Medical Marijuana: Let's Get Stoned!

[Lyle Elmgren]

Many seniors today have survived the days of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll are now using more pharmaceuticals than in their youth.  

During the sixties and early seventies, Woodstockers used marijuana and assorted hallucinogens as a way of expanding their consciousness, as well as flipping the bird at the establishment. Dope was part of their prescription for a new socio-political paradigm of peace, liberalism, free love, and anti-war.

Songs such as Puff the Magic Dragon(Peter, Paul and Mary, 1963) and Blowin' in the Wind(Bob Dylan, 1963) commented on the loss of innocence and the desire for peace, freedom, and no wars.  

Influential thinkers, such as Aldos Huxley's in Doors of Perception, William Burroughs's in Naked Lunch and Alan Watt's in Joyous Cosmology fuelled the ambitions of Woodstockers to change things.

There is evidence that Cannabis has a history of use as a medicine, dating back to 2737 BCE. Cannabis is one of the 50 fundamental herbs of traditional Chinese medicine and has been prescribed for relief from a broad range of conditions including depression, pain, glaucoma, MS, HIV, breast cancer, and Lou Gehrig disease(ALS).

In the past, depression was seen as a psychotic illness treated with electric shock therapy, confinement to the looney bin and irreversible lobotomies to tame the brain, much as in the film, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Current research has changed the way mental illnesses are treated. Without this change, thousands of people with an altered state of brain chemistry, due to depression, would still be institutionalized.

The harm caused by smoking medical marijuana can be minimized or largely eliminated by ingesting it or using it in a vaporized form.

In the mid 70's, President Jimmy Carter was prepared to support legalization of medical marijuana. The next President, Ronald Reagan, declared war on drugs, lumping Cannabis in with cocaine and heroine as 'bad drugs' under the Controlled Substance Act.

A January 2010 ABC poll showed that 80 percent of Americans believed that medical cannabis should be legal in the United States.

In December, 2012, the government of Canada introduced legislation proposing that the distribution of prescribed medical marijuana will only be legally available through dispensaries approved by Health Canada.   

Reliable sources indicate that in 2002, there were fewer than 500 patients in Canada authorized to benefit from the Marijuana Medical Access Program. That number has since grown to more than 26,000.

My view is that all drugs are poisons of some sort. The debate on legalizing marijuana for medical purposes continues.







 

[JMac1949 Memories]

Not in California, here it's a done deal... BTW: Regulations and restrictions on the sale of Cannabis sativa as a drug began as early as 1860. Increased restrictions and labeling of cannabis as a poison began in many states from 1906 onward, and outright prohibitions began in the 1920s. By the mid-1930s Cannabis was regulated as a drug in every state, including 35 states that adopted the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act and the FDA under Nixon elevated cannabis to a Schedule I drug according to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which classified cannabis as having high potential for abuse, no medical use, and not safe to use under medical supervision.  I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that weed was a drug of choice among black jazz musicians - Louis Armstrong was high every day of his adult life.

[Lyle Elmgren]

JMac1949. 

Thanks  for these comments. I love to learn and get the insights of others. Take Care.

[Marlene Dunham]

I live in Wa State.  Any use (in your own home) has just been legalized here, however, it is still illegal to buy or grow. ?

[lorianne]

before i go off on a rant let me state that i do not smoke pot even though legally i could do so here in california. i have not smoked pot since i was19 or so, which was a very looooong time ago. i like to clarify that because people seem to think the only ones advocating for medical marijuana are pot-heads... not so. i would advocate as strongly for any substance shown to have high (pardon my pun) benefit/low risk when used medically.

cannabis is not a drug by any stretch of the imagination.  Why? well, because it is not derived based on a formula, its a natural product. it also has no toxicity (One hundred per cent of the scores of studies by American universities and research facilities show that toxicity does not exist in cannabis). clinical studies conducted (for example, US-Jamaican, US-Costa Rican, LaGuardia, etc) have revealed that cannabis contains no addictive properties in any part of the plant or its smoke.    this in contrast to cigarettes and alcohol...both legal.

there are powerful lobbies trying to keep cannabis illegal. its simple dollars and cents... and just sad for all who could/would benefit from its use.

[Lyle Elmgren]

lorianne. Thanks for sharing  your beliefs  and information. I think there is a cultural stigma surrounding Cannabis because it was connected to the drug scene  of the 60's and 70's. I have a friend with Parkinson's Disease. She suffers great pain and takes a very expensive prescription drug many times more powerful than morphine.  She is thinking about not taking it anymore because it knocks for a loop. I am not a doctor or pharmacist, so I don't know what other opinions she might have. Sad. Maybe,  Cannabis would work?

BTW, I think Our Salon is a great site.

[Lyle Elmgren]

Marlene Dunham. Under the proposed Canadian legislation it will be illegal to grow your own.  Health Canada will approve  the suppliers and the cost of medical marijuana will increase from $5 /gm to at least $8/gm. It is shocking why governments seem to regulate practically all aspects citizens' lives. I guess they own us. Perhaps there are tax dollars involved.

Thanks for commenting.