ease pain or cure an illness are arrested, humiliated, bankrupted and some die as a consequence. Even where states have passed laws that allow the cultivation and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, federal law enforcement follows the prohibition mentality jailing patients leaving them to suffer.Official medicine with its chemically-based remedies has no alternative, in fact their pharmaceutical products have become a cause of death for hundreds of thousands every year.
Yet we have "justice" telling people what medicine to use and more importantly what they may not use because of someone's idea that "people must not take drugs".
This brings to view a serious flaw in our legislative thinking: the inclusion of mala prohibida, crimes that are merely enforcing a moral precept, in our law books. Real crimes, also called mala in se, are crimes because we traditionally believe that the rights, the life and the property of any individual member of society should be protected. And yes, the purpose of laws and of government is to promote the peaceful living-together of the individuals that are part of any particular society.
When we have "justice" enforcing moral precepts and in the process violating the rights of people to their health and their freedom to choose, something is awfully wrong.
Keep this in mind when reading the excellent article by Steve Kubby, published by AlterNet...
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/19346/
Token Justice
By Steve Kubby, AlterNetPosted on July 26, 2004,
The term medical marijuana took on dramatic new meaning in February, 2000 when researchers in Madrid Spain announced they had destroyed incurable brain tumors in rats by injecting them with THC, the most psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.Most Americans don't know anything about the Madrid discovery. Virtually no major U.S. newspapers carried the story, which ran only once on the AP and UPI news wires, on Feb. 29, 2000. Why has this vitally important information been suppressed while the media regularly trumpet any possible breakthrough in cancer research?
The Madrid study wasn't the first time that THC has been administered to tumor-bearing animals. In 1974 researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National Institute of Health in order to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice - lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia. Since then, dozens of other peer-reviewed scientific studies have confirmed that THC and other canabinoids shrink tumors, cut off their blood supply and may even program cancer cells to die.
Because news of such advances in our understanding of medical marijuana has been suppressed, serious opposition still exists within the law enforcement community. They claim that the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 was some sort of hoax, or worse, not a law to be obeyed because federal marijuana laws trump state laws.
As a result, seven years after voters approved Prop. 215, sick, disabled and dying people are still being arrested, jailed, humiliated and bankrupted. An ideology of zero tolerance has deprived medical marijuana patients not only of justice but of life itself.
Contrary to assertions by police and US officials, federal law ought not to trump state medical marijuana laws, according to the 9th Circuit Court decision on December 16, 2003. In that decision, the Court found that "the appellants have demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on their claim that, as applied to them, the CSA [Controlled Substances Act of 1970] is an unconstitutional exercise of Congress' Commerce Clause authority."
On May 14, 2004, District Court Judge Martin J. Jenkins acted upon this decision by the 9th Circuit Court and granted a preliminary injunction against the federal government, thereby protecting the medical marijuana rights of the two patients who are suing the government in this case.
Just one month later, in the case of County of Santa Cruz et al. v. Ashcroft, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel issued a temporary injunction barring the federal government from raiding the marijuana gardens of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, or WAMM.
The ruling allows the collective to resume cultivation free from the fear of further federal prosecution. This relief comes 18 months after a brutal Drug Enforcement Administration raid on WAMM in Santa Cruz, and a year after the collective's seriously ill members filed suit against the federal government to stop the law enforcement harassment.
Law enforcement and prosecutors also claim that patients dragged before the courts possess "too much for personal use." However, Proposition 215 set only one medical-marijuana possession limit, and that limit is "for personal medical use."
In 2002, the California Supreme Court affirmed this quantity limit in People v. Mower. There, the court clearly held that the only quantity limit or requirement in Proposition 215 is "for personal medical use."
But how much is too much? How much would be too much if your life depended on it?
