Did you guys see this?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43692468/ns/health-health_care/


I have one question, if pot doesn't have any medical purpose, then why does the US government hold the patent rights on using pot for medical purposes??

Our goverment is a disgrace at all levels.

Can anybody be proud to be a part of this train wreck any more?

The feds have gotten one or two other things wrong before. This comes as no big surprise. The government proves yet again that it is more responsive to $lobbying$ than to right and wrong and what makes sense.

Sg

Yeah, and the WA state legislature and gov totally screwed up the state's medical marijuana law, hanging cancer patients and their providers out to dry. That's fvckin' sick.

Sg

But if you want to be Solicitor General or some other Fed job, you don't piss off the Feds.

At least Oxycontin is still legal.....I mean.. we all know the "potential for abuse" is so much lower when it comes from Bristol-Squibb, et al.

I see MJ being legal in the next 3-5 yrs...then we'll have to lock up our white wimmen. Less'n they be molested by pot smokin' negroes. tic

Those pieces of sh!t had better hope I'M not the cancer patient some day.

They'd learn to regret being the dung beetles that they are if and when that happens.

No chit.

In all seriousness...I too hope you aren't a cancer patient someday.

I'm sorry to report that my dear mother is dying of pancreatic cancer.
Marinol, a marijuana derivative is one of the meds that she takes.
It stimulates the appetite which helps make her last days a bit more tolerable.
Even that was hard to acquire for her.

This is a DEA ruling not a court, I'm not even sure why they have a say in the matter? I always thought LE enforced laws not made them. You can read the ruling by clicking (here) in the original post.

Direct-Drive, I'm sorry to hear your Mom has pancreatic cancer. Lost my mother to ovarian cancer; she got her diagnosis and was placed in hospice care the same day. My sister in law passed away from pancreatic cancer just 30 days after diagnosis. Cancer is a bitch! If marijuana gives those battling cancer a moment of relief, mentally or physically, it should be readily and cheaply available. You would have to be a heartless SOB to deny a patient this respite from suffering.

Thanks for the kinds words.
In April she was teaching Photo Shop and driving around in her PT Cruiser. Then SHTF.

On the 25th of this month she'll turn 83, she's fought off cancer 3x before and she's had a good life.
Cancer however, is still a bitch.

Sounds like one tough lady.

Don't want to derail this thread, but thanks all.

Imagine, Marinol, legal in all 50 states since 1985 with a prescription and some doctors still don't want to touch it.
Reefer Madness must have worked on them.....afraid of that knock on the door.

My sympathies to those who have friends or relatives fighting cancer. A former co-worker of mine is doing the same, and finally six months after the initial discovery of his cancerous brain tumor and surgery, it's stopped growing or advancing. But he's getting two kinds of chemo for it, and thanks to the MJ cookies and brownies his wife and friends bake, he's handling it.

I get a bit of rage knowing those sick fvcks would deny any kind of drug that can help cancer and other patients. It's so far beyond idiotic, it makes me want to go all Dan S. and light up a flame thrower . . .

Meanwhile the pharmaceutical companies have successfully fought all efforts to control the cold medicines that tweekers make meth with. Oregon had the crap put behind the pharmacist counter and meth manufacture dropped to almost nothing. Why don’t the other states do this - oh yeah, cuz the pharmaceutical companies own the farkinf politicians. Hey, let's see if we can find a tax loophole to help them out.

Just so we keep our incompetent Feds straight....it was not a DEA ruling, it was a DHHS (Dept. of Health and Human Services ruling. "The Department of Justice declared Friday: "DHHS concluded that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision." "

Really. Must have been a while seen they have taken a look at alcohol.

Based on the DHHS evaluation and all other relevant data, DEA has concluded that there
is no substantial evidence that marijuana should be removed from schedule I. A document
prepared by DEA addressing these materials in detail also is attached hereto. In short, marijuana
continues to meet the criteria for schedule I control under the CSA because:



It looks like DHHS provided the evaluation not the ruling, and I honestly don't care since I gave the chit up in HS. But it's leaving the decision up to the goverment enforcement agency who I can bet gets a large % of it's funding for MJ cases that bothers me.

