Channeling Harry J. Anslinger….
It is hard to know which is worse, ignorance or dishonesty? I can’t ascribe either specifically when it comes to the agitprop of Florida’s so-called drug czar Bruce Grant, but his anti-medical cannabis rant published recently in the Orlando Sentinel wins the distinction of being the first in an ingoing series entitled NORML’s Reefer Madness Du Jour, which serve as 1) peeks into and observations of those who still support the practice of arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating cannabis consumers; 2) trying to understand and expose the motivations of those who seek to deny sick, dying and sense-threatened medical patients who possess a physician’s recommendation to use cannabis; 3) shedding light on those who deny American farmers the ability to cultivate and prosper from the cultivation of industrial hemp, just like hemp farmers from Canada, France, China, Russia, etc…
It is no surprise to any casual observer of cannabis law reform that the politically-appointed position of ‘Director of Drug Control Policy’, largely a symbolic government job, in the current epoch of modern American politics, notably in red state-leaning Florida, will be against ‘drugs’ (interestingly, these so-called drug czars rarely rail against the three most deadly and addicting ‘drugs’: alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals).
But what makes czar Grant’s full-throated rant against medical cannabis standout is the vacuousness in his effort to mislead the citizens of Florida.
Medical Marijuana Would Multiply Misery Of AbuseThe push is on to add medical marijuana to the ballot. This proposal would make the use of cannabis for medical purposes legal in Florida.It seems that every few years vocal marijuana-interest groups seek a way to normalize their drug of choice for the rest of us. Maybe they’ve forgotten the terrible human toll exacted by drug abuse.
We have to look no further than our own friends and families, addiction-treatment centers and local hospitals to see the tragic consequences these substances visit upon human beings. The misery would only be compounded should medical marijuana be allowed.
Smoked marijuana is not medicine. Pot smoke contains more carcinogens than cigarette smoke and is simply not healthy for you.
In short, inhaling toxic chemicals and carcinogens from the burning of a crude weed is not recommended by any reputable medical authority.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration routinely tests new drugs according to a rigorous protocol to prove their safety before they are allowed to be sold to the public as medicine. Marijuana has passed no such test.
Is there potential use for some form of cannabis in medicine? Sure. The American Medical Association recently recognized limited therapeutic benefits of marijuana — specifically, pain reduction and appetite improvement — in certain patients and has called for further research to look into the development of cannabinoid-based medicines and alternate-delivery systems.
If this research shows promise, scientists will then be able to isolate the therapeutic chemicals, have them tested and approved by the FDA, and finally packaged in a synthetic form as medicine, much like was done with Marinol some years ago.
These are possibilities for the future, but right now neither the AMA nor any competent medical authority in this country has yet endorsed marijuana as medicine.
Considering our national obsession with the health consequences of high cholesterol, trans fats, obesity and second-hand tobacco smoke, why would we now seek to legitimize and encourage the use of a carcinogenic substance?
Let’s look at the California experiment that began in 1996: People in that state have been using medical marijuana as a convenient cover for the illegal recreational use of the drug. Initially prescribed to alleviate nausea and loss of appetite associated with treatments for cancer and HIV, medical cannabis is now widely prescribed for ailments such as headaches, back pains, insomnia and even ingrown toenails.
In one clinic in San Diego in 2006, the Drug Enforcement Administration reported that only 2 percent of the patients received their prescriptions for serious conditions like AIDS and cancer, while the other 98 percent received marijuana to treat back spasms, headaches, anxiety and other such maladies. Is this the kind of “medicine” we want in Florida?
The case for medical marijuana is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The true agenda behind the rhetoric is full legalization. Smoking marijuana as a medical treatment empowers marijuana-interest groups to achieve their ultimate goal of marketing this intoxicating substance to the entire population — sick or not.
Legalization would most certainly lead to abuse by an even greater number of youth and adults than seen today. Ask any addict undergoing treatment whether or not marijuana should be legalized, and you will get a resounding “no.”
Why? Because between alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs, we already have enough problems with substance abuse. Drug abuse inflicts staggering monetary costs reflected in crime, incarceration, property damage and adverse health outcomes. Even worse is the cost in lost human lives.
Marijuana would embolden those who would use the plight of the sick as a clever subterfuge for drug legalization with tragic ramifications for our citizens. We support medical progress and relieving pain in the sick and dying, but allowing medical marijuana would cost us all more than we can pay.
Bruce Grant is director of the Florida Office of Drug Control.
OK…where to begin?
First, right out of the gate, the threat of medical cannabis being foisted onto the unknowing and easily manipulated citizens of Florida by crazed cannabis activists.
Second, medical cannabis is a mean-spirited ruse for legalization.
Threat #2…Grant implies cannabis places citizens into drug addiction centers and hospitals. Is this true? Doesn’t alcohol, pills and tobacco products put consumers in some jeopardy for the need of addiction or medical treatments. Maybe czar Grant has never visited an emergency room on Saturday nights after midnight…
Despite the fact that 14 states recognize cannabis as a medicine (where 90 million Americans reside), and arguably now so does the federal government under the Obama administration post a well-publicized DOJ memo this past October, and that there are thousands of supportive and affirming scientific studies published indicating cannabis’ safety and utility as a medicine, czar Grant (who is not a medical doctor, rather a career military and anti-drug officer) flatly declares: There is no such thing as medical cannabis. Period.
One wonders if Alice in Wonderland is czar Grant’s favorite book and inspiration for informed policy-making?
Czar Grant seeks a fig leaf to hide behind when claiming that the FDA has not approved medical cannabis. Has the FDA actually tested medical cannabis? No. Has the FDA been abused by anti-cannabis politicians to produce position papers against cannabis? Yes. Ironically released by the ONDCP and Bush 2.0 administration in conjunction with NORML’s 36th annual national conference.
