Medical Marijuana: A Sad Joke
Colorado has passed legislation permitting the sale of marijuana for medical use. Control of severe pain is the primary public reason stated for which the legislation was promoted and passed.
I am not claiming any extraordinary powers of predication but this legislation was recognized as bogus by me with just a little investigation. The politicians recognize this as a significant source of income and are taking full advantage of the marijuana business with little concern about medical benefits or the greater danger of easy availability to young people.
A couple of facts need to be reviewed before any serious discussion about medical marijuana can take place. Marijuana is not a medicine. There is some evidence that certain problems of pain can be helped with marijuana. There are however no significant studies to support the broad use of marijuana for medical purposes
In Colorado to use “medical marijuana” several steps are necessary. One is a doctor’s prescription indicating pain that will be helped by marijuana. This costs about $70 paid to the prescribing physician. The second step is registration with the state which is a $90 non refundable annual fee.
Recent information from the state indicates that about 1000 people a day are applying for marijuana registration to “relieve their pain”.. It doesn’t take much searching to find one of the doctors who are now writing marijuana prescriptions as a full time practice. The examination takes about five minutes by many of these doctors.
It is amazing how many of these pain sufferers are young people in their 20’s.
Yesterday there was the annual 4-20 celebration at the University of Colorado. This annual event has been a public pot smoke-out by advocates for the legalization of marijuana. Usually there has been a significant but manageable crowd to show up for the event, Yesterday, a crowd gathered in Boulder that stopped traffic for hours. Stoned young people were in the streets celebrating their medical permits to use pot.
On Saturday there were Bud Buses which for $30 gave a several hour tour of the various dispensaries of Medical Marijuana. Five such buses were filled with young people being ferried from marijuana dispensary to dispensary to hear the pitches as to why “this dispensaries pot” is better. The buses were filled and the one I witnessed emptying at a Pot Shop had about 40 young people scampering up the step of the shop with little evidence of pain.
The creation of the regulations to manage the medical marijuana situation by the Colorado politicians has been a joke. Pot shops are showing up on almost every block in Colorado’s cities. The driving force in the State Capital is obviously to encourage the pot use for the large amount of registration fees and other taxes which will be generated.
The negative social effect and growth of drug use seems not to worry most of the politicians who control the legislature. Looking at the thousands of stoned young people wander in the environs of the CU campus reminded me of the street scene in Amsterdam where drugs are openly used. It was a sad sight and Medical Marijuana is a ploy easily recognized as simply another way for politicians to take a financial advantage from those few who actually might benefit from the use of marijuana for excruciating pain.
What is the difference between pot and alcohol? All drugs should be legal – the government does not have the moral authority to restrict the use of drugs by an individual whether they are in pain or not.
Buck,
You seem surprised that politicians are not worried about the effects of a stoned population. What you miss is the fact that politicians WANT a stoned population because those who are too stoned to pay attention are not citizens, they are subjects who want to be ruled. Look at the response to the Tea Party. Politicians are not kind to citizens who hold them accountable.
Heath
Buck, why are you censoring your readers’ comments?
Buck,
This is the first time I responded to one of your blogs, and I have to say I agree with Katie. Although I enjoyed a joint or two in my younger days, I do not partake anymore. If all drugs were legal, I would not suddenly resume smoking pot or try heroin or meth for the first time. People are going to use drugs whether they are legal or not. Why should we spend money fighting a losing battle and incarcerating people who chose to medicate or impair themselves with their drug of choice. Live and let live! If you want to regulate or outlaw substances that impair peoples thoughts and actions, alcohol should be at the top of the list. Although I do love my beer and I’ve heard you rave about some wines in the past, I’ve never heard of a “Pot Dispensary Brawl” or of a person who was so high on pot that he went home and beat his wife and kids nearly to death.
It is also very rare to hear of a person committing or being the victim of a crime while trying to obtain alcohol. This is probably because it is readily available, relatively cheap and government regulated. This was not the case during prohibition and the Al Capone days.
ALL drugs should be legal and the individual should decide whether to take them or not. But finally as with ALL mind altering and impairing drugs people who use these drugs should be held responsible for their actions. The only regulation needed is to insure that people high on drugs or alcohol should not drive or operate machinery.
Buck,
I appreciate the position that you have taken in this article towards how politicians are handling the medical marijuana situation. Their efforts to legalize definitely do not seem to be motivated by helping people to alleviate their pain or other ailments.
However, I do have to disagree with you on the status of marijuana as a drug. While it is currently illegal to the general public and I believe this law should be followed, I do not think that the substance warrants being outlawed. Alcohol is a drug that has arguably worse side effects than marijuana use, yet it is legal. What is most troublesome about marijuana’s illegal status is exactly how it came to be. Back around World War II, hemp became a big competitor of cotton, and this did not bode well for American cotton companies, and the American economy as a whole. This was one of the driving reasons that marijuana was outlawed; not necessarily because of the effects.
Once again, I do agree with you on the political stance that is being taken towards marijuana. It seems like medical marijuana is simply a baby step towards getting the general public to accept marijuana use. But this is the wrong way to go about legalizing a substance.
As far as the negative effects of marijuana, I respectfully request to agree to disagree.
it is a joke, but how about some straight dope from the horses mouth.
the most common ailment is ibs. irritable bowel syndrome. your stomach hurts and your feel consistently nauseous. its classic because the doctor has no way to prove you are lying. his only option is pain control or euthanasia, which ever you prefer.
its that simple, but most people, notably in a recent southpark episode, are wholly unaware of the how.
that said, we should learn from these social experiments so one day we can legalize harder drugs like cocaine and heroine so that we can finally put an end to this socialist “war on drugs”. where in children are hired to fight children with the latest death dealing tools.
What a great article.
Dont worry Buck, Within 10 years, they’ll be selling pot in Vons and Safeway.
Mark my word!!
One day America going to reget leaglizd pot. Just think your going to have a new generation fo pot head bums , ditching school, dropping out not have jobs another generation of drug addicts. America has a wonderful future. Your are going to create a real underclass.
Buck
I understand where you are coming from. And though I do think weed should be legalized, I don’t like how our country has decided to do it.
Thanks for the interesting read,
Dave
P.S. To the poster above me: judging from your terrible grammar, it already seems our “under class” is terrible. So what’s the worry?
Potheads think they have it all figured out. They have the key to life apparently. What a joke, but hey live life how you want. In the end we are all responsible for the decisions we make in this life. Just stop trying to force your beliefs on marijuana to the rest of society. We are all tired of hearing your rhetoric and agenda. Please, just keep to yourselves with your pathetic illogical beliefs.
Signed,
An independent