Pubdate: Thu, 24 Feb 2011 Source: Boulder Weekly (CO) Copyright: 2011 Boulder Weekly Contact: http://www.boulderweekly.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n106/a07.html Author: Will Morrison Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n106/a07.html THE TRUTH ABOUT POT (Re: "Keep your laws off patients' brownies," Uncensored, Feb. 17.) When this legislator says that there aren't any studies about dosing with cannabis, she is dead wrong. She just hasn't done any research. In 1988, DEA Judge Francis Lawn had the gall to hold hearings on cannabis, and he released his findings after nearly three months of testimony. What he found was that it is virtually impossible to overdose on cannabis, that one would have to smoke 1,500 pounds in 15 minutes to actually overdose, and that the smoke inhalation would kill you long before that. He stated that cannabis is one of, if not the, "safest therapeutic substances known to man" and that it should be made legal immediately. He was canned the next day, his ruling overturned. Before 1900, a full 50 percent of all medicines in this country were made from cannabis, including children's cough medicines. When the prohibition of cannabis got to the federal level in 1937, the AMA was one of two groups that found out about the hearings and went to testify against the proposed ban. After it was passed, the first three years of prohibition saw 10,000 doctors arrested and jailed for continuing to prescribe it. It wasn't until the AMA relented and took cannabis out of the American Pharmacopeia that the arrests stopped. Cannabis has been the single most studied plant in the history of mankind. It's been used as medicine since 2,737 B.C., when it was first prescribed by the Chinese emperor. Its use has been verified as far back as 10,000 years, and in all that time, no one has ever died from its use. The seeds are also a 100 percent nutrition source, and 50 percent of the weight of the plant can be in seeds. With worldwide starvation a serious issue, can we really afford not to use every available resource to feed the people? Water can kill you. Aspirin kills 150 people every year just from bad reactions, and prescription drugs as a class kill 200,000 Americans every year. Meanwhile, we in this state seem to have one growth industry, and it's cannabis. And, yet, even though they have used the funds from it for two years to balance the state budget, the legislators seem intent on killing it off. And they do so without a single thought to the lives of those they are constantly trying to upset. And for what? Safety? B.S. The legislators need to get the hell out of the way and let people do their business. That is what they are supposed to be about, isn't it? Especially the Republicans. They keep talking about how we can't have single-payer because that would put the government in between you and your doctor, and yet, here is another bill to put the government directly in between people and their doctors. And how many have there been already? I hesitated for several years to get my medical card, because I don't trust the state, the cops, the DAs, or anyone else in power to not use it against all of us in the future. And I still believe they will. But the pain in my back outweighs that fear, and thanks to the plant, I can sleep at night again. Why should I have to be told what form I can use it in by a politician? Where is her medical degree? Since I'm pretty sure she doesn't have one, I suggest that someone file charges against her for practicing medicine without a license. That is still a crime, is it not? Also, name one other drug of any kind that you have to get a special permit to have. I can get a prescription for Oxycontin in a heartbeat, and that stuff is not only addictive (which cannabis is not), but can make you deaf or kill you if you take too much. But that is perfectly legal, as are all kinds of other drugs that you can get without a special permit. Cannabis is safer than anything the pharma companies put out, but I have to get a special permit every year to have it. This is shameful at the least. Sorry for the novel, but this really gets to me in a way I can't describe. The stupidity and hypocrisy of those in power is both amazing and astonishing. The fact that they are trying to kill off the one industry that we have that is working shows that they truly don't want us to have jobs, or a working government at all. They want to make us Somalia, where they can rule in hell rather than to have to serve in heaven. Thanks for the article. You're right on with it. Hopefully it won't fall on deaf ears. But I suspect that it will, seeing as how we have idiots in office throughout the state, nowadays. Will Morrison/via Internet - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom