I've heard a couple of references to this over the past couple of days, thought I'd throw in my perspective ...
The State of California is preparing to vote on Prop. 19, the legalization of marijuana use.
They've already passed laws making it very easy to produce and dispense marijuana for 'medicinal' purposes. What a joke. Any pothead that wants to get some can get a sympathetic 'doctor' to write them a presecription - the California NORML organization even has a directory of doctors who will fill this 'need'. In all of the video and pictures I have seen of 'medical' marijuana operations and use in California, I have never seen anyone who looks remotely like a patient. Every single one of them is a refugee from a Cheech and Chong movie.
Potheads still claim that pot has medicinal purposes. That's a stretch - the only thing it can do is dull the senses and help relieve some pain. I recognize that is a legitimate use of the weed. However, the thousands of 'patients' in California don't all have terminal cancer. I would imagine that about 95% of all the prescriptions written out there have no medical basis whatsoever.
The whole left coast is on track to legalize the stuff. Once that happens, it will start moving eastward.
I have a question.
Smoking cigarrettes has been deemed to be an evil health risk. Tobacco has been demonized (rightfully so) to the point where tobacco use is rally shrinking. The Federal Government long ago deemed tobacco to be a public health risk, and has enforced many regulations and taxes on it, trying to make it go away. I hate cigarettes and tobacco. It took my father from me, and will take my mother from me in the near future.
Smoking marijuana is worse for the health than tobacco. Anyone who has smoked a joint knows how badly it affects the lungs. Why isn't the Federal Government attacking marijuana on this basis? All the people in California who think cigarettes are bad for you and should be banned - why in the hell do you think marijuana is any better?
Update - So now, the fighting has come out front and center between the potheads and the 'corporates' and 'feds' who want to control and tax legal weed.
Oakland's City Council is looking at awarding 4 licenses to pot growing factories to be located within Oakland. Each license is to cost $211,000 in annual licensing fees, and hand over 8% of their revenue as tax to the City. These are wholesalers - the indivudual retail outlets that sell the weed would also pay fees and taxes. The City is expecting to receive over $3,000,000 from the sale of pot within its city limits. Anyone growing pot other than the 4 factories will be subject to arrest and fine. So, the potheads who are growing weed in 3 rooms of their 4 room house are going to be put out of business. Not exactly what they expected, is it? By the way, how many seriously ill patients must there be in Oakland to support 4 large scale factories' worth of production? Medical use only ... right ...
The City of Berkely adopted measures to tax pot growing facilities, mandate free pot to low income users, employ organic only growing procedures, and force the purchase of 'carbon offsets' for the large amount of electricity that pot growers use.
The City of Long Beach is going to require any 'medical' marijuana dispensary in its city limits to use only pot that was grown within the city limits. They aren't trying to reduce the amount of marijuana sold - no, they want to reduce the amount of non-Long Beach grown marijuana sold. By the way - Long Beach has more than 90 medical marijuana dispensaries operating currently. That's a whole lot of seriously sick people in a city whose population is under a half million folks. Good grief, 3/4 of their residents must be in the hospital dying ...
How could there be any doubt in one's mind as to why California is the most F***ed up state in America?
5 comments:
There is scientific evidence to back the use of cannabis medically for all types of conditions due to the fact that every human on the planet has cannabinoid receptors in their bodies which are heavily concentrated in the liver and brain with a lesser concentration head to toe. I'm a gulf war veteran suffering with over 20 different diagnosis and i'm a former police officer who once believed those things that you say-until i was in the position to try it myself after taking care of my life partner during the later stages of cancer and seeing the benefits. Please take the time to look at the research because you are balking directly at scientific evidence. there is now proof that the use of cannabinoid therapy can stop the progression of cancer and Alzheimer's and the American Medical Association-the Doctors association-has also validated the fact that it is medication. There will always be abuses of any substance from drinking too much water to hard narcotics, but no one has ever died or overdosed from the use of cannabis in over 8000 documented years of consumption around the world. I'm sorry you've been led down the path of the refer madness as generations have tried to believe-but taking the time to review the evidence will get you out of the herd of brainwashed thinkers and into the reality of what this plant can do for the body. try watching a movie like "How weed won the west" "grass" "cannabis the evil weed" and you can see the scientific and social data you seem to be lacking. You can also do a google search and find so much more from reputable scientific and governmental findings. Feel free to contact NORML.org and you will find even more information that has been researched by doctors, lawyers and researchers who have done their homework for you. Your government lied to you and you're believing it.
and by the way, unlike cigarettes which are known to cause cancer-cannabis is a bronchildilator and utilized correctly will actually improve breathing....try searching for that and you will find it.
CJ - I will defer to you and your medical knowledge. I am sure there are a small number of people who could be treated with marijuana. I am curious - for your specific symptoms, what did marijuana do for you? Did it cure your illness? Did it halt the progression of the illness? Or, did it just make you feel better? That is not a loaded question - I am really curious.
My point is that of all the thousands of people who have gotten presecriptions for 'medical' marijuana in California, how many of them have legitimate medical needs to have it? A small percentage, I am sure. I see NORML (and I have researched them), and I see an organization that has been pushing for legalization for much longer than anyone thought there were medical benefits. The medical uses are a side show for them - a grasp at legitimacy for their efforts. They simply want to get high whenever they feel like it.
If someone has a medical need, then they should be OK with getting a legitimate prescription for it. After all, you can't get prescription opiates or other pain killers at the local 7 Eleven.
Medical use of marijuana should be controlled just as the medical use of opiates and other prescription pain killers. I am not aware of any state or federal law that prohibits that. Folks who have a problem with that are not looking for it for a medical purpose - they just want to get high.
Just my opinion.
Anon - My father died of lung issues, caused by a lifetime of smoking. For the last couple of years, the doctors told him to continue to smoke, because it kept his lungs open - a bronchiodialator. Smoke of any kind is bad for your lungs.
Medical research is like political polling - you can make the research show anything you like, just by manipulating the question and tests to show what you want. Someone who wants to legalize pot will look at a set of data and determine one outcome - a person who does not want it legal will look at the same data and find a different outcome.
CJ - aother question if I may ...
What specific benefit would you see if pot was legalized?
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