Pompo

NC Legislature hears about medicinal marijuana
6/28/08|The Charlotte Observer| by Gary D. Robertson - Associated Press Writer



The North Carolina Legislature passes new laws every year designed to combat the latest crimes in the news, whether it's child sex predators, meth manufacturers or those who commit domestic violence.

And efforts to lower sentences to free up more prison beds usually get tripped up by lawmakers who argue it would turn the state soft on crime.

So lawmakers will need some strong and repeated persuasion before considering a measure to legalize an old crime - smoking marijuana - even for a narrow purpose. Lawmakers took a very small step last week when a House committee held a hearing on a bill looking at whether lawmakers should study the use of the drug for medicinal purposes.

"You can't bury your head in the sand," said Rep. Earl Jones, D-Guilford, the primary sponsor of the study proposal. "You do have people out there that are using marijuana illegally and many of them are sick. Some people are using it for pain purposes."

Many law enforcement and religious groups remain skeptical of carving out an exception, saying marijuana is a dangerous drug that can lead abusers to try other hard-core addictive drugs. The most frequently used illegal substance in the United States also has been linked recently to additional possible health risks.

"You don't set public policy on something that is as broad as this on a very small minority of people who say this is helping them," said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, who opposed the study.

Jones' bill would ask the Legislature to examine the public benefit of allowing physicians to prescribe lawfully marijuana and allow patients to possess and use it. A final report wouldn't be required until May 2010.

Twelve states - mostly in the West and Northeast - have approved laws since 1996 designed to allow patients to use marijuana to treat illness without threat of state punishment, despite federal law still barring its possession, according to the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project.

The laws allow a patient to grow the marijuana or have a caregivers grow or purchase it, a 2007 project report said. Patients often register with the state.

Proponents say marijuana can relieve pain and nausea associated with chemotherapy and other chronic conditions and improve the appetite for sickly patients better than other pharmaceuticals, and even a tablet form that contains an active ingredient of the drug.

Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the controversial U.S. surgeon general during the Clinton administration, was the keynote speaker in support of the idea at a hearing of the House Science and Technology Committee which Jones chairs.

Elders said that marijuana was a common medicinal drug even well into the 20th century before laws were passed to prohibit the drug outright. She said the drug's impact on the brain - which creates the "high" users feel when smoking - can be controlled by growing the drug with less-potent forms with its active ingredient.

"We need to do this study on marijuana," Elders told the 50 or so people who attended the meeting in the Legislative Building's auditorium. "This is something we really need to get the hard facts on."

Jean Marlowe of Mill Spring, who said she smokes marijuana to help her with the pain related to a congenital liver abnormality, fibromyalgia and muscle spasms, was released from federal prison in January 2001 after serving 10 months in prison in 2000 after she was convicted in federal court of importing marijuana from Switzerland.

Marijuana told the committee the only medicine that wouldn't leave her getting sick and helped her function.

Lawmakers "don't want their citizens targeted, and they don't want them living in fear of being targeted," Marlow said. "It's sick and suffering people that we're talking about."

Only two other committee members - both Republicans - showed up for the hearing. One of them, Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, took issue with Elders' statement that marijuana is "safer than an awful lot of medications out there on the market."

Marijuana smoke contains as much as 70 percent more carcinogens than tobacco smoke, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The only other talk about marijuana this year came under uncomfortable circumstances.

Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover, testified in December during a child custody hearing that she had smoked marijuana while a county commissioner, a year before she was elected to the Senate in 2004. Without going into details, Boseman said earlier this month she had received professional help. Approving a study could lead to "soft-on-crime" criticism among Democrats in an election year.

Jones, who also has been a supporter of state involvement in stem-cell research - said lawmakers need to keep an open mind.

"I'm sure that with the study our legislators here in the state of North Carolina will do the right thing and make the right decision," Jones said.

Buzzby

The only connection between marijuana and hard drugs is that they're both prohibited by law and are sold by some of the same illicit drug dealers. Legalize it and that "problem" goes away. I put "problem" in quotes because fewer than 2% of marijuana users ever go on to use hard drugs.