In short, inhaling toxic chemicals and carcinogens from the burning of a crude weed is not recommended by any reputable medical authority.
These are possibilities for the future, but right now neither the AMA nor any competent medical authority in this country has yet endorsed marijuana as medicine.
Czar grant just outright lies when he asserts that no reputable medical organization supports patient access to whole-smoked cannabis when there are hundreds of reputable medical organizations that do, including the American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, AIDS Action Council, American Academy of Family Physicians and The British Medical Association, etc…robbed of their historic, institutional opposition to cannabis, czar Grant even has to soft pedal the American Medical Association’s new direction on medical cannabis’ medical utility.
Czar Grant dangles the false promise (and proven marketplace loser) of 100% pure THC pills like Marinol being superior to natural cannabis.
A favorite prohibitionist canard to employ, as Grant does, is the one that asserts ‘in a world where deadly and addicting drugs like alcohol and tobacco are legal, me-oh-my, why would we want to legalize another drug like cannabis?’
The simple retorts are:
-The failure of cannabis prohibition for 73-years does nothing to actually control the use of the drug;
-Cannabis is already so popular it is not clear at all that taxing it will increase the use of it. In states that have medical cannabis laws and/or decriminalized cannabis there has been no discernible increase in the use of the herb by children or adults;
-Cannabis, despite it’s long illegality is a top five cash crop in America, the drug is readily purchased on most any street and children in government surveys acknowledge greater access to untaxed/unregulated cannabis than taxed and controlled drugs like alcohol and tobacco products.
Czar Grant then goes on to commit a damning blood libel by labeling all medical cannabis consumers in California as frauds. His proof: He cites a recent anti-medical cannabis white paper created by the California Chiefs Of Police Association, which was written and published for the purpose of propagandizing for anti-cannabis activists, law enforcement and opinion-makers in the media.
If one employed Grant’s prohibitionistic thinking, if a youth illegally purchased a bottle of beer or prescription pills, then the government should ban alcohol and pharmaceuticals and criminalize the behavior.
The fact is that tens of millions of citizens–in states like CA, CO, OR, NM, WA–safely and responsibly use medical cannabis everyday with their physician’s recommendation with little-to-no-harm to the individual patient, their city, state and society.
Czar Grant may want to take note that states like NM, RI, ME and now NJ (and the District of Columbia) are issuing state licenses to medical cannabis cultivators and distributors, therefore it can be stated that cannabis is a safe medicine, that is why the states are allowing its use and sales.
If cannabis was the problem and health threat czar Grant claims, why would every single candidate from the Democratic party in the 2008 presidential election, including now President Obama, support lawful access to medical cannabis?
If cannabis truly were deadly and dangerous why would voters massively favor reform in the voting booth and state legislators pass and governors sign these measures into law? Because they favor their own deaths and illness? Do the politicians who support medical access to cannabis want to sow death, disease and drug addiction to their very own voting constituents?
How logical and based in reality is czar Grant’s mentality regarding cannabis?
Lastly….
We support medical progress and relieving pain in the sick and dying, but allowing medical marijuana would cost us all more than we can pay.
I don’t know who the ‘we‘ is in czar Grant’s absurd claim as a vast majority of Americans do in fact support medical access to cannabis. When given the opportunity to directly vote on the matter of medical access to cannabis, only once since 1992 have cannabis law reformers not prevailed at the ballot box (South Dakota, 2006, where reformers lost 51%-48%; prevailing in AK, WA, OR, CA, AZ, NV, CO, MT, MI and ME).
If Grant and other prohibitionist really care about the health and welfare of their fellow Floridians, they should do the two following things:
-Read NORML’s Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids – A Review of the Recent Scientific Literature, 2000 — 2009;
-Get into a car, head Ft. Lauderdale way and look up stockbroker and one of five federally-licensed medical cannabis patients in the United States Irvin Rosenfeld. Irv receives over 300 complimentary pre-rolled cannabis ‘joints’ every month grown at NIDA’s University of Mississippi cannabis farm, rolled en mass at a secret facility at the Research Triangle Institute in NC and escorted by US Marshals to a DEA-certified pharmacy. The man smokes about 10-12 large joints a day, is a successful stockbroker, sailboat racer, community volunteer and high taxpayer.
I guess in czar Grant’s world Mr. Rosenfeld should suffer in silence and not be an active, productive, fully-engaged-in-life medical patient who consumes cannabis prescribed by his physician.
Of course, anti-cannabis guest columns have been penned in the mainstream media by dozens of political appointees against any modicum of cannabis law reforms since the early 1990s.
How has that worked so far for them?
Does Grant believe the results will be any different in Florida regardless of his shallow and ill-informed cry of wolf?
This doesn’t surprise me in the state of Florida considering we have some of the harshest marijuana laws in the country. What I find amazing is that these “Drug Czars” especially in Florida, do not realize the benefits of using this for medicinal purposes instead of prescription pills. The tri-city area, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach has gained the name of the pill mill of the country where prescription pills have become the highest percentage drug to overdose on, over herion and cocaine, but yet a doctor writes a prescription for it and it is okay. Shouldn’t it be okay for a doctor to write you a prescription for medical marijuana as well. These people in power need to take the blinders off and look and compare the positives and negatives of these drugs and consider a safer alternative instead of feeding someone’s addiction to prescription drugs, which does and will happen. It is ridiculous to see so many of our people in power so close-minded.
Mr. Grant is obviously living in a cloud of his own misguided and misinformed making. It is the same old story of any paradigm shift, “We do it this way because that’s the way it was always done before.” What about the feds patent # 6630507 on cannabis for it’s neuroprotectant and antioxidant properties. How would he explain that away?
florida is where we get all the hillbilly heroin. So any thing a drug czar from florida says is crap. someone should shut his mouth.. . how did this creep get his power.. everyone concentrate on grant having a disease he could benefit from marijuana and him not being able to get it because of his own policy. He looks like an alcoholic.
