I can only imagine how many letters to the editor have arrived at the Washington Post after it published columnist Charles Lane’s intellectually flaccid and insulting column (i.e., Mr. Lane mocks Angel Raich’s medical condition and cites an alleged NORML survey that does not exist) entitled ‘Medical marijuana is an insult to our intelligence‘.
Below is a letter-to-the-editor that was sent by NORML board member Paul Kuhn…You too can weigh in on Mr. Lane’s ‘defense’ of intelligence (and lack of compassion) here.
[Paul Armentano updates: The letter to the Washington Post from Paul Kuhn was just one letter penned by NORML representatives. CALIFORNIA NORML, for instance, responded with a separate letter as well, as have several others. As a result the Post has now added this, half-hearted in my opinion, ‘clarification’:
Clarification: An earlier version of this posting said Angel Raich claimed that each of the medical conditions cited in her lawsuit was life-threatening. She asked me to explain that she only contended that one of her conditions — chronic weight loss due to an inability to keep food down — was life-threatening. I am happy to oblige. She is about to undergo an operation to reduce her Schwannoma, which is a benign brain tumor.]
Medical marijuana is an insult to our intelligence
The Justice Department says it’s backing off the prosecution of people who smoke pot or sell it in compliance with state laws that permit “medical marijuana.” Attorney General Eric Holder says “it will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers.” Party hardy! I mean — let the healing begin!
I don’t think the federal government should be spending a whole lot of time on small-time druggies, and I’m undecided about legalizing pot, which enjoys 44 percent support among the general public, according to a recent poll. Recreational use is not the wisest thing — and if my 12-year-old son is reading this, that means you! — but it’s no more harmful than other drugs (e.g., alcohol) and impossible to eradicate. On the other hand, I worry it’s a gateway to harder stuff. So I think we probably should have an open debate about decriminalization.
But it should be a real debate, about real decriminalization, and not clouded — pardon the expression — by hokum about “medical marijuana.” To the extent it puts the attorney general’s imprimatur on the notion that people are getting pot from “caregivers” to deal “with serious illnesses” — as opposed to growing their own or flocking to “dispensaries” just to get high — the Justice Department’s move is not so constructive.
I do not deny that for some people, including some terminal cancer patients and pain-wracked AIDS sufferers, marijuana is a blessed relief. Let ’em smoke, I say, just as the Justice Department has usually ignored such cases since long before Holder spoke up. But if you believe there is any scientific evidence that smoked marijuana has the multiplicity of therapeutic uses that advocates claim — well, I’ve got a bag of oregano I’d like to sell you.
Usually, drugs have to pass exacting testing by the Food and Drug Administration before they go on the market. There’s a good reason for this: we don’t want people spending money on products that might be ineffective or actually harmful. In California and elsewhere, however, snake oil — sorry, “medical marijuana” — got on the market via a different route: popular referendum. The pot for sale in dispensaries is subject to none of the purity controls that actual pharmaceutical drugs must meet. Indeed, the new DOJ policy essentially recognizes a gray market for pot, leaving these supposedly seriously ill people at the mercy of their dealers — I mean caregivers — with respect to quality and efficacy.
What other substances should we handle this way? Cocaine? Laetrile? Didn’t President Obama just sign a bill authorizing the FDA to regulate the nicotine content of tobacco? And I thought he promised to “restore science to its rightful place.”
Under California’s law, you don’t even need a prescription to get pot (which would admittedly have been a problem, since the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency controls who gets a prescription pad, and not many doctors would use theirs to prescribe an illegal drug). All it takes is a “written or oral recommendation” from a physician.
A few years ago, a California woman called Angel Raich took her defense of medical pot all the way to the Supreme Court. She lost on the legal issue, which had nothing to do with the medical effectiveness of pot. Along the way, though, she claimed that she was suffering from “life-threatening” scoliosis, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, bruxism, endometriosis, headache, rotator cuff syndrome, uterine fibroids, and Schwannoma. The Latin names might have snowed some judges, but physicians recognized each of these conditions as a common, non-life-threatening problem for which conventional treatments were available. Raich listed a cornucopia of potent drugs, from Vicodin to Methadone, that she had tried previously and gotten no satisfaction. I’m not a doctor, but I thought she might consider a consultation for hypochondria, or perhaps marijuana dependency.
