Reefer Madness: Public faces medical marijuana scam
Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 1:14 pm | By: Radical Russ
[UPDATE: Respond to Kevin Sabet's reefer madness here: http://www.dailybulletin.com/search/ci_9976769]
Public faces medical marijuana scam – DailyBulletin.com A recent article in the Daily Bulletin regarding medical marijuana failed to mention the fallacies and problems associated with what has become a personal mission and profession for a limited few to blatantly distort the truth in an attempt to lead readers to believe that smoked marijuana is medicine.The simple failure to mention the scores of young adults and others who obtain marijuana cards simply to get high is rather astonishing. Instead, The Sun was scammed by the pro-legalization movement that constantly seeks out and pushes the sick in the view of the media for their own selfish cause. Never will they tell you about the scores of youth and adults who have California-issued marijuana cards for no other purpose than to get high. Now that would make a story worth publishing.
You know what I find interesting is that in the twelve years that prohibitionists have pushed this theory that marijuana activists are conning the public by taking advantage of the sick and dying, not one of these sick and dying patients have ever complained. Never do I hear a medical marijuana patient say, “Damn you, NORML, MPP, DPA, ASA, quit using me to legalize marijuana!. Medical marijuana is a sham! Please, take away my right to use medicine because some young adults are using that right to get high!”
Unfortunately, Proposition 215 has nothing to do with the sick and dying, as a simple read of its text reveals that marijuana can be legally recommended for “any illness for which marijuana provides relief.” A recent column in the Los Angeles Times, “This bud’s for you, and you, and you” by Joel Stein, and a 2007 expose by “60 Minutes” have revealed just how easy it is to obtain marijuana – “sick” or not.
So, what you’re complaining about, then, is that thousands of potheads who were buying and using dope in secret and funneling cash into a criminal black market, are now seeking the approval of a doctor, purchasing dope openly and legally under state law, and contributing millions to California’s budget through dispensary sales taxes.
A landmark study almost 10 years ago, conducted by the Institute of Medicine, stated that “… smoked marijuana should generally not be recommended for … medical use.” Smoked marijuana (smoked anything) has never passed basic medical standards of safety and efficacy.
Didja think we weren’t going to read the rest of that paragraph from the 1999 Institutes of Medicine study, the parts you so easily … edited, where it says, “Because of the health risks associated with smoking, smoked marijuana should generally not be recommended for long-term medical use. Nonetheless, for certain patients, such as the terminally ill or those with debilitating symptoms the long-term risks are not of great concern. …The goal of clinical trials of smoked marijuana would not be to develop marijuana as a licensed drug, but rather as a first step towards the possible development of nonsmoked, rapid-onset cannabinoid delivery systems.” These days, we call such systems “vaporizers” and they provide all of the medicine and none of the smoke. Patients can also eat their marijuana in edibles. Furthermore, even if you do smoke your medicine, since that 1999 study we’ve seen the 2006 work of Dr. Donald Tashkin from the UCLA Medical Center, who told the Washington Post, “We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use. What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”
Medical marijuana dispensaries mask as havens for the sick, when in reality they serve as city-condoned centers for drug use. Of course there may be some people who genuinely use it to “feel better” from their illness, but smoking a drug as volatile and unstable as marijuana is like chewing on willow bark to partake in the benefits of aspirin.
Except you’re not proposing to arrest and lock up people for chewing willow bark. I’m also wondering where he’s buying this “volatile and unstable” marijuana, a nuclear power plant? How is it that an herb that has no toxic dose is “volatile” and how “unstable” could it be when its users are the most peaceful, mellow people on the planet?
For those whose doctors think that some components of the cannabis plant may be therapeutic, Marinol, derived from the plant’s most active ingredient, THC, already exists. … Other isolated components in marijuana – delivered in aerosol sprays or patches – are currently being studied and research in this area is important. Cannabis-based drugs could indeed open new pathways to fight obesity, nausea, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses, but, just as someone should not inject heroin to gain the therapeutic effects of morphine, these drugs need to be used in the proper context and setting.