I really hope you NORML folks get a rebuttal published in all publications this farcical nonsense was put in. Florida could really use safe access to medical cannabis.
I would like to thank Allen St.Pierre and NORML for addressing this issue.I have seen many Floridians express their need for Medical Marijuana.To bad their rights are being denied because of lack of education or stupidity.
In the long run,I hope all in need of any kind of medical treatment,will not be denied their choice of medicine.
It’s a crying shame that ‘we the people’ are denied our right to choose.
Ok enough of this BULLSHIT,1.Medical Marijuana Would Multiply Misery Of Abuse,hmmm just like whats going on in the world with the pills,except you can not die!! 2.Smoked marijuana is not medicine. Pot smoke contains more carcinogens than cigarette smoke and is simply not healthy for you.This is all wrong,cannabis is safe then the foods we eat,water we drink and the air we breathe!3.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration routinely tests new drugs according to a rigorous protocol to prove their safety before they are allowed to be sold to the public as medicine. Marijuana has passed no such test.Thats because they are not testing for it,they all are complete assholes for us to believe this lie!4.If this research shows promise, scientists will then be able to isolate the therapeutic chemicals, have them tested and approved by the FDA, and finally packaged in a synthetic form as medicine, much like was done with Marinol some years ago.This is why we can’t find relief,why does everything have to man made synthetic bullshit when it doesn’t even work for all!! 5.Considering our national obsession with the health consequences of high cholesterol, trans fats, obesity and second-hand tobacco smoke, why would we now seek to legitimize and encourage the use of a carcinogenic substance?Hmm well what about taking these man made synthetic drugs then getting hooked on them then going to much more powerful drugs like Heroin 6.Legalization would most certainly lead to abuse by an even greater number of youth and adults than seen today. Ask any addict undergoing treatment whether or not marijuana should be legalized, and you will get a resounding “no.”Hmmm I would rather do MARIJUANA THEN THE BULLSHIT DRUGS WE ALL ARE FORCED TO TAKE EVERYDAY AND TRHEN YOU STILL CALL THIS A FREE COUNTRY?? KISS MY ASS FREAKS!!@
If statements are outright lies and can be proven as such, doesn’t a paper have to print a retraction?
Maybe the Orlando Sentinel will run Allen’s Response…
Grant needs to be pushed into a situation where he MUST ADMIT to the people that he lied about Cannabis OR that he, as a Florida Drug Czar, does not understand Medical Cannabis and therefore should not be receiving taxpayer’s money for a job that he doesn’t understand!
Yes, it is a Czar’s job – by definition – to lie – but isn’t there some way to hold these people credible to their words?
Legalize Cannabis Now!
Perhaps Mr. Rosenfeld really needs the amount of cannabinoid in 5-6 grams of hot burning joints a day, but the disdainful-looking photo provided above could be a PR disaster. Consider that a chance was missed to promote “Responsible Use” by showing Mr. Rosenfeld with a vaporizer– or at least a long-stemmed screened one-hit chillum, kiseru or midwakh.
Please bring this to his attention: prior to the next photo session he could at least sift down the herb and vape or toke a couple dozen low-temperature single servings from each of those spliffs. And, after each round, do 30 intense Warm Wet W’s in and out of a breathmoisturebonnet (alias lunchbag) to protect his trachea.
Note that by notoriously rolling these fat joints NIDA is doing Big 2WackGo the utmost favor, for if non-overdose smoking or vaporizing procedures now gaining headway among cannabis users spilled over into the nicotine addict population, the massively advertised cash cow 700-mg. squares are history, and that’s the end of the profit margin of the #1 genocide industry in world history.
Of course once the FDA abandons its phony fear of e-cigarettes (not one fatality in a decade compared to 50,000,000 by “regulars”) those can be used for medicinal cannabis as well as nicotine.
[Editor’s note: You’re certainly correct regarding some of the benefits of vaporization over smoking, however the federal medical cannabis patients are not supposed to change or alter the delivery system, they also can’t supplement their otherwise low potency government freeze-dried cannabis with market quality medicinal grade cannabis without threat of being thrown out of HHH’s Compassionate Individual New Drug Program.]
This is not surprising in the least. The thing that scares me is, even though the “war” against mj prohibition has made leaps and bounds recently. I feel that many, many, of the people in power truly feel this way and are arrogantly ignorant to the truth. Yes, we are winning battles, but this is a never ending war it seems. Someone will always be there to spread the propaganda and lies wether it be religious zealots, or just the flat out ignorant. Alas for now to enjoy our wins and temporary peace, would be, I believe, very prudent.
My guess is that he’s making money off marijuana being illegal. Like the cheater who’s always over-the-top protective of their mate…
Pay no attention to this moron ,he’s bought & paid for ! He’ll be of of his so called job sooner, rather than later ! Medical mj on the ballot in Nov.2010- 2012 @ the latest ! Hot Doggy ! I didn’t know they had a czar in Florida ! They ought to feed em 2 da sharks ! Why don’t you go after these poison pill producing pirates that put all those deadly pharmaceuticals out that have more side effects than your rant has inaccuracy’s ! Blow hard with no constitutional authority ! Because you sir, are bought & paid for by these same big company’s that kill thousands each & every year ! Go Florida, we can get this done ! How many more must suffer in Florida B-4 we change these unjust ancient laws ? In Tampa & elsewhere in the state ,they set up phony mj sales on the street so they can bust you & confiscate your ride ! I say they are the thieves & the immoral ones ! anybody know how many signatures we need to get this done ?
