Category Archives: Health

intellectuals support legalization 3

Walter Cronkite, recognized as one of the most trustworthy men in America during his news career, published a letter (found in the Huffington Post) telling why the war on drugs was wrong.

Telling the Truth About the War on Drugs

Excerpt from the article:

“I covered the Vietnam War. I remember the lies that were told, the lives that were lost – and the shock when, twenty years after the war ended, former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara admitted he knew it was a mistake all along.

Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home. While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens.

I am speaking of the war on drugs.

And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain for all to see: the war on drugs is a failure.

While the politicians stutter and stall – while they chase their losses by claiming we could win this war if only we committed more resources, jailed more people and knocked down more doors – the Drug Policy Alliance continues to tell the American people the truth – “the way it is.”

I’m sure that’s why you support DPA’s mission to end the drug war. And why I strongly urge you to support their work by giving a generous donation today.

You see, I’ve learned first hand that the stakes just couldn’t be higher.

When I wanted to understand the truth about the war on drugs, I took the same approach I did to the war in Vietnam: I hit the streets and reported the story myself. I sought out the people whose lives this war has affected.”

marijuana memo #4

I’m for legalization of marijuana under any fair set of rules. I’m not for a legalized free for all. I am for judicious medical use of any beneficial substance. I’m not for the abuse of any substance. Whatever happened to the golden mean? Where is moderation in this or reason for that matter? When will we stop believing violence cures people. We incarcerate those who don’t agree with us and assuage our damaged consciences by misusing ourselves. No wonder we’ve got such short lifespans. There’s got to be a better way.

I examine some reasons for practical consistency in our thinking.

stubborn facts

I was just listening to Dr. Bob Melamede’s talk at the 2006 NORML Conference. And though Dr. Bob’s Cannabuzz podcast is a bit irritating because much of it is text read by computer, it is some of the most substantive science about cannabis and the human body. I have heard the following in a few of his speeches. It is astounding in its simplicity, coherence, plea for reason and behavior based on truth.

One key point to his speech is that people who are deficient in cannabinoids cannot learn effectively. So the very people who are in charge of the political system are likely to be deficient in cannaboids. They are certain about history and will not see the future. Hearing the truth about cannabis, they “cannot rewire” and learn another way of thinking. They are the primitive people reverting to the age old popular wisdom (false) about pot.

Ending his speech he says:

Science is the search for truth. My religious beliefs are that truth matters, that physics drives evolution, that evolution has selected cannabanoids to prolong life and relieve suffering. As an evolutionist, science says I must wisely use cannabis for physical, mental and global health. This is my religion. I am being denied my religion, my fact-based religion by laws made by people who have faith-based religions.

I think he is correct in this, and faith-based religions can include the secular religion of conservatism or liberalism, or God-based religions of Christianity or Islam. As a member of the Christian religion, broadly speaking, I am ashamed of my group perpetuating such ignorance. Certainly this is not universal. Many Christians are fully aware of the consequences of their beliefs. But often we are as culturally hidebound as bigots of the old South. I am not interested in getting in a shouting match with them, even though what I say may be true.

The real fact of the matter, irrespective of your religious persuasion, is that facts, stubborn facts, will remain in place in the face of irrational laws, shouting, drug wars and any well reasoned opposition. They will remain in place to speak against rules which turn out to be anti human, irrational, counterproductive and damaging to all society.

curious commentary

I was reading one of the comments about this podcast found on the iTunes music store by tfoo. In it s/he applauds the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Tfoo’s mother used marijuana during chemo treatment “to great effect during her struggle with breast cancer.” This frank admission is certainly welcome even though this podcast receives only one star for my efforts. This seems to be a case where if tfoo had not had some positive contact with marijuana, there would not be even a tiny bit of sympathy for the project of fact finding I am interested in.

I am interested in finding the fairly large minority who has heard of some positive effect of marijuana use in medicine. The growing number of states that approve medical marijuana, the growing number of physicians who surreptitiously “recommend” marijuana for their patients, the patients who have found surceace in its natural and largly benign emollient will eventually win out over those who without knowing what they do because of their rudimentary moral development believe punishment cures desire and prevents further entry of the devil into our already amoral society.

