MarijuanaNews.com : Czar’s “Strategy” On Medical Marijuana Aimed At Justifying Raids On Dispensaries. National Drug Control Strategy 2008 Part Deux “The Medical Marijuana Movement Manipulation, Not Medicine”

Posted March 4, 2008

Analysis by Richard Cowan See
Old Lies in A New Package. Drug Czar’s “2008 National Drug Control Strategy” Again Demonstrates the Drug War Is Really A War on Cannabis Users. Part One – Potency

“The Medical Marijuana Movement Manipulation, Not Medicine”

From page 18, in special box National Drug Control Strategy 2008

(MarijuanaNews note: Last month the American College of Physicians became the latest medical group to call for an end to the federal attacks on patients who use medical cannabis, basing their position on the 1999 Institute of Medicine report which was paid for by the Drug Czar’s office.

See
Party Like It’s 1999! American College of Physicians Bases Its Endorsement of Medical Marijuana on 1999 IOM Report, Sponsored by Drug Czar, and Czar’s Office Says It Is “A Political Act.”

Naturally, the Drug Czar acts like none of these people even exist. Medical cannabis is thus just a vast hippy conspiracy, funded by billions and billions of dollars from George Soros.

See

On World AIDS Day Medical Cannabis Is Not Just A Forbidden Medicine, It is A Forbidden Topic.

Of all the absurdities in this “Strategy”, this is the worst, and it leaves one wondering who the intended audience really is. Unfortunately, I think it is aimed primarily at law enforcement, the Drug War’s subsidized constituency (listed on page after page of the “Strategy”, and the sort of people Lenin called the “useful idiots” in the media, like the editors of the Tacoma News Tribune and the San Diego Union-Tribune.
See

It’s The Stupidity, Stupid. How the Prohibitionist Ideology Has Wrecked The Republican Party and Undermined Democracy Everywhere. When Ideology Trumps Reality, The Result is Stupidity.
and

Tacoma News Tribune Editorial Lies About American College of Physicians Report on Medical Marijuana. Or Did They Actually Read It?

Learning About Prohibitionism: House Debate on Medical Marijuana Bill Offers New Insight Into Police State Ideology.

and

Tacoma News Tribune Editorial Lies About American College of Physicians Report on Medical Marijuana. Or Did They Actually Read It?

Science, Democracy, Ideology and the Prohibitionist Police State. Marijuana Use Doesn’t Hurt “Thinking Skills” But Prohibition Does. Analysis by Richard Cowan

and

Tacoma News Tribune Editorial Lies About American College of Physicians Report on Medical Marijuana. Or Did They Actually Read It?

and

The San Diego Union-Tribune Poisons Its Readers. The Albany Times Union Offers An Antidote.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is charged with testing and approving the safety and effectiveness of new medications before they are sold on the open market. The FDA has determined that the smoked form of marijuana is not an approved medicine.

(MarijuanaNews note: For those who have just arrived at the prohibitionist propaganda cesspool, “smoked” is the code word that tries to use the anti-tobacco smoking movement to tar – pardon the pun – medical cannabis.)

See
“No Medicine Is Smoked.” Okay, But Why Isn’t Cannabis Sold Over-the-Counter? New MAPS/NORML Vaporizer Study Undermines Key Part Of Prohibitionist Party Line On “Smoked-Marijuana.”

and

More Arresting Developments. Record Marijuana Arrests Go Unreported. “No Medicine Is Smoked” – So DEA Busts Edibles Maker.

While smoked marijuana may allow patients to temporarily feel better, the medical community makes an important distinction between these feelings and the controlled delivery of pure pharmaceutical medication.

(MarijuanaNews note: In other words, the Czar is saying that modality is more important than results. Also, notice that most of the people who use medical cannabis use it for pain relief, to “allow patients to temporarily feel better”, and that is something that the patient is almost always better able to judge than the doctor, or even the Czar.)

See
Meanwhile UK Painkillers Kill 2,000 Per Year. But They Are Sold Over-the-Counter So They Must Be Safe!
and

UK Doctor Studies Cannabis for Pain Relief in Debilitating Illnesses.

In 1996, California became the first State to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. California’s Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, was intended to ensure that “seriously ill” residents of the State had access to marijuana for medical purposes, and to encourage Federal and State governments to take steps toward ensuring the safe and affordable distribution of the drug to patients in need.

(MarijuanaNews note: It is interesting that they would quote that much of 215, because the Federal has certainly not done its part, and officials in much of the state refuse even to comply with state law. However, the Czar omits an important part of the initiative. It also says,

(A) To ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where that medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person’s health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.

(B) To ensure that patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes upon the recommendation of a physician are not subject to criminal prosecution or sanction.)