I read the Orlando Sentinel article by Bruce Grant. I don’t use marijuana, but I am able to recognize Bruce Grant’s lack of logic about the topic. In one paragraph, he claims no medical authority recognizes marijuana as therapeutic, then follows with the next paragraph by saying the American Medical Association does.—red flag #1. Secondly, he uses the dreaded “D” word to describe marijuana by calling it “drugs” and uses the plural word to describe marijuana.–red flag #2 They tried arguing that in prop 390 last week in California. PLEASE, all supporters of marijuana reform legislation, DO NOT allow anyone to call marijuana “DRUGS” in any debate. Marijuana is NOT drugs. We are talking about one thing and when people hear that generic term they instantly gain support for keeping MARIJUANA illegal. Think about what I am saying please. My final point is this. I speculate on the obesity topic to either help or hinder the reform legislation efforts depending on how it is handled in propaganda and debate. Why? Our nation’s obesity problem has been publicized over the last few years. The use of the term “getting the munchies” after smoking marijuana I found to be false many times over. I believe it to be an appetite suppressant. Thank you for supporting marijuana reform legislation at state and national levels.
Oops, I meant out of his so called job !
sounds like mr.Grant has BIG PHARM MONEY in his pocket. With the huge population of seniors ,Their is a lot of perscription drugs in Florida that would’nt be needed if pot were legal.
Bruce Grant is high.
Yeah, let’s go Florida. I’ll be glad when the legislative session in Louisiana includes serious talks of decriminalization and legalization of marijuana.
Beyond superb reply Mr. St. Pierre, thank you. The common sense knowledge you share with us is priceless and appreciated.
This is the part that raised an eyebrow for me, “packaged in a synthetic form as medicine”. That’s exactly what is not needed, more synthetic forms of medicine. The ones I’m forced to take now are making me sicker by the day.
It would be lovely, and the right thing to do, to hold an actual debate live on television MSM, (much like the Presidential candidate debates), and accurately inform the public.
Come on Florida people, get all over this guy or he’ll drag you down.
LOL at the Florida drug czar having the brass to criticize California’s medical cannabis program when Florida has a massive problem with prescription drug abuse.
There are pain clinics almost on every street corner in south Florida, and we don’t even have the option to use Medical cannabis ? Heck, which would you rather have someone use medical cannabis for chronic pain or these harmful opiates in pill form? I’ll take medical cannabis any day SIR!!!! California is doing the RIGHT thing by giving people the SAFER alternative.
Agreed, Czar Grant’s broken capillary face would be hard to attribute to anything other than excessive alcohol consumption. Either way, sanity will prevail and we will not be silent about these professional liars.
you have got to be kidding me… thats the final straw. there is no hope for Florida. i’m moving out after i get my bachelors degree…
“Smoked marijuana is not medicine. Pot smoke contains more carcinogens than cigarette smoke and is simply not healthy for you.”
I’ll give “Czar Grant” that smoking anything isn’t good for you. However, IF cannabis contains five times more carcinogens than tobacco, where are the bodies? Tobacco use alone kills hundreds of thousands of people each year and cannabis smoking alone has killed no one. WHERE ARE THE BODIES, MR. GRANT?
Update on H.R. 2943:Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009
We now have 10 cosponcers how ever it is still in the Referred to Committee phase. I will keep every one updated as it progresses.
If you go to http://www.flgov.com/drugcontrol/odc_strategies.html – you’ll see the first objective, Goal 1. Protect Florida’s youth.
Plus the first few sentences that are on the site are indeed military lingo, @ the word “strategies”.
Come on Florida, go after this guy with peaceful aggression.
Czar grant’s readings make me sick. The ignorance and lying and covering up of tall the facts. I couldn’t bare to read through it all in a first reading. His policy simply states that Alcohol, prescription drugs of all kinds, and tobacco be prohibited.
The one fact that I can’t seem to get by is that there is NO death or substantial misfourtune (other than losing your bag) from smoking pot! They seem to ignore that fact while alcohol keeps police and detectives busy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year! for 100 years that a harmless PLANT should be illegal.
Keep in mind that while inhaling smoke is bad for your body you can also Vape. Also cigarrette smoke has the same properties. some people smoke 40 cigs a day! yuk!
Just another example of an ignorant individual spouting the same propaganda the Government has fed such ignorant people since the 1950s. I am so sick of people spewing this crap like they ‘know’ the facts when it is blatantly obvious from their statements that they do not ‘know’ anything like the truth.
Eventually Floridainas may see the day when individuals with backbone and conscious are elected to Office. When that day comes perhaps things may change for the benefit of everyone not just those with the cash to affect change.
Coming from the state with the most lenient prescription drug laws. You can literally walk into the doctor, get a prescription and get it filled right then and there. The death counts in Florida from prescription meds each day is some insane number that I can’t remember. But here are some general stats from 2007:
In 2007, cocaine was responsible for 843 deaths, heroin for 121, methamphetamines for 25 and marijuana for zero, for a total of 989 deaths. In contrast, 2,328 people were killed by opioid painkillers, including Vicodin and Oxycontin, and 743 were killed by drugs containing benzodiazepine, including the depressants Valium and Xanax.
From: http://www.truthout.org/111208HA
What ignorance .
Furthermore i figured why the Government does not allow research on marijuana . That’s because they already have researched it ( they are not dumb )and they can’t find anything wrong with it .
“among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” the drug nazis have taken all these truths that are self evident and hidden them from the citizens. it’s all about the control and the taxes,at this point they are going to hit us full force with the german sheperds while they figure out how to play the pea shell game and get total control of the market. i think that if we settle for less than total legalization, and as much as any individual wants to grow for his own personal use, we are selling our birthright. why settle for less? ask yourself why let lawyers and politicians figure out how to take the biggest piece of the pie and make you have to pay for your small slice of life, liberty, and happiness. they’ve already stolen the wealth of america and most of everyones retirement for the next 30 years. get the petitions with complete legalization and no user fees or taxes, then get the vote, take back control, vote out the nazis and the robber barons. the drug nazis have been in control since 1911, thats when woodrow wilson first warned the american people “there is an element that has invaded our government” ” a small group of contempible men have made us a contemptible nation”. it was a virus injected into the computer so to speak, life, liberty, and happiness has been slowly stolen, to the point now most people are just plain old apathetic to the political process. the propaganda machine has blinded people into thinking marijuana and any arrest for it was done by someone morally bankrupt, while in fact it’s because they failed to pay taxes. you want change? get the petition, get it on the ballot, let people vote for it. it will pass. and instead of settling for less, and selling your birthright, make the petition for complete legalization, with no taxes. george washington would.
