Lothar121

Drug Czar Says Medical Marijuana 'Dying'
Audrey McAvoy| LA Times | 07/29/2005

HONOLULU -- The White House drug czar said Friday that medical marijuana is "dying out" after the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that federal authorities may prosecute sick people whose doctors prescribe pot to ease pain.

John Walters, the national drug policy director, said state legislative efforts to expand medical marijuana programs have stalled in the two months since the high court's ruling overrode laws in Hawaii and nine other states.

"I think it's dying out," Walters told reporters after a meeting with Hawaii drug treatment counselors and law enforcement officials. "The real issue here is, is it the safe and best way for medical treatment? We don't think the best thing for people who are really sick is to make them high and send them away."

Walters said the federal government was funding research into whether cannabis could be used as a source of "medically sound" drugs, but he said "smoked marijuana hasn't met that science."

Steve Kubby, national director of the American Medical Marijuana Association, objected to Walters' remark, saying there are "hundreds" of peer-reviewed scientific studies showing clear medical benefits from cannabis.

"The drug czar has blood on his hands for blocking the humane and medical use of cannabis for sick, disabled and dying people," Kubby said.

Kubby, a force behind the passage of a California proposition that legalized pot clubs, said marijuana can help treat nausea, pain, arthritis and cancer.

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Murdock

Sadly, I agree with Walters, the Prohibitonist are winning this "war" by a rather large margin right now.

Higher Logic

That may be, for the moment, but 11 states is pretty damn good, and change is 'a-coming...but hey, I'm not the one with "blood on my hands" either, so I can sleep at night. Like Walters could care less anyways, can't wait until that man (et al) is gone.

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PotShot

Drug Czar Says Medical Marijuana 'Dying".....




The Drug Czar says alotta dumb sh!t. This is not any different.

It sends me into a red fiery fury everytime that fat bastard utters the word science, he has no right. And they forgot to put the "-" between smoke and marijuana, its one word to the guy. Smoked-marijuana, smoked-marijuana, blah blah blah.

When did ANYONE ever go "Yeah, mostly we just get people high and then tell them to walk away randomly"? At least compassion club people are not ARRESTING, and TORTURING the sick and dying.(And un-sick and un-dying for that matter)

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nacrypt

Amen, brother!! The plant marijuana will outlive all of the foolish prohibitionists who fight against it. Maybe if they tried a joint themselves they would understand why people like it so much.

The DEA and the entire government prohibition machine is like the little stone in the big river, eventually it will be washed away. Even "The Man" can't change Supply and Demand!

Buzzby

Supply and demand work just fine with the black market. Supply and demand exist today. Supply and demand has functioned since 1937. I don't see how that's going to have any effect on the continuity of prohibition.

Prohibition is not going to just whither away because it's a bad idea or because a lot of people enjoy marijuana. Unless marijuana users get off the couch and start funding the organizations that are fighting prohibition, prohibition will be with us for the foreseeable future. The vast majority of marijuana users don't seem to give a damn.

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nacrypt

We need better ways to reach out to existing marijuana users and get them to join in organized ways protest prohibition, because I think they do care, just don't know how to express their desire for legalization. I must complement your site, which I think is an excellent way to do this. However, more must be done! We must think positively and become ever more clear on exactly the goal we want to achieve: the regulation of marijuana like alcohol.

I plan on following Buzzby's example and donating to the MPP, since it looks like they take decisive action. Also, I'm in the process of planning a rally at my college under the banner of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy.

One huge problem is that people rarely become outspoken activists until they have been busted. It may be useful to start a coalition of people who have been busted so when more people get busted, are angry and want to do something we will have a process for them to enter to help our common cause.

Also, my idea with the Common Sense Coalition is to create a symbol, which doesn't have marijuana in the title, with a flag that also does not have a pot leaf, that can be touted publicly to show support for marijuana regulation without seeming like a stereotypical pothead.

vladimir

most of them care, but few actually feel like doing anything about it.

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Yana Usdi

I think they care, but in an abstract way. They just figure someone else is going to do it for them. Women only got the right to vote when they got pissed and took to the streets in protest, same with minority rights, same with about any expansion or protection of rights that I can think of. Nobody "gave" them to us, someone had to fight for them. Stoners just seem to think someone else is going to do it for them.

Another problem is spreading the word, they recently had to fight a court battle to even allow paid ads to be put in subway and bus stops in isolated areas, and newspapers and other private publications often refuse to allow the same. It's not that people aren't trying to say what needs to be said and haven't been for years, they just aren't being repeated much. That's why we need solid LTE campaigns and such, got to work on the minds of those running these places so we can get into the public eye.


We already have groups like that, there's the November Coalition for prisoners of the drug war in general and the Green Prisoner Project for victims of marijuana laws, though it seems to be down at the moment. There's probably others as well, but those two are large and well organized already.

There are easily half a dozen coalition type of groups out there already trying to do the same thing, though some may have a suggestive name and some are interested in more than pot. Some aren't. We have Drug Policy Alliance, Drug Policy Forum of Texas with similar chapters for several other States such as Florida, publications and info gathering and distributing sites such as DrugSense:Drug Law Reform and The Media Awareness Project, LEAP of course, Marijuana Policy Project, and finally StopTheDrugWar.org the Drug Reform Coordination Network

Past that there's bunches of other sites such as the Drug Truth Network and others of the sort that do multiple shows a week trying to reach us, and there's the archives at the DRCNet Schaffer Drug Library which link to more groups I didn't mention at the top of that.

Most of the great new ideas people have aren't really new, though they may be great. We've spent decades twidlling our thumbs and doing little, the groups are already out there for about any approach you'd care to name. So are the tools, the information, and the methods. They'll tell you how to write a good LTE or OP-Ed for the local newspaper, how to contact reps and write letters, how to organize locally, and so on. Heck, even the old womens anti prohibition group from back in the 20's and 30's has been ressurected again at W.O.N.P.R.

We don't need to invent the wheel yet again, we need to support those who have already been doing it for years and see what they've already learned, then expand on that. We're already split among dozens of seperate groups pulling in multiple directions and we aren't getting very far for it, we need to pull together more instead I'd think. That's how groups that finally did get somewhere did it. Most of what people say we need is already out there, but we invent it yet again rather than discover and support what we've already got.

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str8way

Walters has sucked, does suck and probably always will suck.

We have a problem with activism as many of us are growers or at least posessers of cannabis and wish very little attention drawn to ourselves. I currently give money to three activist orgs, but I would like to see them all unified so their limited resources could be combined. I think that each state they would take on for med cannabis would be more doable if they were unified. Who knows, Walters might be heard saying, "I think we have lost the war on smoked marijuana as medicine". Dream on I suppose. I will keep giving to the big names like norml and mpp anyway.

I have stopped growing and am getting my possession amount down so if I can do something for the cause and go to far, I hope not to go to jail.