Today marks the 10-year-anniversary of the publication of the Institute of Medicine’s landmark study on medical cannabis: Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base.
When the White House commissioned this report in response to the passage of California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996, many in the mainstream media, and many more lawmakers, were still skeptical about marijuana’s potential therapeutic value. The publication of the Institute of Medicine’s findings — which concluded that cannabis possessed medicinal properties to control pain and nausea, and to stimulate appetite — provided the issue with long-overdue credibility, and began in earnest a political discourse that continues today.
So what have we learned in the ten years following the release of this groundbreaking study? As I write today in both Reason Magazine online and in The Hill.com’s influential Congress blog (post your feedback here):
In Ten Years, Medical Marijuana Has Gone From Fringe to Mainstream — So Why Is It Still Against The Law?
via The Hill.com
We’ve affirmed that the use of medical marijuana can be used remarkably safely and effectively.
We’ve learned that cannabis possesses therapeutic value beyond symptom management, and that it can, in some cases, moderate disease progression.
We’ve discovered alternative methods to safely, effectively, and rapidly deliver marijuana’s therapeutic properties to patients that don’t involve smoking.
We’ve learned that restricted patient access to medicinal cannabis will not necessarily result in higher use rates among young people or among the general public.
And finally we’ve learned — much to the chagrin of medical marijuana opponents — that in fact the sky will not fall if we grant patients the right to use it.
Today, the only practical impediments prohibiting the legal use of medical marijuana are political ones. The Obama administration should heed the advice of the Institute of Medicine and initiate clinical trials regarding the medical use of cannabis, and it should remove federal legal restrictions so that states can regulate marijuana like other accepted prescription medicines.
That is all well and good but medical marijuana legalization will not end prohibition. Only the end of prohibition will stop the guns and violence. The war on drugs is the financial engine that pays for it all. Untill that ends there will be NO change in America.
yeah!!!!!! they should but for now they wont maybe later but not soon enough
WHEN will the goverment let go and quit recking people’s lives the medical research is there. I THINK that there is to maney narrow minded people out there that just won’t face the fact’s.
I’ve known for 39+ years that MJ is medicine.
IT IS, AMONG OTHER SIMILAR THINGS, CRUEL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND INHUMANE TO DEPRIVE PEOPLE OF TREATMENT THAT WORKS FOR THEM. AND AS WITH ALL MEDICAL THERAPY, ONLY THE PATIENT, NOT THEIR PHYSICIAN OR THE GOVERNMENT, IS EVEN CAPABLE OF KNOWING FOR SURE WHAT DOES OR DOES NOT WORK BEST FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL. HOW WOULD THE RELIGIOUS-INSPIRED MORAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ELITE THAT TAKE MY MONEY AND SEEK TO IMPOSE THEIR WILL ON ME, FEEL IF THEY WERE TOLD WHAT MEDICATIONS THEY MUST OR COULD NOT USE? I EXTEND TO THEM THE COMMON HUMAN DECENCY OF LIVING MY LIFE WITHOUT INTERFERING WITH THEIR LEGITIMATE RIGHTS. IF THEY WILL NOT RESPECT MY FREEDOM AND LIBERTY IN KIND, AS IS RIGHTFUL AND APPROPRIATE, I CHOOSE TO LIVE FREE REGARDLESS. I REFUSE TO LIVE EVEN A MOMENT OF MY LIFE AS A SLAVE. I AM NOT A WARD OF THE GOVERNMENT. THE GOVERNMENT IS SUPPOSED TO UPHOLD, NOT VIOLATE THE CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS. I AM AN AMERICAN PATRIOT YEARNING TO LIVE IN A FREE COUNTRY. “GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH.”
Obama drops ‘war on drugs’ rhetoric for needle exchanges
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/
16/drug-policy-obama-needle-exchange
“The Obama administration signalled today that it was ready to repudiate the prohibition and “war on drugs” approach of previous presidents, and steer policy towards prevention and “harm reduction” strategies favoured by Europe.”
Click the link to continue reading.
I remember Clinton’s drug czar Barry Mccafferty say in 1996 that this study would be the one to decide this issue once and for all. See a pattern here. A. People petition the government to legalize weed.
B. The Government says we need to study first, after all we’ve never done one.
C. Blue ribbon committee is appointed by the powers that be to “study the issue”
D. Against all expectations Blue ribbon committee concludes that current drug laws are insane/recomends reform.
E. People cheer!
F. Government didn’t get the answer it wanted, says we need to do a study, AFTER ALL WE’VE NEVER DONE ONE BEFORE.
It happened with Nixons Schaffer commission, it happened with this Clinton/Mccafferty commission in 1996 and more recently with British Prime minister Gordon Brown “STUDY”. Someone out there can name the Canadian version of this story.