This is not an isolated instance. According to a survey by NORML, the pro-“medical marijuana” organization, which can be expected to emphasize the desperate health of users, only 22 percent of California medical marijuana users suffer from AIDS-related disease. Most of the rest have more subjective maladies such as “chronic pain” or “mood disorders.”
Raich’s physician was Frank Lucido, a well-known Berkeley doctor and pro-pot activist — he also makes money as an expert witness on “medical marijuana” — whose Web site boasts that he was “investigated by the Medical Practices Board of California for cannabis evaluation practices in 2003, and fully exonerated.” The case involved his recommendation of marijuana to treat attention deficit disorder in a 16-year-old boy, but, as I say, he was fully exonerated.
In a brilliant article (requires subscription) on this subject in the Hastings Center Report, a bioethics journal, lawyer and anesthesiologist Peter J. Cohen noted that “medical marijuana” groups have been notably passive about demanding FDA testing and approval for this purported elixir. Instead, they took their case to the people. As Cohen argued, this is no way to make health policy: “medical marijuana,” he wrote, should be “subjected to the same scientific scrutiny as any drug proposed for use in medical therapy, rather than made legal for medical use by popular will.” The “medical marijuana” movement may not be a threat to our civilization, but it is an insult to our intelligence.
Re: Charles Lane’s column on medical marijuana.
Dear Editors,
In the most inane column I have read in the Post, the most offensive comments are those labeling Angel Raich a hypochondriac fraud. Next Thursday, she will undergo brain surgery at Stanford Hospital.
The most puzzling comments are those acknowledging marijuana is a “blessed relief” for certain patients and at the same time “an insult to our intelligence.”
The most misinformed comments are those asking why marijuana is not FDA-approved when the government prohibits research on marijuana.
When my late wife was battling cancer, marijuana relieved her pain after the best legal medications failed. I’ll believe my own eyes over Mr. Lane’s confused words.
Sincerely yours,
Paul H. Kuhn
Nashville TN
It’s as if us logically thinking people who demand policies of common sense are living in a fairy tale world filled with idiots.
This is sad! I know that marijuana works! My sister just passed away back in Feb. and marijuana helped her more than anything! I SEEN IT WITH MY OWN EYES! WAKE UP AND SMELL THE BUD AMERICA!
This jackass belongs in the same cage as the stupid lady from drug free america. Where did these idiots go to school? What kind of bullshit did their parents feed them? They need to crawl out from under the rock that they have been living under and see what the rest of us learned long ago. Don’t trust anything the government is telling you because it is usually some bullshit and lies. Like weapons of mass destruction (ring any bells).
I agree with Carrie and her opinion on the weakness of the argument, but I also agree with the Editor and how newspapers will only run short, personalized rebuttals.
If the Post is going to run such a biased, uninformed and incorrect article in the first place, would you really believe that if they DID receive a fact-full letter, they would even consider running a retraction or even post the letter in their own editorial column.
I believe that this article would’ve hurt their paper, since enough people are wising up to the b.s. surrounding MJ (gateway, no med benefit e.t.c.).
BURN! and wait for it BURN!
lol good stuff here there should be a reality show for prohibition, DEA vs NORML comment posters
lol
From my personal first-hand experience, my best friend who died of testicular cancer had some relief from MMJ. It allowed him to eat at times when he had no wish to eat due to the chemotherapy and surgeries. Until you experience first hand how it can medicate/help a terminally ill cancer patient, or ANYONE for that matter, I believe you are a misinformed idiot with no real experience of it’s relief. You can sit at a computer and type up a column debating the fact or sit there and bash marijuana altogether, but until you experience the effects first hand I think you need to keep your mouth shut.
I am in my late 50’s and have MS.
Marijuana relieves my pain with less side effects than the other drugs I have been prescribed.
For those of you who don’t know – Marijuana does not HAVE to be smoked – There are Vaporizers available that allow for a “smokeless” alternative!