See
Full Text of Proposition 215 Compassionate Use Act of 1996

California now has more than 12,000 registered medical marijuana cardholders and an estimated 310 medical marijuana dispensaries. The quantity of medical marijuana moving through each dispensary is staggering: conservative estimates suggest at least 500 pounds of marijuana per year per dispensary. This means 155,000 pounds of marijuana moved for “medical” purposes or 12.29 pounds of marijuana per registered patient. As approximately 1,200 marijuana cigarettes can be made per pound, each user would be provided with 14,734 marijuana cigarettes per year, or 41 marijuana cigarettes a day.

(MarijuanaNews note: The Czar’s office knows perfectly well that California state law does not require that patients register, so 12,000 does not begin to cover the total number of patients. Thus that paragraph can only be intended to deceive.)

Many counties and cities in California are beginning to recognize the negative impact that dispensaries are having on their communities and are passing local ordinances that do not allow them. For example, the San Diego Police Department has received numerous citizen complaints regarding every dispensary operating in San Diego County.

Typical complaints include:

High levels of traffic to and from the dispensaries •

People loitering in the parking lot of the dispensaries •

People smoking marijuana in the parking lot of the dispensaries •

Vandalism near dispensaries •

Threats made by dispensary employees to employees of other businesses.
(MarijuanaNews note: Mind boggling! The people of San Diego must be living in a constant state of terror!)

An analysis of 3,636 patient records seized at several dispensaries in San Diego show that half the customers purchasing marijuana from October 2005 through July 2006 were between the ages of 17 and 30, and only 2.05 percent of customers obtained physician recommendations for medical conditions such as glaucoma or cancer.

(MarijuanaNews note: First, isn’t nice to know that the DEA has gone through the medical records of 3,636 Americans! These people have not been charged with any crime.

Second, even though younger people are more aware of the medical value of cannabis, and are less afraid to seek it out, half of the patients were still over 30.

Third, most people with cancer and glaucoma find that conventional medications work for them, at least for a while, so it is not surprising that so few of the patients had these diseases.

Fourth, it is ironic that much of the rest of the “Strategy” is devoted to the problem of the diversion of prescription drugs for non-medical use, so even if the Czar’s analysis of the medical cannabis distribution system were correct, it is same in the “legal” pharmaceutical industry. [I will be writing about that problem soon.])
From 2004, see
John Walters Says, “Prescription Drug Abuse Is The Second Largest Illicit Drug Problem” – After Cannabis, Of Course! Different Measures for “Success” and Failure. Seeking New Victims.

Many of the organizations that are supporting medical marijuana efforts have been trying to legalize marijuana and other drugs for over 20 years.

From NORML: the American Nurses Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and many other medical associations are calling for cannabis to be made a legal medicine.

The leaders of these organizations are by and large not from the medical community and are exploiting the terminally ill to reach their objective of legalizing illicit drugs.

See
California Narks Lie to Justify Disobeying Prop 215. And They Lie About Me In The Process.
and
The Murder of Robin Prosser. An Indictment of Karen Tandy and Motorola – By Their Own Words and Standards.
and
Reading Between The Lies. New Version of An Old Lie About My Saying Medical Cannabis Is A “Scam” May Be Clue to New Prohibitionist Party Line. Only A Few Hundred Patients?

Proponents of medical marijuana legislation or ballot initiatives have generally offered testimonials, not scientific data, that smoked marijuana helps patients suffering from AIDS, cancer, and other painful diseases to “feel better.” The same report could be made by people, be they ill or healthy, who consume heroin or cocaine. But these claims are not, and never should be, the primary test for declaring a substance a recognized medication. The medical community routinely prescribes drugs with standardized modes of administration that are safe and have been shown to be effective at treating the ailments that marijuana proponents claim are relieved by smoking marijuana. Bioresearch and medical judgment, not the drug legalization lobby, should determine the safety and effectiveness of drugs in America.

(MarijuanaNews note: First, in democracies decisions about the criminal laws are made by the people and/or their elected representatives, not by bureaucrats – with or without guns and badges. The various state medical cannabis laws are simply exemptions from criminal laws, based on the popular belief that sick people should be allowed to use a plant if they think it makes them feel better.

Second, in the real world, the FDA has approved many drugs that have subsequently been withdrawn after clinical data (anecdotes from/about patients) have demonstrated that they are not safe. There are thousands of doctors and millions of patients (not 12,000) who have seen that cannabis sometimes works to relieve suffering better than pharmaceuticals.)

See
If Cannabis Could Cure Cancer, They Would Tell Us, Right? No. Very Simply, It Would Undermine Cannabis Prohibition. Steve Kubby Is The Living Proof.

and
Program Notes for the MarijuanaNews World Report April 19, 2005 Sativex, Approved for Use In Canada. Proves Medical Value of Plant. Hires Prohibitionist Quack. Dangerous Pain Killers. Czar’s Idiocy.
and
No, Cannabis Will Not Be “The 21st Century Aspirin” – Because It Doesn’t Kill Anyone! People Suffer And Die, While “Scientists” Try To Pharmaceuticalize The Aspirin Of the 21st Century B.C.