Most narcotics officers claim that more than a few ounces of marijuana per month would be more than is necessary for personal use. In contrast, the US government allows their legally licensed patients to consume a pound per month. In Canada, patients such as myself are licensed to grow and consume up to two pounds per month. Law enforcement refuses to accept these levels of medical usage, but patients can and do consume these amounts of cannabis and still lead productive lives. Indeed, many need it to be able to live at all.
If respect for the law is to mean anything in our society, our elected officials must set aside their zero tolerance ideology and uphold California's medical marijuana law - exactly as it was written and passed by the people of California. Elected officials should begin tomorrow to implement the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 by taking the following four specific actions:
1. Stop arresting sick people. Don't authorize budgets or federal grants that will be used against sick people. Adopt and implement the Mower Decision to protect sick people from arrest.2. Stop treating sick people like criminals. According to the Mower Decision, bona fide medical marijuana patients are entitled to a special hearing to establish that they have a recommendation or approval to use medical marijuana from a licensed physician. Unless police have clear evidence of actual sales, it is unlawful and immoral to arrest marijuana growers who make claims of medical use.
3. Stop forcing sick people into the black market. Demand that the federal government take action on the petition filed by Jon Gettman with the Drug Enforcement Administration on July 27, 1995, and reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III. That action alone would solve many of the problems and concerns voiced by law enforcement and allow patients to go directly to their pharmacist to obtain their medicine.
4. Start prosecuting those who violate the rights of sick people. Elected officials must provide legal protection for sick and dying patients from illegal arrests and prosecutions. To uphold the law, officials must see to it that police and prosecutors are held accountable for violating the medical marijuana rights of patients, caregivers and physicians.
Make no mistake; this issue is no more about marijuana than the Boston Tea Party was about tea. This is about sick and dying people who are living in fear that the very people they pay to protect them have turned against them, all because they use a medicine that the Federal government's own IOM study says, "there is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting."
Seven years is long enough. It's time to stop hiding behind federal laws and the failed ideology. The voters have spoken and they have clearly voted to stop treating medical marijuana patients like criminals. Medical marijuana is the law; now is the time for law enforcement and our elected officials to show good faith and stop arresting sick people.
It is time for our elected officials and police to uphold their oath of office and uphold the will of the voters who wisely chose to protect sick people and exempt them from the War on Drugs. It wasn't difficult for the voters to understand medical marijuana, they voted by a whopping 56 percent to 44 percent to pass the law. Juries don't seem to have a problem understanding medical marijuana either. Only police and prosecutors seem to have difficulty comprehending that medical marijuana is real and it is the law.
Medical marijuana patients need real justice. They need police and prosecutors who will respect their rights, their dignity and protect them from real criminals.
Steve Kubby has written two books on drug policy reform and currently serves as the National Director of the American Medical Marijuana Association.
© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View original of this story online at:
http://www.alternet.org/story/19346/
- - -
Video: The Hemp Cure
In seven short videos, Rick Simpson tells the story of a cure that is based on the hemp plant. Since hemp got in the way of DuPont's Nylon in the early part of the 20th century, the plant has been classified as dangerous, a drug, and growers have been punished for seeding it. Apart from obvious uses of hemp as fiber and seeds as a nutritious food, the plant itself can be processed into an extract that has - according to Simpson and many who tried - curative properties. Yes, the flowers can also be smoked and - like with tabacco and alcohol - there are effects on your mental state. Hardly enough of a reason to prohibit the use of a curative substance!See also:
Protect Patients From Politics
By Montel Williams, AlterNet. Posted April 12, 2005.
In 40 states, I am a criminal. My crime? Using the medicine that has allowed me to lead a normal life, despite multiple sclerosis: medical marijuana.Marijuana may block Alzheimer's
The active ingredient in marijuana may stall decline from Alzheimer's disease, research suggests.D.C. Jail Stay Ends in Death For Quadriplegic MD Man
On September 27, Jonathan Magbie died while serving a 10-day sentence for marijuana possession in a jail in Washington, D.C. Magbie, a 27-year-old quadriplegic who used marijuana to treat his chronic pain, was unable to breathe on his own. The jail, unable to meet his medical needs, allowed him to die while in custody.Pot Takes Lead in Race for the Cure - By Paul Armentano, AlterNet. Posted September 28, 2004.
