Federal Cannabis Patient to Lead Medical Marijuana March

Secede from the USA or fight to change the Federal Law... everything else is a waste of time.

Federal law must change!! It alienates our children from society by putting them at risk of random police searches, they can't even drive to a store or walk to a park without being accused of being drug users!

And it puts *all* of us at risk of SWAT-style raids on our homes by police that are either misinformed or have made a simple mistake. Many innocent people have died in these circumstances already, will you be next?

How can we get dealers off our streets if we don't first remove the demand for illegal marijuana? We must legalize the production and supply of marijuana by certified businesses. This one policy change will totally rid us of illegal dealers and force all consumers to be carded, just like with alcohol. The consumption of marijuana by minors will significantly diminish, violence from the illegal dealers will be gone, as will the expense and violence associated with the prohibition itself.

Rein in the DEA. Legalize Marijuana.

Thanks for giving us a chance to express our state's rights which California voters voted for.

I'll be there.

ty, I agree that we need to change the Federal Laws, but in the mean time there are seriously ill patients as well as other patients who fall under the state law who benefit from using cannabis.

This is about education and it is about making our presence and opinion known.

END THE WAR ON DRUGS!!!!

Legalize everything and have the DEA (and the D part of the FDA) become part of the ATF; move the F part to the FBI. Then treat all such substances the same way we do alcohol and tobacco.

With the competition this would bring about it would make the product so cheap the profit motive would be gone from the illicit market and the thugs would have to find another job.

I would guess that 90% of "medical marijuana" users don't need it. They are just killing their braincells and probably using welfare or other giveaways to get it.

And thousands of people kill their braincells every weekend on state street by consuming the addictive drug known as alcohol. I guess the majority of Californians are on welfare since the majority voted for medicinal marijuana.

You and everyone else are invite to come for fun and more importantly, celebrate our freedom and constitution. It's rare that we get to stick up for our rights against jack booted government thugs, and we have a chance to do so Wed. at 12 noon.

Ty, you don't seem to know anything about this substance so let me explain a few things.

First of all, cannabis DOES NOT kill brain cells. In fact it has been known to stimulate growth of brain cells in certain regions of the brain.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_cannabis_...

Secondly, marijuana DOES NOT cause a permanent decrease in IQ and it DOES NOT do any permanent damage to the brain. Even heavy users who quit completely recover from any slight decrease in brain performance they may experience from heavy usage. Moderate usage is not shown to cause any measurable decrease in brain performance.

Not one case of lung cancer has ever been connected to cannabis use. Cannabis has been shown to shrink tumors in mice.

I urge you to research the medicinal qualities of cannabis, as it is extremely helpful for countless illnesses and conditions, all of which are covered under California state law. For some conditions including multiple sclerosis, it is a miracle cure.

Cannabis is one of the safest substances and is not able to cause overdose. In this regard it is safer than aspirin.

The lies need to end, it is time for the truth to come out about this substance.

The problem with this whole deal as I see it is mixing the two issues of medical pot and legalized pot. The first may be a step toward the second, but the country is just not ready for legalization. Too many jerks who regularly get potted on booze and go all holy about grass.

I've seen local teens sharing medical marijuana when their only illness was the stress of growing up. The drug mess wasn't created in a day and it won't be solved overnight. Americans need to learn discipline and patience. But they probably won't, and we'll just keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Secede from the union is the best idea yet. If we joined with Oregon and Washington we would have one of the best countries in the world and we wouldn't have to worry about morons in Washington D.C. dictating how we live.

California already has the sixth strongest economy in the world. We don't need the rest of the county as much as they need us.

rubenken,

I would urge you to check out this survey, which was published in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine:

Could Smoking Pot Be Good for Teens?

http://www.alternet.org/story/67461/

Here is the Fox News version, for those who swing that way:

Swiss Study Finds Marijuana Use Alone May Benefit Some Teens, U.S. Doctor Disagrees

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,3082...

I'm not advocating unsupervised use of cannabis for all teens, but it is important to be realistic about the effects the substance may have on teens. Being a teen is extremely stressful for many, and the cause of the majority of both physical and mental illnesses is stress.

This issue of teens who may 'abuse' the substance would be much easier to deal with if the substance were regulated rather than banned. Across the US it is easier for teens to obtain cannabis than alcohol. Think about that for a minute.

Here is an article about a John Hopkins study showing that cannabis inhibits cancer growth that I came upon searching for those articles:

http://www.examiner.com/a-178910~Medical...

Ugh.. Since the article I posted in the examiner above does cite a study (a majorly flawed one, IMO) that links cannabis to lung cancer, I will provide a link to a much more realistic study:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=larg...