“Ask any addict undergoing treatment whether or not marijuana should be legalized, and you will get a resounding “no.”
Been there, did that and what you actually get is a resounding “yes”. True addicts do not even consider cannabis to be a drug (except for maybe the recovering addicts who are long term in 12 step programs).
Mr. Grant is not misinformed. He is another corrupt punk looking to keep the funds flowing. F him
“If this research shows promise, scientists will then be able to isolate the therapeutic chemicals, have them tested and approved by the FDA, and finally packaged in a synthetic form as medicine, much like was done with Marinol some years ago.”
Oh god the stupidity of this just made my night! Thanks NORML!
Is this guy deliberately trying to look stupid? After I finished read the article I don’t think he is…..
Take Niquill feel better fast. This guy makes me want to puke.
I’m sort of trying to raise awareness in my Florida town, Coral Springs. This is the phoniest and most bullshit-concentrated part of Florida. I’m printing out pro-marijuana flyers and articles that will hopefully open the eyes of the people they get to. I’m gonna go to neighborhoods and put them in mailboxes. I already got one area, but I didn’t have many flyers left as I had passed them out to all the kids in the bus I rode (I don’t ride the bus normally; I was going to my friends house to smoke weed). I need to find some more good articles, and I guess if there’s anything to vote for, I’ll include that.
Vote him out?
LOL Hey Czar grant guess want, people dont need it to be legal to smoke it, or have you forgot that? It will be legal whether you like it or not. Now go crawl back in your hole troll.
When Mr. St Pierre states that this man is not a medical doctor I think he covered it all. Since when do we take medical advice from a cop or ex-military career person. Can he be held liable for giving medical advice without a license? Another person being paid by us tax payers to spew lies, dirty hateful lies! God will hold all of these people to the fire when their day of judgement arrives. They truly have sold their sole to the devil.
Well I think if it was up to the people and not politicians marijuana would be legal in all 50 states. However it takes politicians to get it on the ballot. Well to those who can still vote, make sure you vote for someone who will stand up for your beliefs. They took that right from me 10 years ago at the young age of 22 for growing 6 plants. That is there way of keeping us from free speech. Free Speech should include the freedom to vote!
Grant is delusional. he thinks he has trump but in reality he should fold. I think a drug czar should be concerned with the real drugs that are causing societal problems like oxycontin ,a wide variety of easily available prescription pain killers,and crack to name a few. these drugs ( mostly prescription) are at the root of thefts. murders,and a great many other crimes , as well as clogging up ERs with overdoses and accident, and shooting victims. His statements make me wonder what special interests are paying him off. It would take an awful lot of money to give me the initiative to publically make statements that would make me sound like a total idiot. ( don’t think they’ve printed that much.)
Just more garbage from the party of hate…Moral Oral needs a ENEMA.
@ jed the head
i am a career military person and i am 1000% for cannabis. don’t be so hateful to all cops and military people.my job is in the USAF is a medic and i am always asking the doctors i work for how they feel about cannabis. to my suprise alot of these military career doctors are for using cannabis as a medicine. As for florida the state i was born in and lived just about all my life, it seems like a lost cause. one day florida, one day.
Whenever an erroneous article such is this is posted on the internet, it becomes instantly attacked by scores of people who know the truth about marijuana. Can’t they see that we don’t buy their crap anymore? I don’t get why the leaders in this country are being so blind and deaf to the desires of the people!
http://www.pufmm.org
Florida residents, print, sign, and mail the Division of Elections approved petition to hopefully get this on the 2012 ballot!
re; #29;
” i think that if we settle for less than total legalization, and as much as any individual wants to grow for his own personal use, we are selling our birthright. why settle for less?”
“make the petition for complete legalization,
with no taxes.
—
well said,
when alcohol was re-legalized, they went back to full legality,
not a half – measure like decrim. , or legal with unreasonable limits and / or excessive taxes.
this is the ONLY way to end the black market.
fully legal.
$50 an ounce tax is way too much.
and if it is legal, it can be produced about as cheaply as tomatoes, lettuce, etc. less than 10 dollars a pound, so 100% tax should be the maximum, ($20/lb. total) since that is way more tax than alcohol (7% in fla.)
and there is no tax on home – brewed alcohol for personal use.
and one ounce is not enough.
what is the limit on alcohol? NONE !!
here is my theory;
since there are cannaboid receptors and natural cannabinoids in our brains,
therefore;
A. we co -evolved to be in symbiosis with this plant.
-or-
B. god created us to be in symbiosis with this plant.
either way, this plant keeps our brains healthy.
THEREFORE;
the NON-SMOKERS are ROTTING THEIR BRAINS !!!
and this fool is the perfect proof !!!
I cringe when I hear the words “Marijuana hasn’t passed the rigorous scientific trials” in comparison to other pharmaceutical drugs. Drugs where side effects may include things such as: blood clot, stroke, constipation, cardiac arrest, increased blood pressure, and so on. Odd thing is, marijuana has no such side effects, but still hasn’t passed the “rigorous scientific criteria”
#7 had a great idea.
The entire medical marijuana movement is a scam.
On the one hand you have the consumers and on the other you have the producers.As laws soften,the producers are able to attract more consumers and increase their profits.The whole thing is based on very few individuals entrepreneurs becoming rich very quickly on the back of the consumers.Loopholes in the laws are exploited to favorize the producers.
