New article on legalization of medical marijuana

Here's an intersting new article on the movement for the legalization of medical marijuna:
TIME magazine

I think that medical marijuana should definitely be made legal-- or to be more precise, that the feds shouldn't interfere if some states pass laws to legalize medical marijuana (fat chance with Bush in the White House, I know).

But the story argues that pro-pot folks just want to use the "medical marijuana" argument to push for the legalization of marijuana in general.

 

I'm sorry, I should have added this when I closed it in the JCC: It has to be a regular Senate thread, with your thoughts on the subject. Otherwise, it's just a news thread, and those aren't allowed here.

 

Supporters always mention how marijuana helps the people getting cancer treatment, etc., which is true. However, they neglect to mention the pill form of marijuana, which is basically made for such cases. I don't know a lot about it, so I'm not sure if it's even available.

It does have one problem. It can help a cancer treatment patient with their nausea, but, unfortunately, it won't give them the 'high' they would get from smoking marijuana.

If these people's intentions for legalization were true and noble, you might hear a little bit more about this pill form, but who cares about legal marijuana if you don't get high off it?

 

I didn't know about the pill...

 

Marijuana should only be perscribed for dying patients. It should only be used to relieve the pain of therapy. It has absolutely no proven healing properties and anybody who says so is misinformed. Unfortunately, many potheads are using the prospect of medical marijuana to get their dope.

 

"Marijuana should only be perscribed for dying patients. It should only be used to relieve the pain of therapy. It has absolutely no proven healing properties and anybody who says so is misinformed. Unfortunately, many potheads are using the prospect of medical marijuana to get their dope"

I agree with you 100%. However there are other pain killers available to people who are in pain than Marijuana.

I will support it for medical purposes only, but not for recreational use for your potheads and dopers of the world. This is a prime example of pro-pot people sugar coating and trying to legitamize their own BAD HABIT to get their agenda passed, and the sugar coat tastes and smells bitter like the smell of a marijuana cigarette.

 

Gee who'd have thought that medical marijunana was only a stepping stone for the legalization of pot? Shocking.

Who cares if they legalize it now or not, if they tax it like they're doing to cigarettes it'll still be cheaper to buy from a dealer.

 

If you want to destroy your body, go ahead. I don't want you in the gene pool.

That is my opinion on drugs. Live and let live.

 

I've been researching the medical effects of cannabis for the past 4 years now, so I'm happy to add to this discussion, but I can only provide information from scientific studies. There is a huge amount of research currrently going on in this field, but as a result of bad media, the general public is often ill informed of the positive and negative effects of cannabis. I only work with either purified THC (the active ingredient in cannabis), or highly potent synthetic analogues.

However there are other pain killers available to people who are in pain than Marijuana

The pain general pain relief from THC is low, but it is very effective in the pain associated with spinal injury whereas other pain killers are not. However, the main medical point is that a low dose of THC combined with a low dose of morphine has the same pain killing effect as a high dose of morphine, but without the unwanted side effects and withdrawl symptoms.

It has absolutely no proven healing properties and anybody who says so is misinformed

Really depends what you class as "healing properties". Do any drugs have "healing properties" ? I can give you countless examples of therapeutic properties of THC, ranging from anti-emtics, to immunosuppressive drugs, to neuroprotective drugs.

Interestingly, two THC based compounds are currently available on prescription. One is given to patients on chemotherapy to combat nausea, while the other is given to AIDS patients to stimulate appetite to maintain body weight.

Malcolm

p.s. feel free to ask any questions, and I'll give a scientific unbiased (as possible) answer

 

malkied2, probably the main question is whether Cannabis is damaging to the brain/body in the long term?

 

does cannabis have any long term effects ?

In my scientific opinion.....no, it does not. Its certainly no more harmful in the short term than many other drugs that people would take without thinking. Certain other drugs, Tylenol or alcohol are far more damaging in the long term.

What deters some people is the obvious short term effects, ie motor impairment, memory impairment etc. These are temporary effects that are readily reversible.

