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Politicians Fail To Recognize Marijuana's Value
Marijuana has long been construed as a drug for social deviants, and its critics overlook its many benefits.
10/25/07|Daily Trojan| by Tim Strube

"I am not in favor of medical marijuana being legal in the country," gloated Mitt Romney during an "Ask Mitt Anything" session in New Hampshire.

The former Massachusetts governor's statement was in response to the inquiry of Clayton Holton, an individual who finds relief from the symptoms of his muscle dystrophy by using medical marijuana.

The video of wheelchair-bound Holton asking, "Will you arrest me or my doctors if I get medical marijuana?" has been widely circulated online and made it unequivocally clear that Romney, in true American fashion, refuses to take an objective look at medical marijuana.

Like Romney, a large number of Americans don't take marijuana seriously.

To many, the very utterance of the word "marijuana" conjures up images of stoners, hippies and Grateful Dead fans who wear ponchos and participate in drum circles.

From what the Office of National Drug Control Policy suggests, if you smoke it you'll either find your dad's shotgun and shoot yourself in the face or run over a little girl on her bike at a drive-thru.

Marijuana users are widely perceived as apathetic, lazy, unmotivated and downright empty-headed - a joke to be joked about, if you will.

Marijuana was not always viewed this way, though. The notion of marijuana as a dangerous, addictive substance is exclusive to modern-American discourse - merely the result of the misguided social politics of the 20th century.

What most people don't know is the current American view of marijuana is a misconception that denies thousands of years of history.

In fact, the recreational use we commonly associate with marijuana is its most fruitless application.

Prior to the 20th century, marijuana (properly referred to as cannabis) was widely used in the American and international pharmacopeia, and its medicinal use since 2,737 B.C.

The nonintoxicating, untreated cannabis plant itself is said to have more than 25,000 uses (textiles and clothing, paper, rope, culinary oil, cosmetics, paint and varnish, dietary supplements and bio-fuels, just to name a few) and accordingly, it's been referred to by many as "the most useful plant known to mankind."

Despite this, all derivatives of the cannabis plant remain illegal on the federal level.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, it's a Schedule I drug alongside such substances as heroin, methamphetamines (e.g. MDMA, ecstasy) and lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD. As such, cannabis is considered to have absolutely "no medical use in treatment in the United States."

Even cocaine and PCP have a more moderate scheduling.

Why has "the most useful plant known to mankind" remained illegal in the United States for more than three-quarters of a century? Why people such as Romney avoid the topic of marijuana is a difficult question to answer.

But a variety of factors have snowballed over the years into this seemingly never ending prohibition we see today.

It's possible, however, to name a few individuals who have had the most significant contribution to this continued misunderstanding.

Harry Anslinger, the first American drug czar, is said to be the father of cannabis prohibition. In the 1930s, Anslinger, employing manipulative rhetoric, almost single-handedly created the notion that "marihuana" was a societal ill, threatening the lives of our youth.

Anslinger's (and many other politicians') racist inclinations led them to criminalize cannabis. Anslinger, unabashed by his racism said, "the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races…[It] makes darkies think they're as good as white men."

Obviously, he wasn't basing his views on any sort of clinical or scientific research.

Moreover, because cannabis was first used by Mexican workers in the American Southwest (and, interestingly enough, Mormons living in Mexico brought it to Utah), it was a common belief that Hispanic culture's use of "devil's weed" was tainting the American social atmosphere.

Upon the latter half of the 20th century, one would think that such irrational thinking would have faded with time, but inevitably, that wasn't the case. Richard Nixon, the U.S. president who years later insisted upon an "all out war" on cannabis as a part of his "war on drugs," was no different than his irrational predecessors.

Nixon asserted that "every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish" and that there's something "wrong with them." Apparently, Nixon didn't care for the commission's scientific findings (or Judaism).

Unfortunately, things are no different today. The severely misguided, unfounded and prejudiced views of years past still prevail, evident in Mitt Romney's refusal to appropriately field the question of a seriously ill individual who uses cannabis for medicinal purposes.

As far as evaluating its potential for medicinal use, things remain in a stalemate. The American Medical Association concluded that the lack of "high-quality clinical research ... continues to hamper development of rational public policy" on medical marijuana.

In other words, a number of researchers would love nothing more than to investigate cannabis further, but its tough scheduling makes any research virtually impossible.

Unless proper research is conducted, cannabis will forever remain an undeserved societal taboo.

Its continued illegality is nothing more than a mistake that's been echoed for generations, the basis of which takes time to understand and will take even more time to change. At this point, given the persistent 75-year-long campaign against cannabis, it's almost impossible to look at it objectively.

Imagine waking up one morning and hearing about a newly discovered plant: Not only can its derivatives be used medically in treating a variety of ailments, but it can also be used in place of a variety of petroleum-based products and, consequently, compensate for our country's over-consumption of said resources and greatly reduce our nation's harm to the environment. And that's just the half of it.

Contrary to popular belief, such a plant does exist; the American population, Mitt Romney included, has just been told otherwise for far too long.

