Pubdate: Sat, 24 Dec 2011
Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Copyright: 2011 Record Searchlight
Contact:  http://www.redding.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360
Author: Ellen Kelley
Note: Ellen Kelley lives in Red Bluff.
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n709/a08.html

HEED CANNABIS SCIENCE, NOT LEGAL THREATS

While I agree with your observation ("Nasty outbursts do nothing for 
marijuana cause," Dec. 14) that marijuana proponents are not always 
fond of the rules of decorum, it seems inappropriate to castigate them 
like unruly children.  Please consider what is actually happening 
here: People dealing with serious medical issues are being 
systematically denied access to the medicine that best eases their 
suffering. Faced with the looming likelihood of being unable to obtain 
relief from that suffering and dealing with stress caused by such 
knowledge, it is understandable that they find it difficult to be 
polite to those hellbent on worsening their situations.

It is time to consider the overlooked components of this issue - 
scientific facts.  The results of several recent studies clearly show 
why federal reclassification of marijuana and an end to onerous local 
restrictions both make good sense.

The June 19, 2010, issue of Science News - www.sciencenews.org - ran a 
five-page article on "The Promise of Medical Marijuana." Research 
described in the article includes a study corroborating the 
effectiveness of cannabis derivatives against the symptoms of multiple 
sclerosis.  Further studies will investigate the possibility that the 
use of cannabis could actually slow the progression of the disease. 
Another project established that post-traumatic stress disorder 
patients slept better and stopped having nightmares while taking THC 
in capsule form. Most amazingly, lab-dish experiments indicate that 
cannabinoids decrease a cancer tumor's size and slow its growth in 
cases of lung carcinoma and thyroid epithelioma. They slow cancer 
proliferation in uterine and breast carcinomas, and cause programmed 
cell death - they kill cancer cells but not healthy cells - for 
glioma, lymphoma, leukemia, skin carcinoma, prostate carcinoma, and 
neuroblastoma. Human trials of these effects are in the planning stages.

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle on Dec. 7 described a study 
at UCSF that found that marijuana can be safely used in conjunction 
with opiate-based pain medications and that combining the two can 
allow the patient to reduce or even eliminate the use of more 
dangerous narcotic.  Although this story was apparently not covered in 
the Record Searchlight, a letter printed the next day tells the same 
story from a different perspective: A Redding man wrote about losing 
his daughter, who had multiple sclerosis, to an accidental overdose of 
pain medication. He explicitly states that safe access to marijuana 
might have prevented the tragedy.  This is the type of voice our 
officials should heed, not the outdated misinformation and vague 
quasi-legal threats that currently enthrall them. It is time to step 
out of the Dark Ages, choose enlightenment over ignorance, and end 
this present-day pogrom once and for all.
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.