I live in Georgia and want Medical Marijuana made available for all of us suffering from chronic illness.
It is clear to me that as time goes by, our arguments do not waver – they are clear, concise, and indisputable because they are based on THE TRUTH. Their arguments become more and more irrational and scattered with every debate because they are based on MISINFORMATION.
Keep the push going. Keep up the hard work. Keep getting THE TRUTH out there and eventually, THE TRUTH will prevail!
Katherine; I know a man who has MS. He suffers from sever leg spasms, so bad that he has actualy kicked himselfe out of bed on more than one occasion. The doctors prescribed drugs to control this. They “Made me feel like a zombie”. A friend suggested cannabis, his thoughts at the time were “What the hell have I got to loose”. Now he sleeps through the nigh quite well, and wakes up rested, and refreshed.
when it comes down to caring for your loved ones, the law is the last thing you should cthink about. The law should never come before humans and there needs. If the law and their agents can’t respect me or my constitution and wants to play word games as to what the constitution means, well then I will have no respect nor give them any respect in return. I too will play word games right back in their face. They can no longer maintain the pace, they lack the resources to fight our culture in court or in the legisatures. We are all around them, working next to them and we do have the resources and the knowledge of the law of the land, we are in the state & federal legisative structure. Times are a changing but it has been a long war, and many of us have been STOMPED ON, we have gone to jail and prison, we have lost our jobs, homes, and loved ones. We have endured years with the label ex-con or criminal. We have been black listed from our professions for years.
Holy Smokes. It looks like more of the same. What a shame. Your prohibition ends where my skin begins.
If I were terminally ill and dying, I think that any thing to help make me comfortable is my choice, not that of a moralist-prohibitionist.
Rev.Sleezy
The universal Life Church of the Holy Smokes
Potland, OR
As Abraham Lincoln said:
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
With insane published articles like this LANE character, bringing the real facts to the people is a HUGE chore.
Charles Lane you should be ashamed of yourself for thinking that medical cannabis is an insult to our intelligence. Let me ask you something Mr.Lane are you aware that in fact that Cannabis is really a herb and in the Christian bible it quoted that it is good for us and we can benefits from it? If you are worry about your children, I would be very worry about them getting a hold of stuff like Meth, crack and even alcohol because all of that can kill. There has been no record of anyone ever actually died from Cannabis. People like yourself and the prohibitions who shoved the propaganda “Reefer Madness” down our throat are an insult to our intelligence.
MR. LANE…”OUR NATIONAL MOOD.”
Our national mood is “IN FAVOR” of legalization of medicinal cannabis. We have redressed our grieances with respect to law enforcement’s de facto, licentious,
and sinuous aggressive actions. “WHEN DOES IT END?”
Our national mood is “IN FAVOR” of holding law enforcement accountable for its utter disregard for both federal, and state law. Our vigilance towards law enforcement has brought us to the point of non-confidence towards law enforcement, and we view them as the enemy of the people. We regard them as para-military thugs, storm troopers, not as America’s Finest. “WHEN DOES IT END?”
Our national mood extends to to holding the media accountable for disseminating false and misleading information to the public. We are quite finished with reporters that violate the Data Quality Act for the sake of a story. We are outraged at media’s violation and their oath to “TRUTH IN REPORTING.” You Mr.
Lane are a perfect example of this. “WHEN DOES IT END?”
Our national mood is “IN FAVOR” of releaving prohibitionists of their congressional seats. We have come to the point where we believe that prohibitionists should neither “PASS JUDGMENT OR MAKE LAWS.” “WHEN DOES IT END?”
Our national mood is “WHEN DOES IT END?” We are being asked to place a great deal of faith and trust in government’s word. Oddly enough…we are willing to do that…provided that law enforcement behaves themselves, and obeys the laws they are sworn to uphold and protect.
“WHEN DOES IT END?” When the dog wags the tail, instead of the tail wagging the dog. When the tail realizes that it is the cause of the things that effect it. Men should never judge their own
cause. Law enforcement should never hold the law sO close that it becomes grotesque. It should just do its job.