Little do these moral tyros know, but it is their trust in the legal system to solve moral problems that is largely the cause of the terrible fix we are in. In my most recent meditations, I resolved that most people who are subject to the depredations of the current punitive system are adults. However, the system is designed as a method of discipline for the unruly. Have these people even had children yet? Don’t they realize that at the age of 18 or so, individuals will basically do what they want and that discipline of these sorts is an abridgment of their rights, not to mention a subversion of their adult responsibilities.

What tfoo is asking us to do, with respect to the recreational use of marijuana, is that the system of punishments currently in place, a paternalistic attempt to control autonomous persons, is to be accepted as necessary in order to eradicate that behavior. What they don’t tell us is why we should give our rights up to these persons. At least they don’t give us any factual reasons.

What tfoo does not do is spend the slightest bit of time looking at the facts of the drug war. We do not find out the cause of tfoo’s niece’s death, and I really couldn’t guess, but if his lashing out at attempts to rationalize the debate is caused by some bad experience with a drug problem, I am in perfect sympathy with his response.

My contention, of course, is that the major cause of damage to our society is not marijuana itself, but the federal prohibitions against it for both medical and recreational use. One could do less damage to themselves, their families and careers using pot for years than they could by being arrested for possessing a small amount of it.

Tfoo applauds my courage for doing this podcast, but should probably laugh at the foolishness of it. I say that though I love my current circumstances, this podcast might be reason enough for some of those who employ me to remove me from my post, though I wouldn’t call that justice. I have in the past fallen on my sword with respect to my concern for honesty and the truth, but believe that like the phoenix, the truth of my case raised me from the ashes my exile into better circumstances than those I lost. Make no mistake about some lofty notions of advancement here, I am driven by my muse to expose myself to threat even with the near certainty of large-scale grief.

I would like to offer mutual respect for tfoo’s position, but say that respect is only due for work done, not for a position gratuitiously adopted as a convenient reaction to moral ambiguity.

I welcome his response here and invite a sane discussion.

amotivational without pot

states flout federal law

I am listening to a web chat between Angel Raich who was involved in the failed Supreme Court case on medical marijuana, Ethan Nadelmann and Dan Abrahamson of the Drug Policy Alliance. Dan said that in the late nineteen twenties, early thirties, states had begun to repeal their own prohibition laws essentially saying to the federal government, “If you want to enforce these laws you will do it without our cooperation.”

It is Dan’s view that the same state of affairs is growing currently in the U.S. with respect to marijuana that existed then with respect to alcohol. This put into perspective the view I held subconsciously. The federal government, with all its political clout will end up a prince without any subjects. All the pressure it is currently putting on states to prevent or turn back medical marijuana legislation or even decriminalization statutes will be in vain in the near future.

The federal government is currently enforcing its harsh penalties against marijuana even though the base of voters that agrees with those policies is steadily diminishing, irrespective of their desire to use marijuana personally.

media campaign

I found the link for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign listening to the Scientific American podcast (sa_podcast_060216.mp3) where Bruce Merkin of the Marijuana Policy Project was interviewed. This was fascinating. He and SA staffer, Steve Mersky discussed the British classification for marijuana use. The Brits downgraded marijuana to the lowest classification (C) of illicit drug in 2004. Then worrying over reports about the dangers of marijuana, set a committee of scientists to study reports of the effects. The committee reaffirmed the government’s decision to downgrade marijuana.

Merkin, who gave the link (above), says the difference between the U.S. and British policy is that the Brits have chosen to be guided by science while the U.S. has clung to mythology. The Brits recognize that marijuana is not harmless, but that its harms are relatively limited. “In the U.S. marijuana has been stigmatized in such a way as to make U.S. policy impervious to data.”

The media campaign is serious, but flawed by this mythos. In all my research, I have never heard of any responsible pro-marijuana group suggesting marijuana is harmless, but that its harms are within the bounds of tolerance for a responsible adult user. Certainly alcohol and tobacco are both more addictive than marijuana and cause quantifiable harm to hundreds of thousands of men and women each year. And the U.S. experiment with prohibition was a dramatic failure. Marijuana just doesn’t have the long-term historical association with high western culture that alcohol does.

Mentioning the benefits of medical marijuana is nearly anathema to the campaign. They allude to the use of THC for cancer and AIDS patients, but make it sound as if this is a last resort medicine because of marijuana’s inherent dangers, warning us that this is not a medicine to be used trivially!

What should we do with the campaign? Watch the movies, understand the rhetoric, teach our kids the real story and become part of the grass roots (or should I say buds) effort to wrest control of this issue from the hands of the tyrants.