 

eltone

I read your article on another sight, and you are so right. All the points you make I agree with, for I am a medical marijuana patient in a state where they still hang you for possession of any amount even
.00010 of a grain of marijuana in the Corny State of I-O-WAY is the death sentance by hanging for marijuana possession (it really isn't but it might as well be for the lack of compassion our politicians have proves that Iowa is not part of God's country, for it is not his children who run the Iowa government but seems to be the children of the Corn, er I mean the Devil. Well that's not MY-O WAY, Oregon here I come. I am literay nauseated 24/7 with my parastalsis muscles paralyzed in my stomach my food doesn't get digested fully or properly. Resulting in Nausea and vomiting and severe loss of nutrition. I have 3-5 or more vomiting session's a month lasting from 12-24 hours with 48 hours needed to recuperate. It's not like you feel better after you vomit, like you do when booze makes you vomit so you don't die of Alcohol Poisening. Let's see now how much marijuana must a person consume in order to suffer a fatality, it's been speculated, since we know THC/Marijuana has not caused 1 single death in over 8000 years of use with over 2000 of those years with well documented medical records. It has been speculated that one would have to consume 1500Lbs. in 15 minutes in order to possibly reach a fatal level of THC, and that is humanly impossible. With accurate medical records proving that Marijuana (THC) is the safest, most benign drug known to man and does not deserve the harsh penalties put on it, say's Francis Young the Cheif Administrative Law Judge for the DEA in the latter '80's. In fact he quit the DEA after they ignored his positive results of marijuana use and his suggestion to severly reduce the laws against marijuana, when they told him they were only interested in the danger and negative aspects of marijuana. For they (the President's since 1937 & the DEA) have been brainwashing the US citizens as to the effects of cannabis use. So if the US government chooses to ignore the positive facts of using marijuana and are only interested in learning and advertising the negative facts, what kind of government does that represent? Yep! A facist, dictatorship kind of government where only one man's will runs the country, like King George II does in the USA, and you thought I was going to say Hitler, ha-ha. They make illegal what they don't approve of, decided by there own personal opinion or that of the President right Nixon? Not based on scientific or medical evidence. Nixon, ha, Now there's a potty mouth man who I suspect is not in heaven and is responsible for so many deaths and destroyed families by imprisoning some and denying effective medicine from others, i.e. cannabis. I use medical marijuana for medical uses like controlling Nausea and Vomiting I suffer from 2 Diabetic Neuropathic Diseases that both effect my digestive system leaving me in a constant state of Nausea which will lead to a 12-24 hour long vomiting session depriving my body of life sustaining nutrition, and my government wants to keep illegal what will heal me Cannabis! Dumb bastards, and that's the next freedom we will lose, the right to criticize our government i.e. Freedom of Speech. The nausea is 24/7 the 12-24 hour long vomiting sessions happen 3-5 times a month. Cannabis is the most effective drug in controlling nausea & vomiting there is with the widest safety margin known to man. So we need to get all politicians agains't the legalization of marijuana for medical and recreational use out of office and put those in office who are intelligent, non-prejudicial nor effected by the lies put out in the latter 30's by Anslinger. Only problem is they can't stop drinking alcohol long enough to make an intelligent decision. Alcohol is very addictive and if you don't have your morning fix you shake and go into the DT's, not so with cannabis. Cigarettes have more real poisen like carbon momoxide and fermaldihyde (spelling?,) marijuana contains none of these chemicals. The smoking of cannabis is not cancer causing like tobacco. Researsch has proven that those who smoke tobacco and marijuana together actually have less of a chance of getting lung cancer than those who smoke cigarettes alone. Don't believe me, ask your DR. if he/she is educated and honest they will tell you that marijuana is not as big a danger, if any, of lung cancer on those who smoke it. Even if it did how does the government rationalize the legality of tobacco to the legality of deadly addictive qualities of alcohol, and then make a benign weed like marijuana illegal? Only by way of false information and prejudice does this happen. I must stop writing now before I blow up with anger at my country and it's mid-evil government. I need my medicine, so by for now. Oh by the way at 7:30 in the morning my neighbor always goes to the liquor store for his morning/daily dose of alcohol so he doesn't go into withdrawal from alcohol and can still go to work, and the law protects him while I am in my bathroom thowing my guts up, even though I am on Marinol, and my government would put me in prison for useing a safer more effective drug called Cannabis where Marinol is synthesized from. How bassackwards is that? Without Cannabis and having Diabetes with GERDS and Gastrparesis, makes me hurt when I pee. I'm short with my family and when we ran out of vanilla ice cream last night I beat my wife. But my wife has been dead for 6 years so I ask you, "Who the hell did I hit." by Wilford Brimley and "Family Guy." Vote for Ron Paul or Richardson for President in 2008. By the way this will be the first election I have voted in since I was 18, I am 54 now. After I voted for the first time when I was 18 I became disillusioned and sad to learn that all politicians are liers and crooks. But now that I have an agenda that will decide if I even want to stay in this country for it is still young, not knowing the human condition like our Europian brothers and sisters who have had a civilazation going since time began with homosapiens. Or better yet move to Oregon where the most effective cannabis is grown with 27% THC content, for medical purposes only of course. Peace~