[Editor’s note: Sick, dying and sense threatened medical patients who posses a physician’s recommendation is not a scam. It is citizens dealing with the adversity of cannabis prohibition. In states where patients can readily cultivate their own (i.e., Oregon) as compared to the new medical cannabis law in New Jersey where home cultivation is not allowed, patients have greater choices and autonomy.
Reformers should always insist on the right of cannabis consumers and medical patients to grow their own.]
Florida… 90% really old people in retirement… wonder who he was playing up to… remember Gore… it’s the Republican breeding ground and safe haven for all the Republican theifs who want to protect their stolen loot from the American people…
it’s new amusement park is called “Fascist Land” where you can knock over wheelchair bound patients and force patients to eat morphine and oxi to support the Pharm co’s so your stocks will go up…
I think the most offensive thing that prohibitionists allow to come out of their mouths is the idea that modern medicine works for everyone, and that it is somehow devoid of unhealthy side effects because it has gone through the FDA approval process. This “czar” supposedly is concerned with saving lives, but does not mind one iota in allowing potentially millions of people to suffer or die while these FDA studies (which have not been allowed as we know) are to be carried out.
I want to see factual information backing up any public safety issues. This idea that alcohol and tobacco “already cause enough problems” is a very popular stance for prohibitionists to take of late. In doing so, they obviously cast science aside in favor of rhetoric, as the chemical compositions of cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco are unique and not synonymous. Just as cannabis has wrongfully been lumped in with the deadlier illicit drugs like meth, coke, and heroin, prohibitionists gleefully include cannabis with deadlier licit alcohol and tobacco. It’s all in the company you keep, and if cannabis were ever examined and presented as the unique natural plant it is, based on science, and thinking person would be embarassed to lump it in with the other damaging substances.
Let medical marijuana patients “do harm” to themselves if they so desire (which we know is not the case.) If you have a chronic or terminal condition, do you really need to be “saved” anyway? Isn’t a chronic or terminal disease enough of a “sentence?”
Ryan… I know what you mean… I’ve been burning for 46 years and have yet to have a side effect… I just laugh when I watch TV and hear all the side effect warnings at the end of drug company ads… just think… if the fascist right had not trampled us into the ground in the ’60’s look where we’d be on conservation, solar power, etc… we can all be happy knowing we were right, yet we still suffer as they wallow in their greed…
# 50 = You got that right . This is why they are suggesting lumping in Marijuana sales with alcohol sales or in liquor stores . Alcohol is a ” hard ” even deadly drug . There is no similarity . This does not make any sense .
Next ; Fried fish with ice cream .
More propoganda from the siamese twin that is the debate between the prohibitionists and the medical pot smokers and especially the folks charging black market prices at the legal dispensaries.
Get real folks. Even simple decriminalization will destroy the medical marijuana dispensaries and the doctor’s license to get high. Even better would be complete legalization. During the prohibition of alcohol, you could also get a doctor’s license to get drunk.
“Another interesting provision to prohibition was that alcohol was available via a physician’s prescription. For centuries liquor had been used for medicinal purposes, in fact many of the liqueurs we know today were first developed as miracle cures for various ailments. Despite the fact that in 1916 whiskey and brandy were removed from The Pharmacopeia of the United States of America and in 1917 the American Medical Association stated that alcohol “…use in therapeutics as a tonic or stimulant or for food has no scientific value…” and voted in support of prohibition, there was still a belief in liquor’s medicinal benefits among many.
Because of this established belief that liquor could cure and prevent a variety of ailments, doctors were still able to prescribe liquor to patients on a specially designed government prescription form that could be filled at any pharmacy. When medicinal whiskey stocks were low the government would increase its production. A significant amount of the prescription alcohol supplies were diverted from their intended destinations by bootleggers and corrupt individuals during prohibition.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prohibition_prescription_front.jpg
End the Drug War and crush the black market. Free the Weed!
The link to the above quote is here:
http://cocktails.about.com/od/history/a/prohibition_2.htm
#1 reason I left Florida, ignorance
and moved to a medical state
I’m really not too worried about people like this. hes like an old horse with a broken leg, eventually the farmer is going to take him out behind the barn and put him out of his misery. It’s like all old politicians. In time, when the younger generation takes the reigns, we’ll see a dramatic increase in support doubling or even tripling over night. So let the closed minded fear us and cry out against us. it wont be long before they are silenced.
When the majority of Americans wake up and realize that the whole world is being munipulated by big business, then and only then will prohibition truly end. Nobody would tell such obvious lies without a good reason. Very sinister plans are being carried out on mankind by the most rich and powerful people in the world. When the law of tyranny ends, so will marijuana prohibition.
We need more NORML support down here. PUFMM is such a small organization and has only a small fraction of the petition signatures needed.
I am a Floridian. I live in Tampa. I have seen the harsh reality of the pill problem we have down here. One friend who started on xanax in high school is now shooting up roxys. Another started on roxys but couldnt afford them, got on methodone, and died within two weeks of getting involved with the pill scene.
Not only that, but Florida does seem to have some of the harsher penalties on cannabis. NOT TO MENTION the very strong DEA presence down here.
So NORML, as well as Floridian NORML supporters, find a way to help. I dont know what else to say…. i guess that it just seems (from a third person perspective) that the organization applies more focus to their headquaters where medical cannabis is already legal rather than try to assist the other states that still need help in the movement.
[Editor’s note: Freedom comes to those who work for it…Floridians need to better organize for cannabis law reform among like-minded Floridians and stop bellyaching about others not procuring your freedom for you.]
