Pot Saved My Life, Mr. President
Today, in the historic first online town hall, President Obama fielded questions from nearly a hundred thousand people online. One of the most popular questions, and indeed, one of the most popular questions in any forum that lets people vote on what matters to them, was about whether legalizing marijuana would help improve the economy and job creation.
Chuckling, the President said: "I don't know what this says about the online audience, but [laughing] this was a fairly popular question, we want to make sure it was answered. The answer is no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."
I've never smoked pot in my life, indeed I've never smoked anything at all. Despite that, a couple years ago, I needed a double lung transplant. My lungs were scarred beyond repair due to side effects from radiation treatments I'd had nearly a decade earlier in my two battles with cancer.
I lost a lot of weight in this process, to the point where it was life-threatening. My lung doctor suggested "marinol," the synthetic (and legal) version of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. I laughed at him, and asked "Was this going to make me stupid? I don't want to be a pothead!" He said one of his patients put on 40 pounds with it. I didn't have any other option.
It worked. Marinol allowed me to put on enough weight to get me out of the danger zone until we figured out the underlying problem was a bleeding ulcer in my stomach, a reaction to one of the anti-rejection drugs I was taking for the transplant.
Pot saved my life. It's a miracle drug, even the crappy non-organic kind made in a lab.
The President will be asked this question again, and maybe next time he won't laugh at us.
UPDATE: Here's the video:
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i know this guy's old and all, but, his words never rang truer:
"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts
to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime
out of things that are not crimes."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.
563D
"A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which
our government was founded."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.410A
why is it illegal in the first place?
is it because of the timber industry?
is it because of the cotton industry?
is it because of the pharmaceutical industry?
YES.
LEGALIZE IT ! DECRIMINALIZE IT !
If it worked for you, why do you describe it as "crappy"?
-boggle-
I need pot daily in order to quell nausea, soften pain, and increase my appetite. I lost both kidneys 30+ years ago, and have survived literally because of God's Gift to Humans. I am so disgusted that I cannot legally grow this miraculous weed on my own property, which would save me a ton of $ yearly. Perhaps the government is too afraid to find out just how many Americans DO utilize pot for medicinal reasons, such as anxiety and depression. Or maybe Big Pharma doesn't want the competition, Please, President Obama, make my life a lot sweeter by legalizing pot. The states can tax it, feds can regulate it, and we will ALL BE HAPPY!!!
While completely in favor of the use of marijuana for supervised medical purposes, I have a very painful personal experience with how insidious marijuana can be -- particularly in the lives of teenagers. My son was a chronic overuser of marijuana at age 13. Took over 3 three years for him to pull out of it. Was it really about the marijuana? -- no. Did the marijuana exacerbate the situation and make it much more difficult for him to pull himself together? Absolutely. Read Bob Meehan's book, "Beyond the Yellow Brick Road." Meehan has been responsible for rehabbing more teenagers from substance abuse than any other single individual in this country. He says he'd rather work with someone with a heroin addiction than a teenager with a chronic marijuana overuse problem. We've already got one legal, badly abused substance that creates incredible suffering. We don't need another.
One cannot live in a free society with reasoning such as this.( I'm not calling you a fascist or anything.) But people have "used" all sorts of things in a way that hurts themselves and those around them. Are we going to ban fast food,prescription pills,designer clothes? (I'm almost for that one)
Marijuana has the medical properties to help millions of people in a way that other methods don't do as well. (ie take a pill that gives you a whole slew of other problems) I don't think a society is free if we limit it to what people with addictive personalities can handle.
The idea of control and regulation is derived from goals to greatly reduce the chance that a 13 year old would have access to drugs in the first place.
You are arguing a perfect example of why we need government regulation, age restrictions, quality and potency labeling, all of the things that an illicit market will never achieve.
Legalizing and taxing it and setting regulations (like being 21) would reduce the access teens have to it, by making it criminal to sell or give to minors. Will some still get it? Well in a perfect world no, but in ours yes, but legalized it will reduce the number. Keeping it illegal actually makes it easier to get, a dealer doesn't care how old your kid is. Take it out of their hands and put it in the hands of people who if they sell it to a minor can lose their business, and it will reduce. It will also do more than that, by eliminating the criminal factor, and violence that illegal sale creates. Tax's would boost many states economies, and seriously stem the violence in Mexico by taking the teeth out of most of the drug cartels. Money saved from incarcerating people who use pot that could be put to better use.
If you don't tax it very much, it will be so cheap that anyone can afford it.
If you tax it a lot, that simply encourages the black market to continue producing it on the side.
Either way, there would still be a market for selling to minors. Why buy from the drug store when your parents keep it in the liquor cabinet? Why buy from the drug store when an adult stoner is happy to pass it along to kids with a little profit for himself? And then convicting such a person for selling drugs becomes much, much harder, because they would be able to have possession of it themselves.
