Obama’s drug czar: Marijuana ‘has no medical benefit’ (That ain't what I heard)

[babsbunny]

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/23/obamas-drug-czar-marijuana-has-no-medical-benefit/

By Stephen C. Webster

Published: July 23, 2009

When President Barack Obama appointed former Seattle, Washington police chief Gil Kerlikowske to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy, activists supporting marijuana policy reform were cheered by the news, however briefly.

Kerlikowske’s appointment came on the heels of Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement that America would not longer prosecute patients who are legally prescribed the herb in states that have passed laws allowing medicinal marijuana. Holder’s announcement fell in-line with Obama’s repeated-yet-quiet endorsement of marijuana for medical use as “entirely appropriate” for states in which a majority of voters approve.

[nebenaube]

1. The man is unqualified to make that distinction... n/t

[Mythsaje]

2. Wrong Police Chief, Obama...

Should've been Stamper. :evilgrin:

[Wizard777]

23. After seeing Kerlikowske's Abuses of Science.

Obama will have to ask for his resignation or abandon his commitment to the integrity of Science. But he simply can't have both.

[Mythsaje]

27. Norm Stamper is a founding member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition...

He would have been MY choice for drug czar.

[Wizard777]

28. I'm from Baltimore. We are beginning to pioneer Harm Reduction.

We are having success with it. We have reduced our overdose deaths by prescribing Narcan to heroin users. It's a baby step in Harm Reduction. But unlike the War on Drugs. Harm Reduction is actually working. But the greater majority of what we can do in the area of Harm reduction will require legalization. I think Mr. Stamper is familiar with our Concept of Harm Reduction. Even though my ideal candidate would be a Scientist of Integrity instead of an LEO. Because I favor a scientific approach over a Law Enforcement Approach. I think Mr. Stamper would be an exceedingly good candidate. Because I think he has the science of Harm Reduction Down.

http://talk.baltimoresun.com/showthread.php?t=207297"> Here is a local discussion on the concept of Harm Reduction.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Tell that to my mother.

Who begged me for brownies while dying from cancer.
This from a woman who thought all drugs were evil.
She got the brownies.
And was very grateful for them, she said.
They helped with the pain and sleep.
she died 2 weeks later.

I am very very very angry at Kerlikowske's stupid statement.

[lame54]

4. send this to him...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atMQzRFvCIY

[BolivarianHero]

5. What a fucking surprised...

He's going to be just like Slick Willy...Give the right-wing mouthbreathers someone to kick around for a few years without doing anything of substance progressive.

[4lbs]

6. Did anyone read about the context of his statement?

He said this remark in Fresno County.

He was talking about the drug cartels from Mexico growing marijuana on public lands and forests, destroying the Sierra ecosystem and landscape.

Read more:

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1550891.html?storylink=mirelated

<snip>

Authorities arrested dozens of people and seized dozens of weapons, Fresno County sheriff's deputy Chris Curtice said.

"This is about growing illegal marijuana on public lands and state and federal parks," Curtice said. "This is not about legalization of marijuana, it's about growing illegal marijuana on public lands, the damage it does to the environment and the danger it poses to the public because of the people involved."

Each year, local, state and federal agents pick a region of California to focus their efforts in fighting marijuana farms. This year's campaign, called Operation Save Our Sierra, focused on the foothill areas of Fresno County.

The growers, who often come from Mexico, are paid by cartels to cultivate the plants, authorities say. They often stay in the forests for months, some to pay for their illegal transit to America. They leave behind tons of litter, kill wildlife and cattle, and pollute waterways, officials say -- marks that can harm the environment for years.

The cartels know many of the pot groves will be found, said Fresno County sheriff's deputy Mike Severson. But they can still count on big profits.

The cartels "figure that if they plant 10 gardens, three or four will get caught by law enforcement," Severson said. "It just never ends."

....

Empty cans were discarded in the creek bed; propane tanks, rat poison and fertilizer were on the camp ground.

A short hike uphill revealed what the agents came for: One-third of an acre of plants, many taller than the agents guarding them. Nearby were containers of fertilizers and pesticides.

If allowed to remain, the pesticides could trickle into the creek with winter rains, destroying surrounding fish and harming wildlife that relies on the creek for drinking water, said John Heil, a regional press officer for the U.S. Forest Service.

Some of the fertilizers used are illegal in the United States because of their toxicity, he said.

