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Medical Marijuana? Recreational Marijuana?

I just finished watching a documentary, "The Union, the business behind getting high", on Netflix (Netflix is my addiction). Damning as far as setting forth an argument against prohibition, showing the societal costs of prohibition as opposed to lack of known negatives. To be transparent about my own situation, I used as a teenager, thought better of it after getting some heroin-tainted product (which was too amazing), and never used again. Didn't like getting high anyway. I don't smoke, almost never drink, and it took a major disc problem before I was willing to take vicodin, and then only very briefly. I really hate what oxycodone has done to our medical system and to management of pain in the susceptible, addictive-prone populations. Purdue-Pharma has destroyed many lives, and made megabux, on oxycontin. But I certainly don't care if other people use marijuana.

The documentary set forth arguments for medical benefits in certain settings. In some ways, they sound like "cure-all" benefits of other herbs, vitamins, and "natural products". The costs of prohibition are significant, including infrastructure, outlays for employment of enforcing personnel, adding to distrust of government, and restriction of individual freedoms for little reason.

Costs of prohibition:

High incarceration rate.

Diversion of resources from other needs.

Miseducation of the public.

Deprives citizens of a generally safe product for entertainment and palliation.

Benefits of prohibition:

Certain industries benefit - private prisons, employment of prison guards, pharmaceutical industries.

Certain politicians benefit. Plus, they're afraid that if they support repeal of prohibition, they'll lose the next election.

Parents get to have a soothing, false sense of security that their kids aren't using weed. Just ocycontin and heroin.

It bothers me that marijuana is promoted as medicinal. Even with certain benefits, the doctor is currently put in the impossible position of either being a 'go-to' person for "marijuana cards" - potentially putting their license at risk, and swamping their practice with people who want it for their 'headaches', 'back pain', and other real or not-real symptoms. In addition, with increasing issues of oxycodone and other narcotic diversion, the DEA requires drug testing of some pain patients and if marijuana is present, their legal narcotic prescriptions must sometimes be cancelled. With no quality control, safety regulation, dose management, it's impossible for the doctor to know what they are prescribing, or if it is safe or effective. Not to mention, there is no training in use of marijuana and it doesnt come with long, lawyer-written disclaimers about the zillions of potential side effects that you get with, say, your cholesterol or blood pressure pills.

Really, medical marijuana seems like a 'back-door' route to legalization. But it's no more honest than people who want it illegal to "limit use", since it certainly hasn't eliminated use.

The primary use of marijuana is and should be recreational. As for actual scientific trials of marijuana - I'm not sure there are any, or many, good clinical trials. If someone wants to use it "medicinally", it should be in the same category as naturopathy or herbalism, unless controlled trials are able to demonstrate specific benefits in specific medical scenarios. What is so bad about people having some fun? It's safer than booze. It's already illegal to drive while intoxicated, wehther with ethanol or marijuana.

What would happen if we eliminated the prohibition?

1 - Monsanto would make genetically engineered marijuana, and drive small players out of the market. The Monsanto product would be Roundup-Ready, contain B. thuringensis as a pesticide, and contain zero (as opposed to almost zero) THC. This would be a better renewable product than some of our other fiber and paper products. (That being said, most of the hemp clothes that I have seen are really scratchy - maybe Ive just seen the wrond ones). The tobacco companies, with existing manufacturing and marketing infrastructure, might dominate the market.

2 - Large scale use of hemp as an agricultural commodity, for fabric, fiber, and other uses, would make available billions of acres of plant material, and swamp the market with fake marijuana, resulting in sales of non-intoxicating hemp as bogus marijuana. The only way for people to be sure that their weed is good, will be development of brand name products.

3 - Companies like Marboro would get into the recreational marijuana industry, developing trusted brand names so that people could be reassured that they are buying "the real deal" instead of hemp intended for T-shirt manufacture or paper. Some people would grow their own. The plants do look pretty.

Where is the nonsense in discussion of marijuana?

-claiming It's incredibly harmful.

-claiming Dire consequences would occur if prohibition ended.

-claiming It's a cure-all for anything that ails you.

-claiming It's a medicinal product and should be treated as medicine.

So that's my 2¢

Tags: marijuana

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by sacha on April 23, 2010 at 1:17pm

remember the quote yesterday: “It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful.” -- Anton LaVey

This is when stupidity is painful. If you hold boiling hot coffee between your legs and get burned, you only have yourself to blame.

We have too many laws protecting the stupid.

Culling the herd is not happening anywhere near enough.

Permalink Reply by Maggie Hayden on April 23, 2010 at 2:50pm

Coffee temperature was in the article I just replied to Sasha about, I think it was served in the 170 degree range, The tallest cups were the most unstable, and are passed hand to hand thru windows at the drive thru. If you spill just a little on your hand, you will jump with pain, spill it on your lap, and the cup will burn you severely. Blisters. Sure you are responsible to be careful, these cups were flimsy, and maybe the week before they had handed you coffee last of their more solid ones...
This MacDonald's coffee story is always trotted out to "prove" that people are stupid and greedy and plan to make millions from a small injury. What I am trying to tell you is that you should find one more illustrative of that point, I know there are scammers like that about, but not this time.
Your gene pool comment indicates that you don't invest much concern in others health and safety.

Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on April 23, 2010 at 9:17pm

Maggie Hayden: Your gene pool comment indicates that you don't invest much concern in others health and safety.