No one ever mentions how much money the feds, states and cities could save by stopping all MJ prosecutions, enforcement efforts and freeing all people in jail for MJ crimes. All drugs for that matter. Can you imagine if Boner or the tea sacks proposed that in their big plan to cut spending?

Ever watch an episode of Cops and see how excited some of those LEO types get when they bust someone for resin in the bottom of someone's hash pipe?

Some of them get absolutely orgasmic....

Just legalize it, at the very least for people with medical conditions that would benefit from having the munchies.

Is it because it takes money away from DEA and drug companies that sell synthesized versions of it? That would be my guess...Like Tom Joad said we would save a helluva lot of money if all of the MJ cases were dropped. Then LE could concentrate on more important things like strip clubs and baristas.

Chuck,

Are you suggesting that politicians are a "waste product?"

Sg

You're all just a bunch of dope smoking hippies! J/K

Obama doesn't want to be known as the president who legalized pot. Eventually the federal laws will change as the state laws are changing.

Obviously it has its benefits. Also has some undesirable side effects.

"Also has some undesirable side effects."

Yeah, for non-smokers, but that's why they put it in cookie and brownie recipes. Or did you mean that a craving for plain cheerios or a sack of Doritos is an undesirable side effect?

Yeah Salmo you know something is up when the teenagers come raid the kitchen and have the giggles.

Other side effects like tiredness, laziness, short term memory loss, suspect carcinogens.

The side effect argument is weak.

What doesn't have an undesirable side effect..........drug, food, or otherwise?

Name it.

Republican House seems almost certain to reject it, the proposal deserves support from across the political spectrum.

Most of the states, and the fed, would do well to put other things under wraps...like all the pens that the politicians use to write laws, and the nation's pocketbook.

Fish on...

Todd

WA does also.

Marinol is not even close to real bud.....it's a synthesized form of THC. I suppose the natural extraction of the compound is too much for "regular" folks to wrap their small minds around.

Marinol has it's uses but those are mainly big profits for big pharma or docs or both. MJ is demonized because the market demands the product but the .gov can't stop the demand...the Cartels and black market are the supply chain. DEA and every other alphabet soup agency get their fair cut and business continues as usual.

[censored]'em all...................

Typo.

Shouldn't that be 4:20EZ 2MANY?

Simple, Mike...there's the truth, and then there's what you do to get elected...and not often the twain shall meet.

Fish on...

Todd

Its simple:

More money is made keeping it illegal.

Court ordered rehab clinics, fines, "anti-anxiety" meds, beer & liquor industries....

Not to mention using it as an "excuse" for police while they are "profiling."

Keeps the poor and the minorities in debt or in jail...in case you were too stupid to know WTF the war on drugs was all about in the first place.

As with every single thing the Gubmint ever does, no matter what year it is, no matter what party is in power, no matter the weather, the fall lineup on ABC, the concert schedule at the Rose Bowl...whomever wins the Super Bowl, no matter what country gets the Olympics (related topic!), no matter how big the humpy run in the Green is, no matter how many sun flares there are, no matter how many earthquakes there are in SE Asia, no matter how man fires there are in the American southwest, no matter how many skirmishes there are in the Middle East (another related topic)...

No matter what about anything, ever, anywhere...there is one simple rule that always...ALWAYS...is right...it might be the only rule besides "gravity works" and "sun rises in the east"...the only other one that is hard and fast, always, with no exceptions...

Follow the money.

Fish on...

Todd

The bull about pot being a "gateway" drug pisses me off to no end.

I agree that lobbying by pharma companies (and probably alcohol producers and cigarette manufacturers as well) is a major reason why the war on drugs rages on, despite the fact that its hopelessness has been amply proven. Something else to consider is that a lot of people are employed by the war on drugs (the entirety of the DEA, who brought you this lovely article, for example). Without drug offenses, a lot fewer people would be required to enforce the laws of the land, which means unemployment would be significantly higher than it is today. I doubt any elected official wants that increase in unemployment on his/her resume.

tried to think of something smartass to say, but gubmint wont let me...

Check this link out.

See how many joints are given to the patients per month.

THIS PROGRAM IS A FEDERAL PROGRAM. Been around since '78

http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=257

Here is a couple quick videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x-3-5P-z24&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7r8NeKuzt8

Not I said the duck.............

Keith