The two most frequently used legal recreational drugs kill 600,000 Americans every year. Marijuana has never killed anyone.

I wonder if he feels the same way about prescription pain killers? Not many people need them, so they probably should be illegal...

Aspirin and ibuprofen kill thousands of Americans every year. Marijuana has never killed anyone.

Whether that's true or not, most people smoke a fraction as much marijuana as they smoke cigarettes. I've only met two marijuana smokers in 40 years who smoke the equivalent of a pack-a-day cigarette smoker. The largest study of smoking and cancer ever accomplished shows that people who smoke marijuana and no tobacco have a lower incidence of lung cancer than people who smoke neither marijuana nor tobacco. People who smoke both have a lower incidence than those who smoke tobacco only.

How about doing what's right instead of worrying about your image?

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LowRider

hey buzz, marijuana does contain more chemicals or whatever that are harmful when smoked, however there is two very good responses to this

1. People that smoke marijuana don't smoke nearly as much marijuana when compared to a cigarette person. We usually smoke enough to just get high (which as you know can last several hrs)

2. instead of smoking there is vaping. yes vaping is only burning the THC (it may burn some other chemicals/carcinogens) but not enough to cause problems.

Vicki

Vaping is never burning, if you're doing it right.

From what I understand, when vaping, you only get the THC, not the CBN or CBD. Someone correct me if I am wrong, please.

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Be kinder than necessary as everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
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Those that forget the past are condemned to re-live it.
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures
from the shelter of compassion and pity,
you have men who will deal likewise with their fellow man."
~ St. Francis of Assisi ~

LowRider

my bad, but yeah that. i still think there are other chemicals that still melt away along with the THC. its just a matter of finding there melting point. but thats just me.

gratefulvideofan

I don't understand this? Wouldn't making it more potent be healthier and more effective?

Vicki

Well, in my case, KB helps my pain and nausea much better than lower grade mids do. I need a lot less to help my symptoms too. That's just my personal experience, though.

leidolf

cannabinoids (thc in particular) promote healthy cell growth and death and slows/destroys cancer cells. smoking is by no means healthy for you, but if your going to smoke you might as well be smoking the cure to even things out. my aunt had terminal cancer, i said had because after she started smoking heavily the cancer magically went into regression. the doctors sit there in amazement over her recover while scolding her due to the high levels of thc present in her blood. one of the doctors is from Canada( hes the one that suggested cannabis to her) just sits there chuckling and nodding his head while he goes over her reports. i would say its all about the money but it isnt. its not entirely about control either. i think its more about the stubbornness of the human race in whole. we have all been so brain washed in to conformity that most of us dont even question what the people on tv say are facts anymore...but then again most have never questioned... the structure of our society is fundamentally flawed and theres very little we can do about it. to hell with it im getting outa this forsaken country as soon as i can...
If any of you bother to think of the great men in history of this country this independence day, know that many of them were hemp farmers.

"Prohibition...goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to
control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things
that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very
principles upon which our government was founded."

-- Abraham Lincoln
December, 1840

Pompo

A patriot doesn't flee in the face of tyranny, injustice and persecution. One stands up to and fights against such things


What I do "know" is that they would be very disappointed with this type of attitude.
Where would we be now if they had said "to hell with it im getting outa this forsaken country as soon as i can" and hadn't stood and fought against the tyranny, injustice and persecution of thier times ?

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Buzzby

Some scientists shot high doses of THC directly into the brains of rats with cancer. It reduced the tumors and in some cases stopped their growth. How does that connect with your ridiculous statement that smoking marijuana cures cancer?

And I had two friends who smoked marijuana from their teens and died of cancer in their 50s. Cancers sometimes go into spontaneous remission. No one knows why. That's a much more likely scenario than the one you support, given the experiences of my lifelong smoker friends. Don't you think that, if smoking marijuana actually cured cancer, we'd all know about it?

And some of us are so brainwashed by what we'd like to be true that we believe it is true.

Run away! Run away! It's OK. Some of us will still be here trying to fix what's wrong.