House: Medical Marijuana a Federal Case

[Kadie]

House: Medical Marijuana a Federal Case

By ANDREW TAYLOR
The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 15, 2005; 3:56 PM

WASHINGTON -- Yes, the government can make a federal case out of medical marijuana use, the House said Wednesday.

Less than a week ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the government can medical marijuana users, even when state laws permit doctor-prescribed use of the drug. In response, the House rejected a bid by advocates to undercut the decision.

By a 264-161 vote, the House turned down an amendment that would have blocked the Justice Department from prosecuting people in the 10 states where the practice is legal.

Advocates say it is the only way that many chronically ill people, such as AIDS and cancer patients, can relieve their symptoms.

snip...
"Marijuana has never been proven as safe and effective for any disease," said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind. "Marijuana can increase the risk of serious mental health problems, and in teens, marijuana use can lead to depression, thoughts of suicide, and schizophrenia."


more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/15/AR2005061501770.html

[Beaverhausen]

1. Fuck

what is WRONG with those people?

[slay]

2. I'd say it's more likely that a crappy Republican agenda is going to

make teens depressed. I mean really, what kind of future are kids gonna have if Republicans are allowed to force their crazy social hang-ups on everyone else? Unfreakinbelieveable!

[EC]

3. Other than the fact that this is simply not true (unless he's talking

about alcohol...


Marijuana has never been proven as safe and effective for any disease," said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind. "Marijuana can increase the risk of serious mental health problems, and in teens, marijuana use can lead to depression, thoughts of suicide, and schizophrenia."

what does any of it have to do with medical use in terminal cases?

[ixion]

4. depression, thoughts of suicide, and schizophrenia

what's this guy been smoking? :crazy:

[TrogL]

5. Is Mark Souder a medical professional?

if not, why is he allowed to practice medicine without a license?

[Beaverhausen]

7. He obviously never knew anyone on chemo or radiation

My god...why would anyone deny those people a substance that eases their pain, helps them to eat and to sleep?

[slay]

6. He's afraid people will smoke a joint and go "Hey man, these Republicans

are truly insane ya know! All they do is bum people out and make life miserable for everyone except the ultra-rich and the religiously insane." :smoke:

[SlavesandBulldozers]

8. ah yes

"States' Rights", "Shrink the Federal Government's Powers" "Individual Freedoms", "Christian", "Conservative" party strikes again.

[TacticalPeek]

9. Morphine? OK. Cocaine? OK. Oxycontin? OK. Codeine? OK. Demerol? OK.

Marijuana? No way.

[Shallah Kali]

20. Accutane, Ritalin, Prozac, Tobaco all A-OK as well!

But something anyone can grow so there is no profit for Big Pharma is deadly dangerous and should be banned. I just love GOP logic!

[DearAbby]

10. Why the argument about Teen Use of Marijuana...the case is MEDICAL

"Marijuana has never been proven as safe and effective for any disease," said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind. "Marijuana can increase the risk of serious mental health problems, and in teens, marijuana use can lead to depression, thoughts of suicide, and schizophrenia."

Why the argument about Teen Use of Marijuana...the case is MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA under the supervision of a physician, just like the use of most prescribed pain relievers are addictive, and with side affects, the weight of benefits to the side affects are taken into consideration when the physician prescribes any pain reliever.

Why talk about casual teen use...it is not at issue. The issue is MEDICAL USE of Marijuana.

[grytpype]

11. Bullshit.

"Marijuana has never been proven as safe and effective for any disease,"

Bullshit. Utter bullshit. The safety of cannabis is as thoroughly proven as it can be. Effectiveness? Depends on what you mean, but pain relief and appetite improvement are obvious effects.

We are ruled by a cult of irrationality.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

12. Rich or poor..............

these guys want to take everything away that doesn't immediately benefit them. I imagine the drug companies are putting pressure on these guys to keep self-medicating illegal.

[firefox]

13. Medpot is the word

Medpot is my favorite word for medical marijuana/cannabis. It is a common expression in Canada and I just want to introduce it here so that people might advance the term.

http://www.medpot.net/forums/ is a website that does news. It has more cannabis articles than any other website. It has all the articles that make it to CannabisNews.com. It is run by Marc Paquette who is famous in the medpot community in Canada because of his court cases with Terry Parker and John Turmel and for his work at Medpot.net of course. He post a digest of the links daily, unless his health is down, in this forum at HempCity- http://www.hempcity.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=21

The worst thing about illegal medpot is that cannabis should be legal. It should have never been illegal in the first place. There was no outcry to make it legal. There is famous link that would make most anyone's top 10 links on cannabis that everyone searching for the real reality of politics should read- http://www.pipes.org/Articles/history.html

Almost all the harms associated with cannabis come from the laws. Two thousand people will be arrested today for something that should have never been illegal to start with. If someone uses cannabis it does not harm anyone else for sure and harming someone else is kind of the basic definition of a crime isn't it?

Research has been blocked by a federal hegemony and a schedule 1 classification of cannabis. The greatest question in the medpot issue in America concerns the proper classification of cannabis. I realize that there is not going to be a discussion with distinguished researches of cannabis on television as the controlled media is designed to filter issues like that out. When the question is finally asked of experts, I would fall over in shock if the answer was not Schedule 4.

People were played on Iraq and ninty-percent gave Bu$h a favorable rating at the time. They were played by projected a false reality, just like the federal government learned it could do in the drug war where the CIA is the largest player on the planet. The fascist mouthpieces all recite from the same playbook when they endlessly say "It needs more research" when it is the USG and its prohibition that was installed to stop it.

I wish I had a micro for what follows as it is basic to understanding how incidious this prohibition is. In 1971, Nixon launched the war on cancer. In 1974 research out of Virginia showed that cannabis could kill cancer cells. When the war on drugs met the war on cancer the war on drugs won.

You cannot ask any of these Congressmen a direct question. If I could ask every one of them a question they had to answer on national television with a week to come up with an answer it would be "What is the greatest medicinal plant in the known history of mankind?" I say the answer is cannabis and would like to hear any other contenders from the few that will read this.

[Zhade]

18. Hey firefox, just wanted to say thanks for all the info you share.

You're doing a valuable service. Rock on! :smoke:

[newswolf56]

14. As I have said before, the Republican stance...

...toward medical marijuana is one of the yardsticks by which we can measure the extent to which the GOP has become the executive action agency of Fundamentalist/Dominionist Christianity. The Christian belief is that earthly suffering is necessary to draw closer to god; the F/D belief is that earthly suffering is divine punishment for sin. Hence -- so goes F/D reasoning -- those afflicted by illness are being punished for their sins, and to alleviate their suffering (as with medical marijuana or even adequate doses of prescription painkillers) is literally "the work of the Devil."

The extent to which BushCo persecutes medical marijuana users will be one of the critical measurements of the lengths to which this regime will go to inflict Dominionism on the entire nation.

[aquart]

15. May only Republicans know nausea.

[consuming]

16. roll em and smoke em I say

[Zhade]

17. Souder is a fucking liar.

NT!

[leesa]

19. US Congress, protecting its Big Pharma pork. Oink! Oink!

[Gyre]

21. More like protecting the original drug smugglers who make

Dewars, Jack Daniels, Smirnoffs, etc. who are deathly afraid that pot decriminalization will lead to a drop in their sales. Plus the feds can't tax the hell out of pot that's home-grown 'cause they can't find it.

[depakid]

22. Another republican lying about science

Will wonders never cease?