As a reader of The Moderate Voice, I felt let down by the 2 threads dedicated to medical marijuana. Yesterday, Shaun posted U.S. Government’s Reefer Madness Challenged citing this info on a lawsuit and his personal experience here. Today he posted Marijuana, Religious Puritanism & Social Hypocrisy and responds to a readers question of why there is so much energy and focus on a substance that is fairly innocuous and the existence of policies that are viewed as fairly crazy by folks in other countries:
I believe the answer lies somewhere between those twin pillars of American society: Religious Puritanism and Social Hypocrisy.
Both are evident in draconian laws that have filled prisons with casual marijuana users despite all the studies that show that marijuana is indeed fairly innocuous, is not a gateway drug that leads users to the hard stuff and can provide relief from the side effects of chemotherapy and other crippling treatments.
Assumption is what he provided, and I expect more from them. Was it to start a discussion? I am guessing yes. Why does religion have to be brought into this? A a cigarette smoker, I can tell you that it is not the church that is after me, it is the masses that want to rid society of my habit. Habit, being the key word. Smoking is a habit or addiction.  Stating that our prisons are filled with casual users is disengenuous.  For every study he shows that says it isn’t a gateway drug, I could show that it is. They are in prison because they broke the law. A person that does drugs didn’t start out shooting heroin. Get the law changed. Â
I am in no way doubing that Shauns Dad did benefit from smoking marijuana, but his father was a lifelong smoker and had lung cancer. Without knowing more than he wrote, I will assume that his Dad was terminal and there was no chance of recovery. A joint is not something a doctor would give a lung cancer patient if recovery was a possibility. There is a pill form, but it is not “liked” as well by the user. It may not be liked, but it is safer than the smoking.Â
It is 2007, and we have pills for everything. We can’t come up with something better?
For starters, the government needs to let marijuana be researched much more than it has been all these years.
We all need to keep in mind that man has been using it for thousands of years for its medical benefits and, honestly, for the buzz. Why should it stop now?
Lead paint was a great product as well.:roll:
I’m not sure if what you said makes any sense, really…
When has lead paint ever been shown to have medicinal properties?
It too was a great product SF. It was the best on the market until they realized the dangers of it. So just because something works good, doesn’t make it a good thing. They haven’t perfected the the joint in order to take the danger out of it. In this case MV told of his fathers life long habit of smoking and the only thing that eased his pain was smoking…
Peejz:
You guess correctly. My post on the religious puritanism and social hypocrisy that has led to draconian marijuana laws was intended to start a discussion. There was a most vigorous and healthy one in which many people agreed with me and some did not.
I cannot imagine why you felt let down.
I felt let down, because you are one of the most meticulous writers that I enjoy reading…normally, I don’t feel that you attack (read puritan religion) without backing that up, and it is usually something that is based on merit and not a go along with the crowd attitude..Take it as a compliment, as that is how I intended it.
And DDT was a real good stuff it was lies and junk ecience by the eco-freaks like RACHEAL CARSON that got it banned:roll:
you people are trying to compare Lead Paint and DDT to Medical Marijuana?!?
that makes no sense, whatsoever.
the Fact is, we don’t know everything there is to know about Marijuana and its benefits or harmful qualities because THE GOVERNMENT has for decades refused to allow proper research.
Before all else, that needs to change.
THE GOVERNMENT has for decades refused to allow proper research.? Really? Or are you trying to say that the government has not paid for the studies? I am not aware of the feds forcing a private researcher to stop…
“Or are you trying to say that the government has not paid for the studies?”
That’s not at all what I’m trying to say.
I said: the government needs to allow more research, and so far, they aren’t allowing that to happen – probably because it’s a political issue.
…and that’s a damn shame when Americans lives and health are involved.
11-Okay, so please show me where they have stopped the research? The government funds it SF, only after adequate promise is shown. The private sector is responsible for the majority of all breakthroughs in research..when promise is shown, the data is taken to the next step and the federal govt., then starts backing the research. There is nothing stopping a private research group from studing this…well, actually, the private funds are probably not there as there is too much in the line of pain/nausea relief and the market just isn’t there to justify research funds going to pot!