RESOLVED : YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO TALK THE GOVERMENT INTO LEGALIZING WEED. THE ONLY PATH TO CHANGE IS TO DEMONSTRATE POLITICAL WILL TO CONGRESS. AS IN VOTING ONLY FOR REFORMERS AND NEVER EVER VOTING FOR ANY PROHIBITIONIST. IF NORML COULD DEMONSTRATE JUST 5% OF THE VOTE IN CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS, THE RIGHT TO GROW, SELL, AND CONSUME MARIJUANA WOULD BE A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
Support for the war on drugs is BI-PARTISAN because both the Republicans and the Democrats know that you will vote for their candidates for other issues. As long as you “Agree to disagree on some issues while working together on others” Marijuana will always be the issue your government disses you on.
I’ll get you started. NO ONE WHO SUPPORTS REFORM SHOULD EVER VOTE FOR Rep. Joe Rice, D-Glendale, and in the Senate by Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Boulder.
In the War on Drugs these two are in the SS. Worst of the worst.
yayyyy go medical marijuana…. now we need it for alll 50 states
Can u say yes to that!i can
Today is the 10th anniversary of a government sponsored study proving the benefits of medical marijuana. However, We still have what appears to be mentally handicapped state senators such as in Illinois State Rep. Patricia Bellock (R-Hinsdale) who said she opposes the bill because it lacks support from the greater medical community. How can senators be so blind to what’s right in front of them and be willing to put their image on the line in a case like this knowing they are full of lies!
Having been involved in getting 215 passed in California, I can only hope that this administration and the 111th Congress have the cajones to do the right thing, for once. As I spent the winter in then woods in Florida I watched with incredulity the President ignore the people’s will and dismissed the idea of legalizing cannabis with a simple 12 word comment by his staff in answer to his own website‘s poll!
While it appears to be easy to dismiss figures in the thousands on a computer monitor, as they come across as abstract numbers and cold data, it wouldn’t be nearly as easy to dismiss a sack full of letter asking the subject to be addressed.
For that reason I composed the below letter and will be sending them on April 20th to the following recipients and urge you to do the same;
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Senate Leader Harry Reid
522 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Gil Kerlikowske
O.N.D.C.P. Clearing House
PO Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20849-6000
Attorney General Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
The following links will get you the mailing addresses for both Congress and Senate
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Find your (2) State Legislators and Governor of your home state and include them in your mail campaign. Remember to insert the proper name and title in your letters.
I urge you to do the same and please feel free to cut and paste the below letter or compose your own.
Print them now and mail them on Monday, April 20th
No other day please, to maximize the impact of the letters showing up on the same day they need to be mailed on April 20th.
Continue to do the same thing every year on April 20th until cannabis is discussed openly and fairly and the war on drugs gets overhauled as the current approach is a sorry and no longer affordable failure.
A one page, business sized letter weighs roughly one third of an ounce. That means that roughly for every 48 letters sent we’ll add one pound to their incoming correspondence. To increase the load by one hundred pounds requires about 4800 letters only. With the help of the internet we ought to be able to come up with a lot more than that! At 42 cents per letter and ten people to contact, this endeavor costs the modest sum of $4.20 in postage plus the paper and envelopes, which is a small price to pay for this cause. Think of it as our way of giving the US Postal Service their economic stimulus by supporting this letter writing campaign. (You may need to set the type size at 10 pt to fit the letter on one page. One page letters have a better chance of being read than multi page letters)
Please help out and contact your friends who support the end of cannabis prohibition with a link to this page and ask them to pass this along, add it to your website, just help and make this happen.
Lets make the mail bags heavy and start making some noise. As the letter states, the money spent on incarceration of those locked up for non-violent possession alone would go a long way in education by freeing up enough revenues nation wide to employ over 400,000 new teachers, to mention just one better way to spend the 25 billion plus dollars spent on locking up stoners! And don’t forget. Just because many people now are starting to support the idea of legalization does not mean that every supporter wishes to smoke. This is about truth about the subject, freedom of individuals in a free nation, fiscal responsibility, a new revenue source from cannabis and its associated jobs.
Headily yours,
BusGreg
Cut and paste this letter or compose your own
Dear (legislator’s title, name here)
I am writing this letter to urge you to open the debate on whether to legalize, tax and control the adult use and medical use of cannabis. On both the President’s former website Change.gov as well as the non-governmental group Change.org the overwhelming support for the legalization of both medical and recreational pot use demand that an open and fact based dialogue be started on the viability of continuing to persecute those who use cannabis with no end in sight, or to finally allow cannabis to be used by those who do so responsibly. Cannabis is non addictive and not the gateway as it is often described, but in fact less harmful and never fatal when compared to the legal varieties of drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco.