Grant should go have a few more drinks so he can finish off his “wet brain,” possibly the source of his delusional, illogical, fantasy based thinking. He should also mind his own business and re-read the Constitution of the United States. How would Grant like it if someone else tried to run his life in violation of his inalienable, God-given rights? Grant might best serve his fellow man by keeping his mouth shut until he has something worth saying. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Grant clearly lives in La La Land.
There is a website up to help Legalize cannabis for Medical purposes for Florida called http://pufmm.org/
You can print the Petition and also donate to help.. CMON FLORIDA!!
If NORML would mention this on the front page, I’m sure the number of signatures would skyrocket. Sadly, they refuse to do it.
[Editor’s note: Placing an advertisement on NORML’s frontpage for a barely organized and under capitalized initiative in a state where it will cost millions of dollars, involving hundreds of volunteers, is not going to substantively aid the effort of a few dedicated but impoverished signature gatherers.
Why is it that citizens in states like HI, AK, MA, ME, VT, MI, NM, etc….the citizens can effectively change their laws but Floridians oddly and consistently look to others, in other states, for their financial resources and freedom?
Freedom and the cash to help procure it is not manna from heaven (or Washington, DC), it is achieved by those that organize and rally for it.]
i am a resedent in south florida and i would love to see people get there needed meds more than anything our laws here are bullshit i know a lady who has cancer she goes to kemo and after her kemo she gets very sick i help this lady out out of the goodness of my heart to get the med’s she needs i would love to see it down here for her and others she is keeping up her fight thank’s to the marijuana i hope this fucktard gets a life and stops fucking with sick people who need the marijuana let’s see what happen’s…ty norml for keeping up the good fight!!!
re;
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration routinely tests new drugs according to a rigorous protocol to prove their safety before they are allowed to be sold to the public as medicine. Marijuana has passed no such test.”
–as far as i know, neither has…
blueberries,
garlic,
avacados,
onions,
tomatoes,
olive oil,
orange juice,
fish oil,
ETC. !!!
BUT ALL HAVE MEDICAL VALUE !!
this is where we should be looking for a comparison
of medical efficacy, and proper regulation.
or even parity with coffee, as coffee is also a
“mind or mood altering substance”
but NOT ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO.
With all of the retired people in FL you’d think that the czar would think of them first? I guess he’s more concerned with his job. Typical.
Medical Cannabis in FL would be like the movie Cocoon and give the seniors much needed relief! WTF is wrong with that?
FUCKEM!
OVERGROW FLORIDA!
OVERGROW THE UNITED STATES!
FUCK THIS MAN.
HIS ALCOHOLIC FACE MAKES ME WANT TO VOMIT.
HE LOOKS LIKE A PILL POPPER AS WELL.
FUCKING SHEEP.
ICMAG.COM
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=940
ICMAG.COM
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=940
ICMAG.COM
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=940
ICMAG.COM
I’ve been a paramedic in south Florida for over 15 years and I have personally seen the devastating effects of legal drugs in our society…particularly prescription pills. In my entire career, I have never responded to a call for a medical problem related to marijuana. It’s so easy to go to any of the local doctors or hundreds of pain clinics to obtain prescriptions for narcotic pain relievers…where are the opponents to this mess? On another note, I think it is a HUGE mistake for pro-marijuana organizations to continue to go along with the prohibitionists and label marijuana as a drug. If we are trying to educate America that it is a safe “drug” or “narcotic.” This is only going to make the campaign to legalize it more difficult.
Floridians, go to this website and print as many petitions as you can. Send them door to door, pas them out, leave them with supporting businesses and give them to friends.
http://www.pufmm.org/
Push for legal medical marijuana rights, and encourage those who don’t think voting matters, that it does matter. This topic will help single-handedly get a majority of the voters voting again, who have not voted before or have stopped trying. We are the majority, and we rule. You know there are others willing and able, they just don’t know… Let them know.
Don’t let this guy dictate the next ten years of the “new drug war”, which only Florida seems to be fighting. He will ensure that your kids play-mates and every other friend you have, are all registered criminals… the ones that are still alive after the gun-blazing raids in your local neighborhoods. We all make less than him, so we are the infection to the state. He has done everything except call us stupid morons to our faces directly, and his qualifications for his job don’t even exist.
He is an underqualified glorified pretend-hero, pushing extremist religion into the threads of the legal blanket that should be protecting us from the cold-hearted killers that he is supporting. He is not supporting us, he is supporting the cartel, the mafia, other politicians, drug companies who want to manufacture synthetic drugs to kill us, and himself.
This is yet-another brilliant idea of Charles Crist, and I hope there is a God, an he has a sense of humor for the voters of this social killer.
His idea of change is the stuff in your pockets, and he wants that more than anything.
Actually, Fish Oil has been tested by the FDA.
The war on drugs is just like the war on terror, they are wars created by bankers and wars force governments to borrow lots of $$ with interest. Imagine starting a war that never ends all the profit you could make if you were as greedy as these guys are. They try to manipulate the public with guys like this idiot. The war on drugs is the Global Elite’s cash cow and they most likely won’t end it soon, but we can. People are starting to wake up, that’s a start. Fortunately the amount of people who worship guys like this Grant wanker is starting to decline. The facts about smoking pot just don’t add up to the claims these goons are making. The public is starting to realize that. Get off the stage Grant!
i have a question for the braintrust at NORML. in which states would it be possible for a petition for complete legalization be able to be placed on the ballot to be voted on without the legislature or the governor (as in minnesota) being able to interfere and change the will of the voters and the petition. for each state that it would be possible, how many signatures would it require for the petition to be placed on the ballot in that state. while it seems we have made progress, the fact that NJ was able to keep control of the money and the marijuana isn’t a win.i for one vote for complete legalization, and i don’t want any limitations or exorbant taxes, and control is all the legislatives are after. we will never have the truth or the justice if the lawyers and politicians are allowed to control the legislative process. how to take back what has been stolen by lies and propaganda. by petition for complete legalization, without taxes?