Suggesting that making marijuana possession legal is going to REDUCE the availability of marijuana to minors is laughable.
The comparison to heroin is asinine. As someone who understands the effects of drugs in the body, heroin is incredibly physically addictive. It produces way above normal levels of endorphins (the hormone associated with pleasure), this becomes the new normal level for them. When they stop taking it the level it reduces too would equivalent for a non-users brain not producing endorphins at all. The physical addiction to Heroin is severe, and often needs treatment with things like methadone to get off of. If that doctor said he would rather work with this, then he has no concept of what he is talking about. Most people fight heroin addiction their whole lives and never get clean because of the physical addiction it causes. That isn't the case with pot, the vast majority of people can quit pot cold turkey. I did when I completed my PhD and never looked back. So they are not even remotely the same thing.
Selpulchre is quite right but "If that doctor said he would rather work with [phys addic'n to H], then he has no concept of what he is talking about..." is a bit severe. Indeed, most ex-heroin junkies are in a life-long fight, and here's to them! but ex-potheds - why wouldn't they take another drag? If the doctor is seeking to 'cure' people who have far fewer social as well as physical barriers to returning to hteir addcition, then a great many unresolved cases will be expected. If the doctor counts enrollees in the life-long fight as successes, as I would in that position, then the preference becomes understandale. But I haven't read Bob M's book, so I could be wrong.
My sister had a chronic pot problem at 14. Was it the pot that was her problem? no. Her problem was a complete inability to take responsibility for what she did in life. She was a chronic liar before the pot. I had told my mother that she had problems long before she started smoking pot. But like most parents she didn't want to believe there was anything wrong. Had she addressed the issue when the problem behavior started then there wouldn't have been a drug problem (which is true in most cases). Pot is mildly addictive (less than caffeine or cigarettes), however the addiction most people develop for it is mental. Parents want to pass the blame on this because it is too painful for them to realize that their child might have a problem. The head in the sand method is what leads to teen substance issues. My sister did eventually clean herself up, and no issues stopping smoking when she decided to, just stopped with no with-drawl or cravings.
Obama is a politician, and he is doing what it politically expedient. If he endorsed the legalization of pot, there would be a right-wing firestorm. And the fact that he is a black man, would provide them with another way to use the race card.
This is an issue he will never touch. As there are many closet pot smokers in this country, there are also a lot of closet legalization proponents.
who cares about a rightwing firestorm? let em! they been runnin' this country in the ground since nixon.
I agree with soulfulnotes!
I agree. The states can take this up individually. There would be much less resistance if it came from the bottom up. Legalizing hemp production and giving tobacco farmers something to replace their crops with as cigarette smoking continues to wane, and make it impossible to "weed" out the drug crops. Let's spend money on education and treatment, not courts and private prisons.
Shame on Obama for his petty, condescending answer. Obama is a wonderful orator, but a political coward.
You don't have to be black to support civil rights
You don't have to be homnosexual to support gay rights
You don't have to be pregnant to support abortion rights
AND you don't have to use pot to support decriminalization of a weed.
good post and argument.
LEGALIZE IT !
I had a conversation with a young man on his break from a fast food eatery, and in the course of our conversation he told me that many of his friends spend $45. every Saturday on marijuana which is available on any street corner.
My doctor proscribed Marinol for my sleeping problem. Ten capsule cost $300.00. And the capsules were effective for a couple of three hours, My pension check barely covers my living expenses so I could not afford the Marinol, so I suffer from constant fatigue because a lack of sufficient sleep.
And I am reluctant to buy the real marijuana and risk jail time.
The pharmaceutical companies are gangster organizations that control a beneficial herb that grows like wildfire in almost any climate, and the politicians have been reaping fortunes by keeping it limited from a free capitalistic market; another victory for free capitalism like the Oil cartels blocking renewable energy projects or the Federal Reserve System manipulating our monetary system with which they are sucking the wealth from Americans a decade at a time so as to be non perceptual by the average working Middle class, and all the other benefits of a free capitalistic market like wars for oil and imprisoning half the prison population for non violent crimes like smoking weed.
Hooray for Capitalism and Boo for humanism.
You are SO DAMN RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are right on.
I've known pediatric cancer patients who've taken Marinol and while it's helped them, there are some side effects and the good effects doesn't last very long. The major Children's Hospital here in Chicago doesn't use it because these effects can get pretty bad in certain individuals. With organic THC, you can control the dose you get. People in the UK have access to an oral THC spray that is extracted from real plants and it works great. This would be a good substitute for people that would rather not smoke.