The cost to clean up the grow sites is $15,000 per acre on average, Heil said.

"It takes a long time for these sites to recover, and many times they do not recover to their original states," he said.

"We look at this as ecological disaster."

Some remote marijuana sites busted last year in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks still haven't been cleaned up, spokeswoman Deb Schweizer said.

Last year, state and federal agents fanned out across Tulare County, removing marijuana plants from national forests and parks.

Even those sites where crews tried to restore former pot farms into natural habitat haven't entirely recovered, she said.

"We have to replant native vegetation, and where there were old trees taken out, it could take 100 years for them to come back."

<snip>

[eShirl]

7. So he meant that only the marijuana grown in national forests has no medical benefit...

Ah.

[4lbs]

8. It doesn't, because very little of that marijuana ever ends up being given by doctors and hospitals

to patients.

It's almost entirely sold and profitted by Mexican drug cartels.

Meanwhile, viable trees are cut down, fish and wildlife are killed, and lethal, illegal, pesticides used that can seep into groundwater and then drinking water, to grow this marijuana.

[Fumesucker]

21. So you are claiming that the only people who need marijuana for medical reasons

Are those who get it through hospitals and doctors?

[Fumesucker]

10. If cannabis were a legal crop, it wouldn't be grown on public land..

Who is growing corn or soybeans surreptitiously on public lands?

The very crux of the entire problem is the illegal status of cannabis, change that and, almost magically, many of these associated problems will disappear virtually overnight.

[4lbs]

12. I agree with that. I'm fully in support of legalizing marijuana and taxing it like alcoholic

beverages or cigarrettes.

[ohheckyeah]

25. Why is everyone always for legalizing and taxing it?

Why not just let people grow their own? If you legalize it and only let corporations or the government grow it they will just screw it up. Why must we pay taxes on a damn herb that any of us can grow?

[N7255Q]

15. But thousands of career Warriors on Drugs would be out of a job.

oh boo hoo

[RollWithIt]

11. Correct, but I think what you pointed out is where the greatest criticism lies...

The fact that it is still illegal creates the very situation by which drug cartels are PAYING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DESPERATE FOR MONEY to enter the United States and LIVE in the forest to grow their product.

If the marijuana was legalized and taxed this problem would cease to exist.

The health related problems ALREADY EXIST.

[4lbs]

13. True. Legalize marijuana and this problem of growing it illegally on public lands will subside.

.

[grantcart]

22. I find it strange that the Fresno Bee is the only one that directly quotes

him as saying no medicinal benefit.

all sources go back to Fresno Bee.


You would think that a big statement like that would have been on tape and have mutliple sources.

[lunatica]

9. See this is why we need doctors to treat people

instead of having political appointees deciding what has medical benefits.

[4lbs]

14. He was actually saying that the marijuana grown illegally on these public lands has little medical

benefit because almost none of it ever finds it's way into a patient's hands.

It instead is harvested and sold by Mexican drug cartels. Meanwhile, the ecosystem is damaged, sometimes for a hundred years, by such activity.

[Fumesucker]

17. Since the disribution system is clandestine..

You have no way of knowing whose hands the product eventually reaches.

There are a great many people living in states that do not have medical marijuana laws that could benefit from medical marijuana, how do you know that none of them buy the product of this growing on public lands?

[4lbs]

18. Probably because they track the selling activity of the cartels that 'own' these farms on public

lands.

[Fumesucker]

19. And you have access to this information?

If they "track the selling activity" completely then the cartels are 100% infiltrated, at which point why are they being allowed to grow on public land in the first place?

A clue for you, people who sell illegal drugs almost always try to obfuscate what they are doing to a greater or lesser extent, some indeed do a very good job of this obfuscation. If this were not so then there would be no illegal drug distribution network at all in this country anyway.

[and-justice-for-all]

16. What a dumb ass..

No medical benefit??

the problem is, mary jane is to good for to many things and BigPharma is making sure that it never becomes illegal. If it does, there would be no need for many of their painkillers or appetite stimulants.

But to say it has no medical benefit is just a display of ones ignorance on the matter.

[Fumesucker]

20. Not necessarily ignorance, more likely untruth.

AKA: lying..

[ohheckyeah]

26. Exactly.

He's a damn liar.

[Leftist Agitator]

24. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss, for all intents and purposes.

That feeling you're getting? Yeah, it's correct. You've been bamboozled.

Flame away. I won't be around to read it.