[Editor’s note — States with initiatives: AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DC, FL, ID, IL, ME, MA, MI, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, ND, OH, OK, OR, SD, UT, WA and WY]
this is too funny! got this from our governors website… he is an idiot too..
Welcome to the Office of Drug Control
The Florida Office of Drug Control, located within the Executive Office of the Governor, collaborates with the Office of Planning and Budget to implement a statewide strategy that utilizes a three-pronged approach of
Prevention, Treatment, and Law Enforcement
to limit the devastation of substance abuse in Florida’s diverse communities.
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Governor’s Office of Drug Control and the Statewide Drug Policy Advisory Council is to establish and institutionalize statewide drug control policy-making based on a process of long-range planning, information gathering, strategic decision-making, continuous oversight, and inter-agency coordinated funding.
This strategy is the most far-reaching initiative in the history of Florida’s efforts to combat the devastation of substance abuse.
Bruce D. Grant, Director
850 / 488-9557
850 / 922-2894 (fax)
they are not doing to much in the information gathering department. they certainly have not done their homework or any kind of studying on marijuana.
I clicked the link to the california police chief’s pdf file about the decriminalization of marijuana and read through it. I don’t understand how people don’t question it given the fact that they only put statements, but not actual numbers or any references to studies done.
It’s also clearly lies, as they try in the opening paragraph to establish that marijuana causes lung cancer, which marijuana has not only proven not to, but perhaps even provide a protective effect. Also, I love how my school growing up taught me that the re-legalization of booze is what drove out organized crime, yet for some reason they suggest that doing the same for marijuana would have an opposite, more damaging effect. My favorite though is the horrible logic statement the opponents of legalization have been using: booze and tobacco are bad enough for society and kill 100,000 and 400,000 people a year respectively…yet fail to mention not one death has ever been attributed to marijuana.
Although cannabis was a medicinal plant for thousands of years, its medical use was suppressed and banned throughout most of the 20th century in the US. During this time, major scientific breakthroughs were made in Israel, Spain, Italy and Brazil. These breakthroughs are propelling the natural plant compounds called cannabinoids into the “wonder drugs of the 21st century”.
14 states have already legalized medicinal cannabis.
More on this topic…
http://jeffreydach.com/2009/03/09/cannabinoids-miracle-drug-of-the-21st-century-by-jeffrey-dach-md.aspx
Jeffrey Dach MD
who is the guy in the wheelchair in the senate?he is so old he scares me just too look at him.is he making rules for me too live by?i hope not.thing are different now.he should be left home.my wife was behind a guy in a store and it cost 17 bucks for two packs of cigs.i will stick with reefer.
There are none so blind who will not see….especially if they are programmed to behave in that fashion. If he were pro-Medical Marijuana he would not have gotten the dummy-job!
Your rebuttal against any anti-cannabis arguments on this site is superb and very well thought out. Keep up the good work, we’ll educate people one at a time. =]
Re: COMMENT #8
“Editor’s note: You’re certainly correct regarding some of the benefits of vaporization over smoking, however the federal medical cannabis patients are not supposed to change or alter the delivery system, they also can’t supplement their otherwise low potency government freeze-dried cannabis with market quality medicinal grade cannabis without threat of being thrown out of HHH’s Compassionate Individual New Drug Program.”
This raised interesting First Amendment rights!
1. If Mr. Rosenfeld were shown in a published picture sucking from a long-stemmed one-hitter or vaporizer, with a slightly shortened hot burning overdose NIDA cigarette lying on the desk in front of him– would he be prosecuted or deprived of his allowance as a result of such publication?
2. What if no picture were published, or other proof of healthful changes in administration method, but Mr. Rosenfeld openly admitted that he tears a 25-mg. serving off the tip of the cigarette and smokes a single toke, followed by another, etc., advocating such behavior for other patients?
3. Would Mr. Rosenfeld, after each toke, be allowed to breathe 30 warm wet W’s in and out of a closed container (such as a lunch bag) to protect his trachea against smoking-related dryness?
I wonder what the gov cannabis would test out at? It would be nice if someone would actualy test this stuff, which I have never read anything good about. It appears that it doesn’t get you “High” at all. They seem to have removed the THC from it. These idiots don’t realize that the THC may be one of the main compounds need for the plant to work at full efficiency.
Florida is a JOKE!!! The weathers nice but they make you not want to go out cause all the pill heads! I own a company any have so many people that cant pass there piss test cause of pills. i wont say anything about the pot cause them boys work and the pill heads suck! i understand why florida wants to be the PILL MILL cause there a whole lot of $money$ in that and they like to kill all the young and old people! florida is also called “DR.SHOPPER”. There all dumb up there in tally. there all about sucking there partys off! they should take notes from the other 14 states that are smarting up! I love how to someone i know who was shot and almost killed his killer is getting out and only spent 13 years in jail cause theres people getting busted for pot and they have to make room for them cause there so bad! This is why i wish i didnt have to pay taxes cause they dont go to anything i would ever like!
we need to start more natural medical and industrial cannabis,and how we really need it t hat bad,to proof to our planet,and to tell all the people why nature was here before us,
we all need to realize,how important every living plant life is very important when it comes to the well fare of all the people and their needs,it goes way beyond being’HIGH’ OR STONE’that most common sence,it is not common after all.rather…not a good news,when it comes to natural of this planet,and completely understand who was here on earth first,and what was it’s purpose and reason to analize our own planet and become more of a creative man or woman,and let nature and the right moments to give evveryone,good natural,needfull,and a big and shade from our plants.we really don’t understand who was here first,on this planet.any little change to our planet,causes mayor storms and earth quacks and man more,because we aren’t wise to let the earth breath it’s natural tress and insects,to keep our lanet in better conditions and situations,we are so small.and selfish.we need to analize thos whole situations,it belongs to nature and it’s purpose.