By the way Mr. Lane…not all officers of the law are outlaw cops. We the people honor Law Enforcement Against Prohibition-LEAP as you may well expect. But the fact of the matter is they have our respect, unlike rogue cops who have earned our disrespect.
“WHEN DOES IT END?”
I WOULD LIKE TO CONGRADULATE MR OBAMA FOR HIS HISTORIC MOVE NOT TO PROSECUTE THE PATIENS AND CARE GIVERS. MR OBAMA IS RELEIFING SO MANY PEOPLE SUFFERING ALL OVER THE WORLD.. IN ELLAS WE HAVE SO MANY JUNKIES AND THEY SAY THAT WITH MEDICAL CANNABIS 70 TO 80 % OF THEM WILL RETURN FROM HELL. BUT IT’S NOT ONLY THAT.. MR OBAMA DOES’NT ACT OR LOOK LIKE A WORLORD, HE ACCEPTED NOT TO INSTALL THE MISSILES IN EASTERN EUROPE AND GENERALLY HE LOOKS MORE WISE THAN AGRESSIVE. ALL THIS IS REAL CHANGE MR PRESIDENT .. YOU PROMISED IT .. YOU DID IT.. I BELEIVE YOU DESERVED THE NOBEL PRICE MORE THAN EVERYONE.. KEEP LEADING THE WORLD TO PEACE AND I BET THAT THE NUSTY DEADLY FLEW WILL DISSAPEAR..
I KEEP READING NORML.. I FOUND HERE THE GOOD AMERICA THAT IS MY GOOD OLD FRIEND..
this man should lose his job for this. i would never let a writer mock terminally ill patients and get away with it.
President Obama has been the best President of all times . Meg Whitman’s try for California’s next Governor will be the worse thing to happen to California . She has big ties with the Alcohol Industry . A vote for her is a step back in time . .Don’t vote for this drug pusher . Alcohol kills more people than all hard DRUGS combined .
In a nation where doctors prescribe anti-depressants, aderoll, xanax, and other benzodiazepines as if they were tylenol, Mr. Lane has decided to criticize the pharmacological value and doctors’ judgement in prescribing marijuana for medical purposes? Mr. Lane may have some valid concerns, but perhaps he should broaden his scope of what drugs are prescribed far too liberally and who “druggies” are. By the way, in a article criticizing marijuana and discussing marijuana dependency, he suggests that vicodin and methadone are preferable alternatives? I have news for Mr. Lane, xanax and prescription pain killers are “street drugs” that some people use to get high too and truly addictive. I suppose because the various amphetamines and psychoactive drugs taht doctors prescribe children are far more valid because they have been recently developed and marketed by industry. The fact is, marijuana has been used for thousands of years, unlike many new drugs that are poorly understood and widely prescribed. I don’t think Mr. Lane is defending intelligence, I think he is defending conventional, rarely questioned perceptions in modern America.
WP won’t post my comments on that story!
Alcohol is sold at sporting events, grocery stores etc. What do these places have in common?? They allow stupid idiots to get drunk around children. It is legal to purchase alcohol with children, it`s legal to get drunk around children in stadiums and at home. And unless the child reports abuse, these drunken idiots continue to enjoy the freedom of using this liquid drug around children. Does the FDA approve these evil acts as well? Because we all know what would happen if you smoke a joint at a football game whether children are there or not. They don`t care if you are sober or high they just commence to destroying your life. Enough of this alcohol-pharma-coalition of powerful baby-raper society!!! First you need to get drugs away from children. What message do these idiots think they are sending to children by allowing drunkenness around children. Broken bottles, drunk drivers killing thousands. I don`t use alcohol. And I don`t use anything around children. Can the hypocrites at the FDA say the same? Can most of our society say the same? No! So again stop the medical B.S. and put marijuana on the table with alcohol,along with the hypocrites in charge that abuse alcohol. I`m sure most people in the FDA use alcohol around children. It`s just commonplace in a society of drunks.