Cannabis, schizophrenia link refuted
Cannabis May Have Long-Term Benefit for MS
Cannabis extract shrinks brain tumours - New Scientist 15 August 2004
Medical Marihuana in a Time of Prohibition
Medical system is leading cause of death and injury in US
Mike Adams: The raw (and ugly) truth about the war on drugs
Liberalism's Brain on Drugs
By Ryan Grim, In These Times. Posted December 6, 2005
If we live in a fundamentally free society, how does confining a drug offender to 17 years in prison jive with America's values of equality and liberty?'War on Drugs:' A Foul Tragedy
By Garrison Keillor, In These Times. Posted December 6, 2005
A marijuana grower can get life in prison without parole, while a murderer might be in for eight years. No rational person can defend this.Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in '74
By Raymond Cushing, AlterNet
Posted on May 31, 2000, Printed on June 7, 2006
The term medical marijuana took on dramatic new meaning in February, 2000 when researchers in Madrid announced they had destroyed incurable brain tumors in rats by injecting them with THC, the active ingredient in cannabis. The Madrid study marks only the second time that THC has been administered to tumor-bearing animals; the first was a Virginia investigation 26 years ago. In both studies, the THC shrank or destroyed tumors in a majority of the test subjects.Pot Shots - Taking aim at the global health monopoly
Marijuana is a natural medicine that is much more effective than most of the deadly and many times addictive medicines that the pharmaceutical industry forces down our throats. The best part, though, is that addictive prescription and street drugs can be and are being eliminated by medical marijuana in an astounding percentage of patients.Cannabis chocolate trio convicted
Three people have been found guilty of supplying thousands of cannabis-laced chocolate bars to multiple sclerosis sufferers for pain relief.After the hearing Lezley Gibson said: "The maximum sentence for what we've been found guilty of is 14 years in jail. If you were a child pervert your maximum sentence is only 12. "I think there's a mistake in the law, and I think they really, really really need to re-think the law on cannabis and medicinal use. Bringing ill people to court and torturing them like this isn't what you do. You look after ill people, and you try to make them better. You do not torture them and drag them back and forward to a court of law."
Medical Marijuana: New Mexico Patients Under Attack
On Tuesday, agents of the Pecos Valley Drug Taskforce in conjunction with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration searched the home of a registered medical marijuana patient who has lost the use of his legs and suffers chronic pain and muscle spasms due to a spinal cord injury. They seized his medicine and are now threatening to prosecute him in federal court where there are no legal protections for medical marijuana patients. This intimidating raid comes at the very time New Mexico officials are debating the best way to develop a state-licensed production and distribution system for medical marijuana.The raid highlights how disconnected federal law is from the people of the US. As New Mexico approved a law legalizing the cultivation and use of hemp for medical uses, federal courts and law hold on to a policy of prohibition, destined to go the way alcohol prohibition has gone decades ago.February 2008: ACLU Launches Campaign to Decriminalize Marijuana
Travel writer Rick Steves and the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington have formed a partnership to tackle a topic they call the equivalent of the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s: the criminalization of marijuana. Steves, the Edmonds-based travel guru who five years ago openly acknowledged that he uses marijuana while visiting Europe, says he's not "pro-marijuana," but in favor of discussing the laws that affect the 830,000 Americans who are arrested annually under existing marijuana laws.January 2009: To Minimize Harm from Marijuana, Legalize It for Recreational Use: New Scientist
"Despite the undoubted dangers associated with marijuana, the Beckley report concludes that it is far less harmful to users and to society in general than other illicit drugs such as heroin and cocaine, and far less damaging than the legal drugs tobacco and alcohol."The Beckley commission's ideas will be aired in March at a meeting in Vienna, Austria, of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs. The UNCND will report to a meeting of the UN general assembly later this year that will set international policy on drug control for the decade to come.