Strange, isn’t it, that the 100% pure THC pill is prescribable, but the 4%-15% pure THC plant is “volatile and unstable”. What he doesn’t realize is that Marinol lacks the CBDs found in the plant. CBDs mitigate some of the psychoactive effects of THC. So he’s recommending a drug that is seven times more potent and more psychoactive than medical marijuana… but at least you don’t smoke it!
Legalizing smoked marijuana under the guise of medicine is irresponsible and contradictory to basic scientific standards for therapeutic drugs. Even if smoking marijuana might make someone to “feel better,” that is not enough to call it a medicine. If that was the case, then tobacco cigarettes or vodka shots could be called medicine because they are often attributed with making one “feel better.”
Except that the guy who feels better every day with tobacco cigarettes or vodka shots is going to develop lung cancer or cirrhosis, while the pot smoker will just keep feeling better. The author reveals a very common bias in the prohibitionist’s argument – the moral indignation against smoking marijuana. He can have someone use the same exact drug in a pill, a spray, or a patch, and he even admits to its medical efficacy. It’s that joint smoking – or more accurately, his stereotyped image of the dirty stinky hippies that smoke joints – that he’s got a problem with.
Furthermore, it is contrary to common sense and established law to have the electorate, influenced by big spending from pro-marijuana interest groups, decide what medicine is.
Right. We return to this argument, right after these advertisements for erectile dysfunction pills, restless leg syndrome pills, and a few different pharmaceutical drugs that killed a few tens of thousands of patients. Drugs that were all approved through standard medical regulatory channels that had been greased by the big spending from pro-pharmaceutical interest groups. In other words, the government gave you “safe” Vioxx that killed over 27,000, and the people gave you “volatile and unstable” medical marijuana that killed zero. Who do you trust?
Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D., is an adviser to the Inland Valley Drug Free Community Coalition (www.ivdfc.org) and has been researching and consulting on drug abuse matters for more than 14 years. He is a former Office of National Drug Control Policy senior official under the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Well, Dr. Sabet, let me let you in on a little secret: The public isn’t being scammed by medical marijuana. People know how easy it is to get a medical card and by-and-large, they don’t care. Prop 215 clearly allowed marijuana use for any condition the doctor felt it would help. Californians weren’t stupid, they just felt like marijuana is no big deal and government shouldn’t interfere between doctors and patients.
I live in NC and was prescribed Marinol 5mg. I have since come out to California and stayed past the refill date. I was supplied a generic from the likes of which I have never seen…Par pharma apparently has a better price for insurance companies to pay, because, this is what I was given. I am not sure how comparable their product will be physically. I will let you know. I only wish they would legalize the smokable version in North Carolina. This I know helps me and legalizing marijuana alone would only help contribute to our floundering economy.
NORML’s letter to the Daily Bulletin:
To the editor,
Mr. Sabet makes so many specious claims in his recent op/ed (”Public faces medical marijuana scam,” July 23, 2008) it’s easy to lose count.
Most curious is his dismissal of Marinol, a legal prescription pill based on one of the cannabis plant’s therapeutic compounds, which he describes as a treatment option of last resort among doctors. Really? Then perhaps Mr. Sabet would like to explain why numerous pharmaceutical companies — including Valeant, Mallinckrodt, and Par Pharmaceuticals — are in various stages of licensing and development for similar drugs, including naboline (an analogue of THC) and generic versions of Marinol? Perhaps Mr. Sabet would like to elaborate on why annual sales of Marinol now total around $200 million?
Of course, given Mr. Sabet’s untenable position, it’s only appropriate that he dismiss the safety and efficacy of Marinol — as arguing in favor of the synthetic pot pill and not the natural plant is like saying Vitamin C should be legal but oranges ought to be prohibited.
Finally, as for Mr. Sabet’s absurd claim that “the public is not fooled,” perhaps he would like to explain why the public and lawmakers have voted to legalize the medical use of marijuana in eleven other states following California’s ‘failed’ experiment.
Sincerely,
Paul Armentano
Vallejo, CA
Author’s note: The author is the Deputy Director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, DC.