However cannabis does contain some procarcinogens, albeit in low concentrations. Its interesting to note that certain vegetables also have procarcinogens in similar concentrations.

Current research is channeled towards fully understanding how cannabis effects our bodies, so we can design new drugs that have therapeutic properties without any side effects. This is done by investigating the exact proteins that cannabis modulates in our bodies, then designing a drug that is highly specific for that protein alone.

I'm currenly working on a novel cannabis compound that could be used as drug for people with hypertension. It has no side effects thus far, and is far more safe than a number of currently available hypertension drugs.

oh, and a kind of interesting point is that the body naturally produces a cannabis-like compound. At acts on exactly the same proteins as cannabis, and will mimic the effects of cannabis in vitro and in vivo.

Malcolm

 

Anybody with any common sense knows that marijuana will be legal sooner or later. Who cares if medical use is the stepping stone?? Who cares if cancer patients are getting high while their pain is being taken care of? What's the big deal about them getting high exactly? I'm not in the mood for reading warped anti-drug facts. Keep this thread non-boring.

 

"If you want to destroy your body, go ahead. I don't want you in the gene pool.

That is my opinion on drugs. Live and let live."

Where to begin?
Do you realize who would be using medical marijuana Zahn? People with illnesses who would be using the drug to alleviate syptoms of diesease(aids, glaucoma) or the side effects of the treatment(cancer pateints on chemotherapy). These are not people out to destroy their bodies, these are very sick people trying to feel better despite the terrible sicknesses that they have. What makes marijuana any different from other forms of medication? The fact that it can get you high? Guess what plenty of prescription drugs(oxycontin, morphine, percoset, valium, codeine, etc) and even over the counter drugs(robitussan) can get you high, and these are much worse for the body than marijuana.
You just make a blanket statement about your opinion on drugs, but i dont really think you have given it much thought. Have you ever had someone close to you wither away from chemotherapy? Have you watched them continually vomit and not be able to keep something down. Have you seen the misery that cancer patients live through? Should they made to suffer simply because you have a problem with drugs(i am not even getting into the lobbies of the alcohol and tobacco industries which make sure that marijuana is not legalized)? Why should these people continue to suffer? According to you , they shouldnt be in the gene pool. Waht kind of ludicrous statement is that? Sick people who want to feel better shouldnt breed? That makes sense, sheesh.
Why dont you go down to a hospice and visit some sick people dying of aids or cancer and then come back and tell me how these people shouldn't be destroying their bodies with marijuana.


As for the pill, the problem many patients have with it is that it takes a long time to work. Smoking alleviates the nausea almost instantaneous while the pill can take upwards of an hour to work. Besdies that i have been told of serious psycho-active side affects of the pill. Most reports that i have read have indicated a strong preference to actual marijuana over use of the thc pill.


For the record i do not smoke anything.

 

Furthuremore, this is no case of "the cure is worse than the illness".

 

Supporters always mention how marijuana helps the people getting cancer treatment, etc., which is true. However, they neglect to mention the pill form of marijuana, which is basically made for such cases. I don't know a lot about it, so I'm not sure if it's even available.

The problem with the pill is that when you are puking your guts out from chemo, you have a hard time keeping a little pill down. An Intramuscular injection (not avaliable yet) or an inhaled delivery (mj cigarette) is better. Plus anything inhaled hits the bloodstream VERY quick whereas you have to pass the meds through the digestive tract with a pill...which is quite slow.

Just some observations from someone who is actually working in a hospital Granted I'm only a lowly nursing student, but...

 

good points sleazo

you are correct about the pill taking a while to work, and perhaps itself having side effects. The occurs largely because the liver metabolises the cannabis before it has any effects due to the mechanism of entry (ie the gut).

You get much better and faster results by inhalation. Many of the preparations people are working on are aerosol based cannabis where you inhale a vapour, similar to those used by asthmatics.