Video: Marijuana Prohibition - How the War on Hemp came about
(video taken off YouTube)
"The war on drugs is really a war on Marijuana." This video shows how and why Marijuana and Hemp were transfromed from successful agricultural crop supplying raw material for medical and industrial uses to public enemy number one. Time for a radical re-think? You decide.
Video: Rick Simpson's CROSS-CANADA CRUSH CANCER TOUR CANCELLED
Rick Simpson, the man who cured cancer with hemp oil and the force behind RUN FROM THE CURE: THE RICK SIMPSON STORY, was to go across Canada to raise awareness of hemp medicine to all Canadians. In this video, Rick Simpson addresses the lack of funding, the resources that would be required to do a country-wide tour. He gives an overview of current plans and provides an insight into the larger picture of hemp prohibition and who profits from it.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Wednesday July 28 2004
updated on Saturday December 25 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/07/28/marijuana_as_medicine_prohibition_kills_the_patient.htm
Related ArticlesProhibition, crime and the environment
Drug prohibition is one of those "good ideas" which have turned on the world to give us widespread criminality and - now it seems - also environmental destruction. Prohibition is born of the desire to enforce moral standards, "thou shalt not use certain substances" in this case, through criminal laws. The big drug runners - CIA and other secret services - are easily escaping prohibition and are using the fact... [read more]
August 25, 2003 - Sepp HasslbergerMedical Insanity
While medical intervention kills hundreds of thousands every year and children are still injected with highly toxic mercury-containing vaccines, an exceedingly safe alternative to drugs and unsurpassed pain medicine is being suppressed and its users sentenced to long jail terms. This is one of the great contradictions in our present health system and in how we confront the risks of life. The following article based on research done by Mark... [read more]
August 26, 2004 - Sepp HasslbergerAlzheimer's: New Treatments But No Prevention Strategy
While we hear that the Johnson & Johnson Alzheimer's drug Reminyl is associated with higher death rates than placebo, a new "scientific breakthrough" is already in the pipeline. By removing plaques in the brains of mice, which in humans are normally associated with Alzheimer's disease, it seems that some of the nerve damage which is characteristic of the disease, may have been reverted as well. Researchers at Washington University School... [read more]
January 24, 2005 - Sepp HasslbergerSouth African Minister: No Restrictive Controls For Natural Medicines
Like much of the rest of the world (Canada) (U.S.A.) (ANZO) (Europe) South Africa has a legislative proposal, inspired by pharmaceutical interests, to "ensure the safety of natural remedies" including herbs and nutritional supplements, proposing to subject them to the extensive testing routines normally applied only to allopathic - pharmaceutically produced - medicines. In what may be a harbinger of international reversal of position, South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang... [read more]
January 17, 2005 - Sepp HasslbergerTryptophan, Niacin Protect Against Alzheimer's
Niacin may protect against Alzheimer's disease, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, referenced in an article by Reuters News service. Susan commented on this as follows: Niacin works the same way as nicotine in that it protects the brain by stimulating the production of acetylcholine. The destruction of acetylcholine by such things as organophosphates, in fact, is the cause of BSE. Niacin... [read more]
July 16, 2004 - Sepp HasslbergerYou can't trust the drug 'experts'
Newshawk: CMAP Pubdate: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Contact: letters@thecitizen.canwest.com You can't trust the drug 'experts' Dan Gardner The Ottawa Citizen 'One night's ecstasy use can cause brain damage," shouted a newspaper headline in September 2002, after the journal Science published a study that found a single dose of the drug ecstasy injected into monkeys and baboons caused terrible brain damage. Two of the 10 primates... [read more]
April 23, 2004 - Chris Gupta