And your comment indicates that you support rewarding stupidity via opportunistic litigation. The biggest problem with stupidity is that it is not fatal often enough.

Coffee is hot. You do not hold it with your groin. A more appropriate judgment in this case would have been to put a photo of this woman on every McCoffee cup with a "don't be a moron like her" caption.

Permalink Reply by Maggie Hayden on April 23, 2010 at 10:18pm

Sir, and Sasha, I am sorry that I am unable to participate in dark humor of this particular situation, perhaps I am absent a sense of humor. You see stupid and greedy on the customers part, and neglect to consider the point I was trying to make. The jury must have also been stupid, and sure that happens, but they heard the evidence.
The company offered her $800 at first contact, she won an award of $2. plus million when the jury had heard evidence, and later that award was reduced to $640,000 by an appeals court. Mcd's decided to settle before another appeal. There was evidence that the company had taken into consideration the safety factors, and the expenses of possible litigation from burns and decided to proceed. The large award was punitive, to encourage an organization that put safety so far behind profit that this would hopefully encourage them to be more responsible in the future.
Corporations are not demons, they are disinterested parties just trying to make a buck. That's all they want, not to provide you with a joyous experience as their ads would indicate.
As far as your point that stupid people should die more often, I don't know how to respond.

Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on April 23, 2010 at 10:33pm

I cannot, even remotely, begin to comprehend the ethical, moral, intellectual and self-respect bankruptcy of a person that would even consider taking an act of self-created idiocy like this to court. It is absolute poverty of everything that makes you human to present yourself and state, with a straight face "it's not my fault! It's theirs!!!"

Evidently you can, and you consider having social and legal mechanisms in place to pander to such cretins a good thing.

It would probably tax you too much to consider what social impact this kind of stupidity has, but each dollar wasted on these people is a dollar flushed down the toilet - it affects everything, It steals from your health system, it steals from you by inflating overall insurance costs. That's the tip of the iceberg. Stupidity is the most destructive force in human history - and you want to protect it and coddle it.

Permalink Reply by Maggie Hayden on April 23, 2010 at 10:51pm

Dr. Grogan, try and conceive of another point of view being possible here. Every time they reevaluate how to save money, by supplying a even cheaper and more flimsy cup than before, knowing that it will more likely spill on customers, and never consider that it matters that some greater percentage of burns will occur...you don't have to be stupid to spill, just have a little tremor and slip a bit...I don't think the Corp is Evil and the Poor Little Lady So Faultless, there are degrees of gray here, and the jury thought McD's was wrong in their documented decision to disregard the safety aspect. The large award represented 2 days of coffee profits, and malpractice awards are not one of the most significant factors in health care costs.

Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on April 23, 2010 at 10:58pm

Maggie Hayden: Dr. Grogan, try and conceive of another point of view being possible here. Every time they reevaluate how to save money, by supplying a even cheaper and more flimsy cup than before, knowing that it will more likely spill on customers, and never consider that it matters that some greater percentage of burns will occur...you don't have to be stupid to spill, just have a little tremor and slip a bit...

Don't move the goal posts. Remember what group you're in. If you haven't read the pertinent background group documents, I suggest you do so now.

Shameless stupidity is what you are defending, not packaging materials.

Permalink Reply by sacha on April 23, 2010 at 9:25pm

and maybe the week before they had handed you coffee last of their more solid ones...

excellent - that would make a difference, wouldn't it.

Your gene pool comment indicates that you don't invest much concern in others health and safety.

All my comment indicates is that I have a dark sense of humour.

I have an enormous amount of concern for animals, who are unable to speak up for better treatment, or even make a decision about their well being. I have significantly less patience for perfectly capable adult humans who do not use their brains. Critical thinking. Don't be an idiot, and certainly we do not need laws in place to protect the stupid.

Now 8 days in the hospital with 3rd degree burns and skin grafting is not what I am referring to, although it was not very smart to hold it between her legs.

Permalink Reply by Jason L Franklin on July 8, 2010 at 10:00am

Reminds me of a trip I took to denny's for breakfast, after demolishing a grand slam (prednisone munchies) i felt the need to use a toothpick to dislodge a piece of ham from my teeth. I grabbed one from the cup at the cash register and haphazardly examined the paper wrapper and noticed
•When you use toothpick use carely. When you use one to clean your teeth, don't jab at your gums. You don't want to stick the sharp tip of the toothpick into tender gum tissue.
•Monitor the use of toothpicks when you have young children, especially toddlers. Tell your child to carefully place the tip between his teeth and gently remove any food particles.
•Use a safe technique. Run the toothpick in slow, gentle scraping motions up and down your teeth. After all the food particles that you can see have been removed, use the toothpick to clean between all your teeth. This keeps the bacteria from building up that cause plaque and tartar.
•Take attention when you use toothpicks to serve foods when young children are around. Children have a tendency to grab anything new or colorful and stick it into their mouths. A child may also swallow a toothpick that's in food. Remove all toothpicks before serving any food to a child. Even adults sometimes don't notice a toothpick sticking out of a small finger sandwich. When you use toothpicks in food, make sure the toothpick sticks out far enough to be seen and removed. Use toothpicks with colorful plastic wrappings at their ends so they are easy to spot.
W.T.F!!!!!! any society that needs directions to use a friggin toothpick is beyond redemption and should die in the flames of social revolution whereas we hang the trappings of our own stupidity in effagy

Permalink Reply by Glenn Sogge on July 8, 2010 at 12:49pm