Aside from the DUI factor, almost all the negative press on marijuana, including the bunk studies that it 'does nothing', is the direct product of the pharmaceutical industry. They have so much money - so much - that they can fund entire studies within their facilities and produce skewed results, and then publish those results via the newspapers. Corporate research in America is not always subject to peer review.
Every single person - EVERY one - that I have met who uses medical marijuana for this problems, has had improvement and alleviation of pain and symptoms.
If marijuana were legalized tomorrow, it would replace a slew of pharmaceutical drugs that are basically poison for the body. It would also open the gateway to hemp, which would replace other industries. I'm telling you, the reason why it's illegal and continues to be, is industry. They will lobby until the cows come home, investing millions of dollars, to stop this native plant from being legalized.
digsbe said:
As I've said though. We have the active THC molecule in pill form as dronabinol. It's medically unnecessary to legalize marijuana. And it's medically illogical to approve of a method of delivery that includes bringing into the body carcinogens and other harmful chemicals. I'm not arguing that MJ has no medical benefits. I'm arguing that MJ is unnecessary and we have better alternatives.
Just wanted to address all of the incorrect points in this.
Pot is not proven to cause cancer, not in the least. Both the AMA and the British Medical Association have determined that there is no evidence that it causes cancer. Now, absence of proof is not proof of absence, but there is not one recorded case
in existence of someone who smoked pot and got cancer. Not one. Every so-called study that finds the cancer link has done research on people who smoke pot
and tobacco, so the controls are not effective. The tar can be problematic, as it can lead to a higher incidence of bronchitis, but that's it. No cancer link established concretely, and trust me, I have researched this thoroughly.
Secondly... pot in a pill is ineffective. THC is only one cannabinoid in the cannabis plant, there are dozens of others, many of which modern science has not even fully examined yet. This is because there is no profit incentive to do so. It's the same reason why there are many people who can't get the same effect from vaporizing; they need all of the active compounds and vaporizing doesn't do that. So, putting one chemical into a pill is a far cry from the whole plant and its entire chemistry. Maybe if we legalized it, we could do better research into all of its components.
And finally... there are MANY forms of therapy that pot comes in. There are people who use cannabis-based cream to apply to their sore, arthritic joints. It works like a charm. There are people who eat pot in cooked form in order to relax their bodies and offset anxiety. Pot isn't just smoked. It can be taken in many different forms, so even
if there is a correlative cancer link, and even
if smoking it is controversial, there are many other ways to take it which cannot be possibly be cancerous.
This is about the pharmaceutical industry and its obscene profits. They don't want this medicine becoming widely available again like it was before the 1920's and the Reefer Madness campaign. They have no right to tell me or anyone what medicine I can or cannot use, and I certainly will not buy their expensive, poisonous crap if I can be using a safe, natural, and stress-relieving alternative.
People who DUI with pot are taking a big risk, but that has nothing to do with the medical benefits and the freedom of choice in medicine. There is plenty of research that clearly concludes pot is an effective medical treatment. Throwing people in jail for that is a crime against humanity. The War on Drugs needs to end NOW.