One clue that a study may be flawed is where you see doctors proclaiming this "new" substance has a potential to cause a new "epidemic" of lung cancer which they claim is "on the horizon".. yet we have had plenty of people smoking the substance for over 40 years already, and no real connection has been found. The problem with these studies is that they don't properly account for other variables, and they make assumptions based on the chemical and tar compounds that are unrealistic.

The fact is that the increase in quality of cannabis over the last few decades will lead to people smoking less 'weight' in cannabis and plant material, with greater amounts of the active ingredients. Any cases of lung cancer that may be caused by cannabis would definitely be from plants treated with chemical pesticides and extremely low quality product. Medical grade cannabis contains neither.

Of all issues , this one sure wakes up the Santa Barbarans out of their cannibis induced slumber to comment! Gangs? Who cares? Rampant unchecked illegal immigration? Who cares? Stabbing in the streets? Just smoke another reefer. They are going to crack down on pot shops? OMG!

Elvy, smoking pot for glaucoma provides the perfect example of why the feds need to crack down. We were sold a bill of goods that pot would be used for terminally ill people suffering serious pain. Suddenly it's being dealt out to anyone with an excuse. If Elvy can walk in a march she doesn't need pot, she needs to go to the eye doctor..

You sound like the Tobacco Industry.... except they did a much better job lobbying to get and keep tobacco legal. When did I say that using tobacco or alcohol was better than marijuana?

Funny how you skip over the first point of my argument and go straight for my low-blow. "I would guess that 90% of "medical marijuana" users don't need it." I don't know one person that has a card that truly needs it for a "serious illness." Unless you consider headaches or stress to be in that category.

Wow AShaw, glaucoma is one of the first aliments that cannabis was used to treat and probably one of the few that the government still provides federally grown and supplied pot for. Medical cannabis can be used for many, many things, not just serious pain. Elvy wouldn't be walking anywhere without a red and white cane if she weren't smoking or taking some nasty man made chemical compound. Both my wife and my Grandmothers, one in California and one in Washington, smoked as they were dying to keep there appetites up to increase their comfort levels.

loonpt-

If you had an article that wasn't from wikipedia, maybe I'd pay attention to your comments. Anyone can write anything they want in a wiki "article".

wikipedia is not a source, I can write anything I want on that website and then you can change it!!! What a joke

Here's an article I'll pay attention to, it's from the American Cancer Society, not wikipedia. I've copied/pasted a key paragraph, in case you don't feel like reading the entire article.

"This is the first [epidemiological] study to examine whether smoking marijuana increases risk of head and neck cancers," said Zuo-Feng Zhang, MD, lead author of the study and member of the Jonsson Cancer Center at the University of California Los Angeles. "Most people don’t think about marijuana in relationship to cancer. The carcinogens in marijuana are stronger than those in tobacco. The big message here is marijuana, like tobacco, can cause cancer."

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/conten...

Freedom of choice, free to choose tobacco, free to choose booze, free to chose prescription drugs, free to choose junk food, free to choose your sex partner, free to choose your candidate, free to choose to be obese, skinny, blond or goth. Keep it illegal, it creates more free enterprise, why should a few make all the money ! Let's all grow pot and flood the market. The drug companies / Fed cartel is pissed because they haven't got control of the source. If anyone could grow Viagra, Prozac, Xanax, Lipitor, Cilas, or Flowmax, the Feds would be knocking at your door. Long live PharmaFed momopolies!

All,

I suggest you read my links AND VIEW THEIR SOURCE
DOCUMENTS and your questions will be answered.

Please do not continue to remain ignorant.

Good day.

pinkerbell, your FDA funded story is a complete fairytale. Please look into more sensible studies on the subject, such as those that discuss and account for tobacco usage. Smoking one substance increases the likelihood of smoking another, so this is important. The article kept referring to these supposedly worse chemicals, but those studies and articles are done by such uninformed people they are laughed at by those that actually know about this substance.

Studies which account for all variables and look at a large number of samples agree that cannabis does not increase the likelihood for cancer.

Now scientists all over are finding that some components in cannabis virtually freeze cancer growth.

"Raymond DuBois and colleagues at the University of Texas in Houston discovered that a key receptor for cannabinoids, which are found in marijuana, is turned off in most types of human colon cancer.

Without this receptor, a protein called survivin, which stops cells from dying, increases unchecked and causes tumour growth.

To better understand the role that the receptor, called CB1, plays in cancer progression, the researchers manipulated its expression in mice that had been genetically engineered to spontaneously develop colon tumours.

"When we knocked out the receptor, the number of tumors went up dramatically," says DuBois. Alternatively, when mice with normal CB1 receptors were treated with a cannabinoid compound, their tumours shrank."

SOURCE: The New Scientist (UK)

http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/24/thre...