I hope you can get some relief. Consider moving to a state where they legalized medical marijuana or reach out to NORML.org in your state to help change that laws there.
http://www.mpp.org/legislation/state-by-state-medical-marijuana-laws.html
I gave a lot of money to Democratic candidates over the past year.....
and they're NOT getting any more from me until pot is nationally decriminalized, at the least.
Seconded.
thirded!
[can i do that?]
Why smoke it? Marinol which has the active THC can be legally prescribed? Smoking anything is always harmful.
Why smoke it? Because I am a living being that was born with personal choice. When it comes down to it, Intraveinious is the most efficient way of introducing a drug into the body. Would you like me to start shooting up a liquid form of Marinol? The issue isn't whether smoking is harmfull or Tobacco would be illegal wouldn't it. Why don't you think about it, depending on where you live, breathing the air in many major metropolitan areas, 24/7 is more harmfull to all of us.
About the "why not just take Marinol" argument - this really misses the distinction between medicinal herbs and synthetic drugs. Despite the tendency to think that any herb must have a single "active ingredient," the fact is that many commonly used herbs have a combination of active compounds that act synergistically.
The tendency of allopathic medicine to isolate a single compound from an herb is driven by the profit motive: plants cannot be patented, but single chemicals can. The other driving force behind this is the desire to make more powerful drugs, e.g. heroin in place of tincture of opium poppy, as allopathic medicine has always valued the "heroic" modalities of treatment for their dramatic effect - enemas and blood-letting were once popular.
In the case of cannabis, CBD (cannabidiol) has a modulating action that reduces the anxiety and dysphoria sometimes seen with pure THC (Marinol), and so makes the effect tolerable for many people who do not respond well to THC alone. CBD also plays an important immune modulating role, and seems to be important in the benefits of cannabis currently being studied in inflammatory bowel disease as well as certain types of cancers.
There is nothing more "scientific" about giving isolated chemicals in place of whole herbs or extracts, and in many cases means throwing away much of the therapeutic effect. It simply fits better with our (clearly unsuccessful) inclination to reduce complicated problems to fit our mechanistic, reductivist model of human health and physiology.
You don't even have to "smoke it" if you fork over 150 bucks for a vaporizer. Then there's no smoke involved and your "smoking anything causes cancer" is completely nullified. Still cheaper and healthier than overpriced synthetic Marinol with all it's FDA approved but non the less disturbing side effects.
THC is not the only active ingredient, in marijuana. marinol is not the same ,and it costs a fortune!
if you ever smoke pot you'll go on to be a loser like Michael Phelps !!
is that what you want ?
Control is an icy road.
.....and you don't have to be religious to have blinders and be a self-righteous evangelist for your personal views of life
I am an epileptic that suffered a grand-mal seizure several years ago that put me in a coma for 7 days and stopped my breathing. I am taking over 4500 mg. of anti-seizure medications that still didn't work. Pot, which became legal for medical purposes, including seizure treatment in my state as of this year works and I talked to my Neurologist about it. Her exact quote, was, " Well it has been proven to have certain anti -convulsant properties, I "Wont tell you, you shouldn't do it, but I "Can't" tell you to do it". Because of a conflict between state and federal laws. I haven't had a single seizure since I've started smoking. But I am labled a criminal still by our government for using a "drug" that is working.
Tobacco on the other hand. A drug that they admit is "The Most Addicting Drug Known To Man" by their own admittion, remains legal, over taxed and does anyone question this?
This "War on Drugs" is the one of the many ways that the American people have been scammed by a government that is obviously working hand and hand with the South American drug cartels to keep drugs illegall. If they were legal the drug cartels would fall apart. Truth or not I ask You!!
"Do you so soon forget, that this nation was built and formed by people who sought to escape the same oppressive government that you yourselfs have managed to re-create?"
good luck to you jditt..
and you were already lucky to have a neurologist like her!!
its ridiculous that it is not adressed...
most teachers and neighbors that I know enjoy the social aspect of smoking weed..
instead we are all closet cannabis smokers
The DEA is winning the War on Drugs!
In 1980 the US had 41,000 prisoners. Today we have over 1/4 million. Thank you DEA for filling our prison with non-violent citizens who were minding their own business hurting no one!
The DEA=Amerikan Gestapo!
America, free my ass!!!!!
Ummmm, what you are talking about is already legal therefore irrelevant to the issue discussed by President Obama.
If it was legal, he could have grown it in his basement or backyard for little to nothing. Instead, he had to fork over huge sums of money to a government-endorsed pharmaceutical company (i.e. legal drug dealer) to get a watered down version of the same thing. It's absurd.
Yep.
It may be legal at the state level, but it is still a federal crime.
My understanding is that Federal law supersedes state law, in this case. You'd think our anti-federal, Republican pals would support state law in this case...
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