The other (perhaps less popular) method is the suppository, which few people like the idea of............I'm not one to go sticking things up my bottom.

On a lighter note, having the drug in suppository form reduces the chances of drug abuse - you are not likely to go to a party and start passing a suppository round - are you ? (that was just an old cannabis researchers joke)

I do find it amusing when you hear someone saying "all drugs are evil", and "they'll destroy your body" as they are usually mis, or uninformed of the actual facts. Then you have to remind them that a drug is anything that you put into your body, so technically Pepsi and Starbursts are drugs.

Anyhow, cannabis certainly istn't highly damaging............infact, it actually has neuroprotective properties. Various studies have shown that pretreatment with cannabis reduces brain damage through head injury.

As mentioned above, as soon as we fully understand how cannabis works on a cellular level (we already have a very good understanding) we will be producing cannabis based drugs for general use (very few of which will get you 'high').

Malcolm

 

Thats the thing though. I know some of you are gonna think im some dumb pothead when i say this... but why not keep the "high" in? Why take it out just because a few people get all uppity about it and think of it as immoral? Heck with that. Whats wrong with a cancer patient getting high while they get treatment?

 

for many preparations the 'high' is a bonus side effect - especially with patients on chemotherapy. However, it is technically an unwanted effect.

Its also very hard (perhaps impossible - we'll know soon) that the 'high' cannot be separated from the other neurological effects such as increased appetite, reduced motor coordination, hypothermia and memory impairment. If you were taking a cannabis-like medicine for gluacoma or as an immunosuppressant you might not want those side effects in addition to the 'high'.

Malcolm

 

Ok, i accept that.

 

Thanks for the technical advice malkie. I also am amazed at how mis or uninformed people are regarding what drugs are. the all drugs are evil sentement is so out of touch with reality. I guess Nancy reagan got to a few people after all

Kaine i agree with your point. I dont think we should tke the high out of it regarding sick people. If they can take Xanax or other mood enhancing drugs why not canabis.

I seriously think that if alot of these anti drug crudsaders actually how bad off these dying people had it they might change their mind on the use of marijuana for medical reasons.

 

glad I could help

I don't offer opinion - I just offer science - you make up your own minds

Malcolm

 

Canadians are going to the polls to legalize drugs shortly with a 70% majority of the people's approval. They follow Spain, Italy, Portugal and others which have in essence legalized pot.

Pot is no different than having a beer and far less dangerous according to the Canadian Police.

The US's (Mr. Bush's) position--except for some states--is archaic. Historically, I understand that the US's illegalization of marijuana was to prevent Mexico from profiting from it's exportation of the crop.

 

I thought it was made illegal so drug companies didn't loose all their money to the miracle weed?

The US has always had an anti-drug environment. Alot of people would ban alcohol and cigarettes if they had their choice as well. It has less to do with conspiracy theories and more to do with modern day chrisitian morality in our society. On a personal level I don't give a flying duck what someone does. If my friends light up, I won't say anything.

On the grand scale I don't want to encourage yet another drug that lowers IQ when behind the wheel. If people are responsible with it, and smoke it at home when they don't have plans to go anywhere, thats one thing, but unlike alcohol it's easy to conceal. As a boss it's hard to know whether the guy is going out back for a cig or for a joint. It lends itself to more situations that it doesn't belong in.

Just because people are going to do it either way doesn't mean it's a good idea.

 

sleazo, I was only commenting on drug legalization. If marijuana has medical uses, it's fine with me if they use it.

 

I think tabacco should be made illegal, and I think marijuana should stay illegal(at least smoking). It's not just what's in the pot, but what's in the smoke. You can get all the diseases from smoking marijuana that you can get from smokin tabacco. It doesn't take that much to cause severe side effects.

After smoking marijuana, THC stays in your system and in your brain for up to TEN days. So, essentially, a person could be high for those ten days.

What's ironic is that a lot of cancer patients that smoke marijuana probably got their cancer from smoking tabacco or something else.