The Food and Drug Administration statement directly contradicts a 1999 review by the Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's most prestigious scientific advisory agency. That review found marijuana to be "moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting.
With financing from the State of California, Dr. Abrams undertook what he said was a rigorous, placebo-controlled trial of marijuana smoking in H.I.V. patients who suffered from nerve pain. Smoking marijuana proved effective in ameliorating pain, Dr. Abrams said, but he said he was having trouble getting the study published.
"One wonders how anyone" could fulfill the Food and Drug Administration request for well-controlled trials to prove marijuana's benefits, he said.
one wonders on just how a naturally occurring plant in nature can be banned by law in the first place. it seems that the F.D.A. has no problem inflating the coffers of the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to pain-relief, it allows cosmetics without proof of product performance, it allows dieting supplements that claim the impossible, or the much more serious erectile dysfunction problems, that currently head the list of what the world most needs now from laboratories.
one also wonders how the manufacturers of tobacco products can still legally sell their packets, given that cigarette smoke contains 43 known cancer causing compunds and toxins that are heavily restricted by federal law; i'm thinking of cyanide, arsenic, DDT, that sort of thing.
when the Food and Drug Administration rejected Barr Laboratories Inc.'s proposal to sell the emergency contraceptive Plan B over the counter, it became fairly obvious the they weren't acting in the best interests of consumers, but had moreover demonstrated its function as a puppet of government ideology. perhaps that's why Susan. F. Wood, the top US regulator for women's health resigned.
hypocrisy and propoganda are very unattractive qualities, of any government.
4 comments:
Man, I hate reading this stuff - if the pot lobby were as active and flush as the tobacco lobby, we'd be able to buy pre-rolled joints. In flashy packets with mascots and such.
Alas, this government gives itself away to the highest bidder, and the citizens be damned.
hello d.
i read your blog. very good. i guess the tobacco farmers were able to really capitalize on free slave labor to press home their advantage.
as for bush, it's hard to find anything good at all to say about him and his administration. i mean, how bad can one group of individuals be?
You unveil the hypocrisy inherent in the DEA statement very well. And you cite Dr. Abrams’ research, which was recently shared with an audience of health professionals and medical marijuana activists at the Fourth National Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics, that was held in Santa Barbara, California, in early April.
The fourth in a series of prestigious scientific gatherings, the conference was organized by the Virginia-based medpot advocacy group, Patients Out of Time. It was co-sponsored by the University of California, San Francisco, and the California Nurses Association, and it was accredited by the American Medical Association.
“How can [marijuana] not be considered medicine, when we were accredited by the A.M.A.,” said Al Byrne, chief conference organizer. Talk-show host Montel Williams challenged other celebrities to admit to using medicinal marijuana. “I’m tired of being on the barricades all by myself,” said Williams, who is has multiple sclerosis. The excruciating pain in his legs was alleviated by the use of therapeutic cannabis.
The conference featured research presentations by 30 health professionals from around the world. Cannabinoid research is easier to conduct in far away lands such as Israel and Brazil, since the U.S. government doesn’t provide permits and pot to researchers here easily.
I happen to live in one of the eleven states that allow the therapeutic use of marijuana, so I consider myself lucky. I suffer from glaucoma, and the internal pressure on my eyeballs causes constant pain. I tried medications to relieve the pressure and I’ve even considered surgery. But I’ve heard too many horror stories about interventions going wrong, so I hesitated. This probably saved my eyesight.
I went to a second hand record shop six months ago and came across a used vinyl copy of a Peter Tosh album. I went home and played it and I couldn’t believe my ears. There, in the middle of a song about legalizing marijuana, was the line—“the only cure for glaucoma.” I couldn’t believe it! How come nobody told this to me before?
I consulted with my doctor and after a considerable amount of arm twisting, he agreed to write me a prescription for medicinal marijuana. I rushed over to the compassion club downtown and went home and lo and behold—my very first joint relieved the pain in my eyeballs! The very first one!
I’ve been using it regularly since, but the compassion club was busted by the feds. So I’m planning to grow my own! I did research on the web and came across a company that specializes in helping medical marijuana users to grow their own.
Advanced Nutrients Medical gave me very good advice and led me to believe that I could do it. I have a large deck out back with a high fence around it, so I’ll put five large containers out there and plant as soon as the weather gets warm enough. I’m lucky it’s springtime!
For organic plant nourishment, they recommend Iguana Juice Grow and Iguana Juice Bloom, enhanced by the root colonizers Piranha and Tarantula. These provide beneficial fungi and bacteria to help in the absorption of the nutrients.
I’m still worried about the feds interfering with the growing of my medicine, but the pain relief is so dramatic with the use of pot, frankly, I don’t care anymore. Que sera, sera!
hi susan,
pain management in this country is a joke. i've just got back from hospital having had an epidural lumbar steroidal injection for a herniated disc, following an auto accident on christmas day which aggravated a previous back injury.
doctors seem extremely unwilling of writing any prescriptions for opiates as they are monitored by the feds. yet in severe cases, they are the only drugs that actually work.
i've taken over-the-counter analgesics for over 20 years, as a result of a severe motorcycle accident, and yet it seems that even in clear cases where there is a real need for treatment, a great many honest people are being denied the one thing that can relieve their pain. i'm sure that senators don't meet too much resistance from their primary care physicians, should they find themselves on the wrong side of the world of chronic pain.
rush limbaugh didn't find too many ostacles in obtaining his prescriptions. why wasn't he prosecuted?
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