It is a lengthy article, but Fortune Magazine’s “How marijuana became legal” is a fantastic read. It gives the reader who knows little about medical marijuana or cannabusiness a very even-handed look at the history of medical marijuana from the 1978 Compassionate Investigative New Drug program through Prop 215. It takes a look at the dispensaries in California and explains some brief history of marijuana prohibition and NORML’s attempts to overturn it.
I only took issue with one section:
Modern-day medical assessments of marijuana’s properties have not corroborated the outsize dangers that lawmakers had attributed to the plant. While it is a “powerful drug,” concluded an Institute of Medicine report conducted in 1997 at the behest of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, its “adverse effects … are within the range of effects tolerated for other medications.”
Yes, someone who is high on marijuana shouldn’t drive — his motor skills and mental powers are impaired — but that’s true of alcohol and many prescription drugs too.
The long-term risks to chronic users appear to center mainly on the generic dangers of smoking (respiratory disease and possibly lung cancer) and upon the “mild and short-lived” withdrawal symptoms that a minority of marijuana users experience, according to the IOM experts. They considered marijuana less addictive than tobacco, codeine, or Valium.
As longtime Stashers know, Dr. Donald Tashkin’s 30 years of trying to find a link between marijuana smoking and lung cancer found no correlation and even a suggestion of a protective effect against cancer from marijuana smoking. Further studies have shown no link to emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease either. Chronic smoking can lead to bronchitis or a nasty cough, which is why we always recommend vaporization.
Fortune also is a bit undecided on the smoking and driving point. Earlier in the story they note Irv Rosenfeld’s chain-smoking of joints while he drives and later in the story they point out the federal prescription guidelines don’t forbid driving under the influence of 100% THC Marinol, only that it cautions users not to drive “until it is established that they are able to tolerate the drug and to perform such tasks safely.”
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The only problem I have with the article is the fact that the writer obviously was smoking the stuff because the state of Tennessee is shown in Kentucky ?!!!!
It’s no wonder that this issue can’t be solved by politicians and the heads of the media if they don’t even know simple geography of the United States.
My mother is a breast cancer survivor and my husband suffers from chronic constant pain and NOTHING but marijuana helped my mother during chemotherapy. She actually GAINED weight during chemo due to the lack of nausea and her appetite was actually increased due to the marijuana.
My husband suffers from constant pain 24/7. The only thing that has helped him is the use of marijuana. I live in South Carolina and we have NO medical marijuana laws, therefore for him not to have pain, he is considered a criminal.
Why should something that GOD put on this earth, is NOT chemically created, doesn’t KILL neurons as alcohol does, be considered illegal?
Is is because our wonderful “government” has not figured out a way to tax and make money off of the distribution and sales of the “herb bearing seed”?
I think that the “gateway drug” excuse i just that. A excuse. Can we a human beings afford to watch the suffering of others when we know in our hearts and minds that there is a drug, that is not physically addictive, out there that can HELP !!!!!
The pharmaceutical industry is the greatest lobbying entity that DOESN’T want marijuana legalized because they are aware of the effects on their profits.
Morally, this is wrong to not make available to someone who is suffering.
I CHALLANGE ALL AMERICANS!!! I am sure that just about every american either knows someone or of someone who is suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis, Hepatitis C, glaucoma, migraines, GERD, IBS, nausea, HIV/AIDS, asthma or chronic pain. Even you may be suffering. Why should you suffer when you don’t have to?
Why should the government withhold a medication that can help ALL with any of these ailments? Who gives them the power to make these laws? WE DO and we can change this.
Look into your heart. Do you really think that people with these ailments should suffer EVERY DAY?
Look at the countries who have legalized marijuana. Most people who have problems with the “gateway drug” issue don’t see that if you make it legal, the demand will wane.
I AM A AMERICAN who wants to help the suffering. marijuana saved my mother from months of dreadful chemotherapy and possibly her life. My uncle has Hepatitis C, and marinol helps to control his pain and nausea, my husband who suffers chronic pain in his muscles, is helped by the WONDERFUL plant. I myself, who suffers from ISB, GERD, and asthma also benefit from marijuana useage, however, I am considered a criminal and my only crime is that I am trying to alleviate symptoms of illness.