Hemp, which has an indistrial use, and the starving farmers in North Dakota would love to grow it, has a cultural link to marijuana (even though its THC content is very low) – ergo, it is illegal to grow hemp in the US. One of the industrial uses for hemp is paper. We could, perhaps, save a few trees if we could get past our legislative absolutes with respect to categories of chemical substances, their use, and their distribution.

We cannot study that which we categorically declare out-of-bounds. There ought to be a way to separate the constructive use of some substances from their destructive applications. You’d think we’d be smart enough to figure out a way to do that. Or, at least to sort out the benefits of said same to weigh against our imputed costs.

This is, in the truest sense of the word, criminal.

Great post. Thank you, GM, for putting it up.

The active ingredient in marijuana is Delta-9 tetra-hydrocannibanol or THC and is just as effective in pill form as in a joint, it just takes a little longer to get into the system, but even so, getting THC pills is almost impossible because of the drug laws (and most of the really draconian drug laws were passed in a democratic congress and signed by a republican president (nixon) and no one has thought fit to say “mmmm, I wonder if this is such a good idea). Likewise, physicians are afraid to prescribe sufficient pain killing drugs for the very real possibility of running afoul of the DEA. So, we are cought in a quandry. There are effective drugs and preperations out there, but either people don’t know about them, people are afraid to demand from their congress a fresh look and people are just plain old too damn stupid to think of how dibilitating some of these diseases are. My late brother in law died of AIDS and his weekly medications (which he called “Shake and Bake” because of their effects on him) were alleviated only by smoking weed because the anti-nausea pills weren’t available way back then, THC couldn’t be obtained easily and many docs refused to prescribe it and medical science is stupid in many ways.

Do you know that no study has been done on the effacacy of THC in substantial doses to treat nausea or pain or some of the other problems associated with dibilitating illness.

When I teach “Family and Disability” at the University I always ask students to do research on the topic, then when they come up fairly empty, I suggest they write their congressman (and down here the congress folk are democrats and the two senators are Republicans) and to date, nothing has been done. Congresscritters are afraid to pass laws that may be usefull because some asshole somewhere will say they are being “soft” on druggies.

Now, having said all the above, and ranted well beyond my welcome here, if you want to read about my journey through cancer treatments I’ve blogged it here and you’ll have to scroll to the bottom to get the first entry. Cheers and Celeste, please forgive me for ranting so long.

You’d never know it from their teeth.

Back to the subject: Marijuana and states’ rights.

I planted a bush next to my mom’s patio that resembles a butterfly bush but is actually a Vitex, whose leaves resemble those of marijuana. Mix some of your select plants in with that and corn stalks and no one will ever know. We’re still worried about bootleggers where I live.

Regarding the raids, it’s a little bit like immigration. If there is a law, it should be enforced rather than ignored. If the law should be changed, then work towards that. I go nuts over government officials who are supposed to enforce our laws but don’t, rather than taking the proper steps to make changes.

I suspect there are cures available today for cancer, but we will be the last to know about them in the United States. Cancer is 10% of the healthcare budget of the USA.

http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/on-cancer-business-industry.html

I didn’t know that they had dentists in the UK.