Those who currently serve time for non violent possession charges cost the taxpayers around 25 billion tax dollars every year and that number is rising due to outdated laws and misleading propaganda to pacify special interests! The annual salary of teachers in this country runs around $60,000 (including employer matching taxes and other related costs) The 25 billion dollars saved from not incarcerating those who serve time for non violent possession alone could put the astounding number of over 417,000 new teachers into our schools. That is over 8300 new teachers per State! This may sound radical, but these are radical times with the welfare of our Nation at stake. Alcohol prohibition was overturned in December of 1933 after the country had decided that prohibition creates more crime than it solves and cost a struggling nation too much. After legalizing alcohol and putting a fair tax on it, the country benefited from the additional tax revenues and the world did not come to an end as predicted by certain segments of the population.
We as a Nation can no longer afford the systematic incarceration of our people for lifestyle choices such as smoking cannabis. Here is one way to reduce the need for more mostly privately owned and taxpayer supported prisons. This has nothing to do with being soft on crime. It is no longer affordable or acceptable to incarcerate this many human beings for transgressions many if not most Americans believe shouldn‘t be a crime for which prison is the answer. Lets use our jails and prisons for those convicted of violent crimes and those leaving victims behind, not for those seeking pleasure or relief from pain.
The “War on Cannabis” can be traced back as far as 1914 when “marihuana’ was used to harass and persecute mostly Mexican migrant workers in the South West and “negro“ jazz musicians. The “war” got it’s start in earnest with the “Marihuana Tax Act” of 1937 and every effort to open the debate and let the truth dictate the direction we take has been sidelined ever since. This is no longer acceptable governance, as we the taxpayers demand that at least our wishes be heard and given an open and fair chance to be heard. Since the sad event of the “Marihuana Tax Act” lies and falsehoods have set the agenda for private prison operators to enrich themselves at our expense. The Nation is crumbling and our financial future is at stake. Do not burden generations not yet born with the debt of imprisoning those who opt to smoke cannabis. Allow us to pay a fair tax and the country to reap the benefits from both, Industrial hemp and smokable cannabis as well as the medical use and full scale research into how a natural plant can provide the same or better benefits than often unaffordable and sometimes toxic pharmaceuticals.
Last but not least: Just because many people now are starting to support the idea of legalization does not mean that every supporter wishes to smoke. This is about truth about the subject, freedom of individuals in a free nation, fiscal responsibility, a new revenue source from cannabis and its associated jobs in a failing economy.
Respectfully submitted,
Your name here
your address, city, state and zip here
Remember! Get your letters done now and mail them on
APRIL 20th
I want it legal for adult responsible medical, recreational and industrial use.
All fine talking points, but the last sentence bothers me in that it gives the impression that one should have to get a prescription in order to use marijuana, and I thought we were for legalization for all types of use by adults. I for one remain uncompromising in my position that marijuana should be legalized, taxed and regulated for adults, for whatever reason, within the same confines as alcohol is supposed to be used.
One can only hope that we have a president that will honor his OWN words and stop this madness
“Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”
– Abraham Lincoln
I’d like to see a study on vaporization vs oral consumption.
“I want it legal for adult responsible medical, recreational and industrial use.”
Yeah, same here.
Although, would you settle for seeing medical marijuana legalized on the federal level in the meantime as a stepping stone?
I’ve been contemplating this a lot lately and I don’t have a definitive opinion yet, but I have to wonder if we should get to that point first and then go from there.
Maybe once the country sees how incredibly helpful and harmless cannabis is, they’ll warm up to it?
I guess I don’t know.
At the same time, I want to cut through the BS now and see it flat out legalized for all usage, especially considering our economic issues and the continuing drug war. God knows that won’t end until prohibition is completely eliminated.
Ultimately though, I want to see it legalized for all use.
I’m still cautiously optimistic about our Congress and Obama. I mean, really, he already said he’s not for legalization, but politicians flip flop all the time. I’m not entirely convinced that he wouldn’t legalize it.
My only question now is, will Congress vote in favor of ending prohibition once and for all?
I have a sinking feeling that they won’t, but our economy and the drug war is getting worse every day, not better.
When is enough enough? That’s my question to Congress and the nation as a whole.
I have encountered many people in the last few years that I believe highly benefit from the medicinal side of marijuana. In particular, I know a few people who have mental issues that seem to only be maintained by regular daily use. Heres an example (its very funny and entertaining):
I’m with Greg Williams. I think we should spread the word far and wide this April 20. I’m on board with writing to these people and I copied his letter to send to everyone I know with an interest in Cannabis reform. I second the challenge for everyone to do the same!