Alcohol is sold at sporting events, grocery stores etc. What do these places have in common?? They allow stupid idiots to get drunk around children. It is legal to purchase alcohol with children, it`s legal to get drunk around children in stadiums and at home. And unless the child reports abuse, these drunken idiots continue to enjoy the freedom of using this liquid drug around children. Does the FDA approve these evil acts as well? Because we all know what would happen if you smoke a joint at a football game whether children are there or not. They don`t care if you are sober or high they just commence to destroying your life. Enough of this alcohol-pharma-coalition of powerful baby-raper society!!! First you need to get drugs away from children. What message do these idiots think they are sending to children by allowing drunkenness around children. Broken bottles, drunk drivers killing thousands. I don`t use alcohol. And I don`t use anything around children. Can the hypocrites at the FDA say the same? Can most of our society say the same? No! So again stop the medical B.S. and put marijuana on the table with alcohol,along with the hypocrites in charge that abuse alcohol. I`m sure most people in the FDA use alcohol around children. It`s just commonplace in a society of drunks.
This is nothing more than a fickle man unwilling to accept change even in the face of indisputable facts and logic. If you throw mountains of indisputable facts at people, then there is only so much they can do to not look like A COMPLETE IDIOT.
It seems we live in a horribly written Saturday Night Live Skit,
—————————
Patient: I’ve been having some mild aches and pains, as well as some mild headaches and anxiety lately. Could you prescribe me a mild medication for a short time to help me through my day?
Doctor: Well lets see…. we’ve got…. Amitriptyline, Butriptyline, Clomipramine, Desipramine, Dosulepin, Xanax, Adderall……
Patient:You’ve been talking for about a minute now about all these drugs that may be effective for my condition, but also have potentially serious side effects for the small malady that I have. Could you please write me a prescription for a more of a light drug, such as marijuana? Everyone knows that it has barely any, if not any, negative side effects and a drug such as that seems like a better choice over the more powerful drugs that you’re suggesting.
Doctor: The devil’s weed? bah humbug!!!!!!!!!!!! leave the office or I’m calling the cops!!!!!!!!!
Patient:…………………..
To post Number 114:
The way the government is going, they’re going to have a full scale revolution on there hands if they keep it up with having laws that make no sense (even though most of the politicians are supposedly “educated”). I would never partake in one, but they better get this country back on track to keep their power. In fact, I don’t even care about giving government some control IF they use common sense when making and enforcing laws.
Reading this article was like being at a party and having someone with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other telling me how bad smoking pot is.I have been on morphine for chronic back pain and muscle spasms but didn’t like the side affects or how I felt and getting off of this for surgery was a bitch. I am now on percocet and valium still don’t like the side affects or how much i have to take to get relief. Every now and then I get a little weed to smoke and my outlook on life is so much better. Not so much pain and I feel like I can function without feeling like I am in a mental fog. Unfortunatly the only way for people like Mr. lane to ever find out the true benefits of such treatment is to have to live the experience of pain and what works best to releve it.
# 120 = That’s what I’ve been saying all along…..
i was watching Jay Leno Monday and he and Dr. Phil were putting down marijuanna legalization. I will never watch Jay Leno again. I don`t support people who like seeing people put in cages for getting high, no matter who they are. So please don`t watch Jay Leno anymore. HE NOW SUCKS!!! (added by Mobile using Mippin)
The only people who are against it are religious conservitives and Those in “the bussiness”.
For the religious consider this; Jesus’s first miricle was turning water into wine, and not just any wine, it was kick ass wine, according to weding guest. Cannabis is one of the ingredients in the anointing oil that Jesus was anointed with, hence the name Christ, whinch means the anointed one. It was called Kanna Bossum. Ancient Greek for cannabis. If that’s not enough then turn to the first book and first chapter of the bible. Genises 1:29 says that God created all plants bearing seed for food ( hemp seed is one of the most nutritious foods on the planet) and it has plenty of seeds, at least when in it’s natural habatat.
As to the other group I mentioned. Get a life. The drug dealers and DEA, are against legalizing for the same reason. Profit. A better use of the DEA would be to go after the faux companies ripping off medicare and medicade to the tune of millions a week.