"Since then, THC and other marijuana components have been shown to block growth not only of lung tumors but a variety of other cancers, including leukemia, lymphoma and cancers of the breast and skin. These effects seem to occur through a variety of different cellular mechanisms."

SOURCE: The Providence Journal

http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/23/thre...

AShaw, please view the entire text of Proposition 215, as you seem to have some false assumptions about the legislation:

http://vote96.sos.ca.gov/BP/215text.htm

Pay attention to section A, especially the middle and the end, and also section B.

It seems as though you read the first part of section A and never read the rest of the legislation. It is not just limited to "seriously" ill patients as you seem to think. It is to protect patients and physicians who recommend the substance for illnesses which it provides relief. It is more like a natural supplement than a typical western allopathic drug. It helps some people function where they might have a hard time otherwise. You should look into cannabinoids, as recent scientific research has helped show how these substances already exist in our body and help regulate various bodily functions. This is the key to why it helps so much for countless conditions. It is really fascinating.

Also, I am glad that our local community is not up in arms over illegal aliens. All that would do is serve to create an atmosphere of mistrust, anger and possibly racism.

There are not very many things that the Federal Government has proper jurisdiction over, but naturalization is one of them. I think many issues should be local issues, but this is not one of them. It only serves to foster hatred. Much of this is related to a bigger problem which is just out of our control.

I agree that we should not be providing government handouts to illegal immigrants, although I believe educating their children, as long as they are here, is a good investment. Optimally, our government would not be subsidizing illegal immigration by giving handouts to those individuals and they would only come up here as long as there is enough work. I am ok with this. It is good for them and it is good for our economy.

Who's foolin' who?

http://www.eyecareamerica.org/eyecare/tr...

CONCLUSIONS

Based on reviews by the National Eye Institute (NEI) and the Institute of Medicine and on available scientific evidence, the Task Force on Complementary Therapies believes that no scientific evidence has been found that demonstrates increased benefits and/or diminished risks of marijuana use to treat glaucoma compared with the wide variety of pharmaceutical agents now available.

Sigh.. AShaw, the study you are citing about glaucoma is completely wrong, and it is also funded by the drug companies who sell those other glaucoma drugs. People can grow cannabis and other types of natural medicines very cheaply, and that is why the pharmaceutical industry has taken over the FDA so that they can push their synthetic drugs. Most people can't make synthetic drugs, so only a few pharmaceutical companies can have oligopoly power over the markets. This is worth tens of billions of dollars to them. If you can't see this happening, then perhaps you have a mental form of glaucoma. I have some medication that will help you out with that. First let us see why cannabis helps glaucoma patients and clear up the silly misconceptions stated in the article you posted:

"The human eyeball is filled with fluid which exerts pressure to keep the eyeball spherical. Glaucoma is a condition where the channels through which the fluid flows gradually become blocked, and the intraocular pressure (IOP) gradually increases causing increasing damage to the optic nerve and gradual deterioration of vision. Glaucoma is the second-largest cause of blindness, and affects 1.5% of 50-year olds and 5% of seventy-year olds.

Standard treatments have unpleasant or dangerous side effects, and have little effect on intraocular pressures in end-stage glaucoma. Cannabis however lowers intraocular pressures dramatically, with none of the serious side effects. Patients who find that standard medicines do not help their conditions report that smoking cannabis quickly restores their vision. Many long-term glaucoma patients have successfully maintained their sight using cannabis for 20 or 25 years, and avoided the gradual painful deterioration to blindness that is otherwise inevitable."

http://www.ukcia.org/medical/glaucoma.ph...

I believe there is a picture of one of these patients at the top of this article. Perhaps you could explain to me, if your article is correct and mine is wrong, WHY SHE ISN'T BLIND YET?!?

AShaw seems to think that I am different because I consume cannabis. In fact, in comments from another article he described me as being "paranoid". I am not paranoid in the least bit. Open minded and willing to look at alternative points of view? Yes. But is there something in cannabis that would actually change me as a human being? The answer, according to SciAm, is no.

Scientific American published an article in December 2004, entitled "The Brain's Own Marijuana" discussing the endogenous cannabinoid system.

"Marijuana is a drug with a mixed history... It is also something everyone is familiar with, whether they know it or not. Everyone grows a form of the drug, regardless of their political leanings or recreational proclivities. That is because the brain makes its own marijuana, natural compounds called endocannabinoids (after the plant's formal name, Cannabis sativa).

The study of endocannabinoids in recent years has led to exciting discoveries. By examining these substances, researchers have exposed an entirely new signaling system in the brain: a way that nerve cells communicate that no one anticipated even 15 years ago. Fully understanding this signaling system could have far-reaching implications. The details appear to hold a key to devising treatments for anxiety, pain, nausea, obesity, brain injury and many other medical problems."

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-...