Very timely re-boot of some extremely important info….most timely for New Jersey.
Enuff Said…now Lets see ouR government Change to help the sick & the weak otherwize its jus anotha Lie put to the side ._.
To keep Cannabis illegal while tobacco and alcohol are dispensed freely is murderously stupid.
http://tinyurl.com/Henningfield-Benowitz
http://www.google.com/search?&q=tashkin+cancer
Richard Steeb
San Jose, California
Nixon was nuts:
http://www.google.com/search?&q=
%22bob+what+is+the+matter+with+them%22
Thomas Vance, post #1: “Only the end of prohibition will stop the guns and violence.” Sorry to upset you, but nothing will stop guns and violence, because humanity on the whole is greedy and violent. It is the greedy and violent people who run this country.
Obama couldn’t just say he was for legalization straight after becoming president. Second term you’ll see him much more supportive of our effort (I hope).
I’m sorry. BUT, if the government’s biggest concern against legalizing pot is “safety”…..then why the fuck is Alcohol legal?? So,once again, if “safety” is their best point of argument for pot prohibition–I’d say they’ve already lost the argument. Whether they admit defeat or not.
#11 Greg Williams
Thanks for the information !
If this is going to change we need to let the government know that they work for us including the police, DEA, and all govenment employees.
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Martin Luther King
Excellent Greg Williams and I am on board.
Will send the information off to an acquaintance and ask them to do the same. (I don’t have a great deal of friends though, sorry).
All those that are going to join in should do the letters and envelopes ahead of time, in the next day or two o.k?
Write in small words where the stamp is to go, “Mail April 20th”.
Keep those ready to go letters in plain sight and mark your calendars.
I have suffered from migraines since I was a child and have tried almost every medicine out there to treat them. The absolute best one that works for me is cannabis. If anyone has ever experienced a full migraine, you know that it is absolutely debilitating, and the only thing you can do is try to sleep it off and hope that it doesn’t last through the morning. Cannabis gives virtually instant relief and gives you a chance to go on with your daily life instead of sitting in a dark room in pain and nausea.
Post 5. “GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH.” That is agreed.
I’m afraid our friend Obama isn’t going to do anything. I feel that he is just a good marketer with a snappy motto.
Obama, I will not be voting for you again in 2012 unless you legalize MJ, and Ron Paul will have my vote. Grow some balls!
I’m right there with ya GREG #11. I already on it. Letters will be sent……lots. HeHe….a whole lots.
Let Freedom Ring!!!!Cowards to the rear, Strong Hearts front and center!!!!
Get it finished Obama!!!! Give me Liberty, or Give me Death!!!!!
My opinion is it’s time for the people to make themselves really heard. How about a million marijuana user march on Washington DC? P.O.T Prohibition Omission Today!
REVOLUTION is spreading in the UNITED STATES and it is (THE GREEN REVOLUTION). Going on 38 years of tokin and still have my mind and have a 38 year old footprint, and it is not carbon, it is GREEN. GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH! IT is time for the AMERICAN PEOPLE to let the government know that we are not going to take it anymore. Medical marijuana is in about a quarter of the country, and some states have decriminalization and this country is supposed to be united. The hypocrisy of PROHIBITION by the government is still going on and the propaganda machine is still going on with it. MAYBE ONE DAY WE WILL ALL BE UNITED AS ONE.
– – There are MUCH DEADLIER plants than CANNABIS
that have been used for CENTURIES,
and are still used NOW…
as food,
{potatoes, rhubarb}, and
for MEDICINE,
{botanically-derived digitalis, vincristine, scopolamine and atropine}, for example.
To conclude:
– – IF ALL plants were placed in nature for our survival,
(Each kind / species CUSTOM-MADE before us, to meet / fulfil some
SPECIFIC biochemical need of the human body,
(Which includes ENSURING proper functioning, structural building / repair,
regulating enzymatic / catalytic processes, and fulfilling energy needs)),
– THEN…
The PROHIBITION,
(legislated EXTINCTION, really),
of EVEN ONE of these plant-species IS,
in essence,
making LIFE ITSELF illegal!
I won’t be able to march that fast but I’ll get there some way or the other. Forearm crutches and my pounding headache that never stops.
Kodak V1233
Don’t take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
anderstolik
bermuda dunes homes for sale
A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood
biliktrastin
So what do people have to say about using marijuana to effect mood? If I’m angry and a toke or two will clear my mind, ease my stress, is that considered medicine, or dependence? There are plenty of other pharmaceuticals that do the same thing, and can be habit forming. Why, then, the big stigma about marijuana? It can be a sleep aid and a relaxant. Could marijuana be used as a medicine to treat a foul mood?