NC H1380 Medical Marijuana Act in Health Committee June 18

[DerekWilson]

Most of the people I talk to in NC about supporting this bill do, in fact, support it. At the same time, they immediately dismiss the idea that it could become law in our state.

Well, it won't just die without a single committee hearing, as it's on the schedule for this Thursday, June 18th, at Noon in room 544 of the Legislative Office Building.

If you are an NC resident, please write your representative ( http://www.ncleg.net ) and let them know you support this important legislation, especially if they are on the health committee. If you are in or near Raleigh, please come to the LOB at noon on Thursday and show your support. I'll be there.

For those of you who don't already know it, the federal government has manipulated the system to deny researchers the tools they need to carry out FDA approved studies. Despite this, there has been plenty of research that not only shows medical benefit but shows that cannabis is a safe drug.

Not only is the drug safer than alcohol and tobacco, but it is safer than many legal drugs like opiates, cocaine (yes it's available for medical use), and even asprin. In fact, eating a dozen raw potatoes can cause a toxic response as compared to the fact that it would take ingesting 1500 lbs of cannabis in a 15 minute period for the active ingredients to kill you (in other words, it is physically impossible to overdose). No one has ever died from too much cannabis. Marijuana is not addictive.

As for medical benefits, medical marijuana patients in states where it is legal have been able to reduce or cease taking addictive drugs with much worse side effects like oxycodone, antidepressants and many more. This measurable metric supports what doctors and patients who work with cannabis already know: marijuana is a safe and effective drug that can be used to effectively treat a vast array of diseases.

Cannabis is: an appetite stimulant, an antiemetic, a spasmolytic, a neuroprotectant, stimulates neurogenesis, a bronchodilator, an analgesic, a novel NSAID that is not a cox inhibitor, a kappa-opioid agonist (meaning it has potential treat addition to other drugs), an abortive migraine treatment, an antioxidant, and it can inhibit cancer cell growth and cause malignant cell death.

I'd mention that the seeds of the plant are also the most nutritionally complete food source on the planet, but we can already buy foods made from hemp seed (we just can't grow it).

There's no such thing as a "gateway drug," the vast majority of the 40%-50% of americans who have tried marijuana do not try other drugs. For those users of harder drugs, correlation does not equal causation. Cannabis does not cause psychosis, it is not physically addictive, it does not have long term effects on memory or mental capacity, smoking it does not increase risk for COPD or lung cancer.

Beyond that, vaporization combined with water filtering removes the vast majority of tar and carcinogens that would be in burning plant material. Vaporizers offer an inhaled delivery method to patients that is both fast acting and even safer than smoking (which has already been shown not to increase risk of serious lung disease (bronchitis excluded)).

We need medical marijuana in NC. Please help as much as you are able.

 

[TruePaige]

Big thumbs up.

 

[BoberFett]

Good luck with that. You've seen what the feds view of California is.

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: BoberFett
Good luck with that. You've seen what the feds view of California is.

California isn't the only state with medical MJ you know...

 

[Blackjack200]

While I support this, at the end of the day, medical marijuana is a dead end.

There is already legal (at the federal as well as the state level) synthetic THC; it's called Marinol. But Marinol is not nearly as effective or useful as Marijuana because there are more than 400 chemicals in Marijuana that contribute to it's medical utility. Until someone can isolate all those compounds and do clinical research on their effects (almost impossible with a Schedule 1 substance) the AMA will never be behind it. Here's an excerpt from a letter written by a doctor:

Mark Stanford

While there may be specific individual chemicals within the marijuana plant (called, cannabinoids) that may have some potential therapeutic value, the whole plant does not. Ingesting the whole plant intending for the therapeutic benefit of a few specific cannabinoids represents a host of clinical and safety concerns.
As a comparison, nicotine may have medicinal value for some types of medical conditions, but there is no clinical or medical rationale for consuming the whole tobacco plant. This is because there are many chemicals in tobacco that are toxic and contraindicated in general, particularly when one inhales the smoke from the burning plant itself. Because of this, we do not have a ?medical tobacco.? The same dynamic can be applied to the marijuana plant. The term ?medical marijuana? can be misleading because the inhalation of burning vegetation is simply not medicine by any modern medical standard.

http://www.sccgov.org/SCC/docs...s/DADSMedMarijuana.pdf

Marijuana and LSD are non-toxic substances that should be removed from the DEA's Schedule 1 and not added to any other Schedules. This will facilitate clinical research into potential therapeutic applications for the various chemicals and compounds found within cannabis.

Don't get me wrong, I hope this passes because it will help erode the idiotic policies in place at the federal level, but ultimately "medical marijuana" is a bankrupt idea.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
While I support this, at the end of the day, medical marijuana is a dead end.

There is already legal (at the federal as well as the state level) synthetic THC; it's called Marinol. But Marinol is not nearly as effective or useful as Marijuana because there are more than 400 chemicals in Marijuana that contribute to it's medical utility. Until someone can isolate all those compounds and do clinical research on their effects (almost impossible with a Schedule 1 substance) the AMA will never be behind it. Here's an excerpt from a letter written by a doctor:

Mark Stanford

While there may be specific individual chemicals within the marijuana plant (called, cannabinoids) that may have some potential therapeutic value, the whole plant does not. Ingesting the whole plant intending for the therapeutic benefit of a few specific cannabinoids represents a host of clinical and safety concerns.
As a comparison, nicotine may have medicinal value for some types of medical conditions, but there is no clinical or medical rationale for consuming the whole tobacco plant. This is because there are many chemicals in tobacco that are toxic and contraindicated in general, particularly when one inhales the smoke from the burning plant itself. Because of this, we do not have a ?medical tobacco.? The same dynamic can be applied to the marijuana plant. The term ?medical marijuana? can be misleading because the inhalation of burning vegetation is simply not medicine by any modern medical standard.

http://www.sccgov.org/SCC/docs...s/DADSMedMarijuana.pdf

Marijuana and LSD are non-toxic substances that should be removed from the DEA's Schedule 1 and not added to any other Schedules. This will facilitate clinical research into potential therapeutic applications for the various chemicals and compounds found within cannabis.

Don't get me wrong, I hope this passes because it will help erode the idiotic policies in place at the federal level, but ultimately "medical marijuana" is a bankrupt idea.

Apparently you have no idea that Obama has instructed the DEA to stop raiding MMJ facilities. This has not 100% stopped it, but MMJ is basically legal in my state (CA). To say it is a dead end sounds ignorant.

This isnt to say that a hard-line president couldnt be elected next, but at least for the next 4-8, MMJ is here to stay.

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
While I support this, at the end of the day, medical marijuana is a dead end.

...

Don't get me wrong, I hope this passes because it will help erode the idiotic policies in place at the federal level, but ultimately "medical marijuana" is a bankrupt idea.

May I point out that you contradict yourself. You give the idea value in that it will "help erode the idiotic policies in place at the federal level" but then say the idea is bankrupt and a dead end. Eroding idiotic policies is of great value, not a dead end and by no means bankrupt.

Beyond that, the doc you site refers to an issue with "burning vegetation" and how this is not medicine. Frankly, I agree: patients can vaporize and receive the benefits without the risk. Beyond this, it is not hard to make standardized crude extracts similar to things like ginko, ginsing, or ginger that we can buy at GNC.

There is also a disconnect within the medical community between the entirety of medical knowledge accumulated throughout human history and the current dependence on pharmacology.

I agree that cannabis should be unscheduled. But my doctor at different times has suggested things like zinc, vitamin C and eccanasia for a cold. On the advice of my doctor I take quite a few supplements daily. These aren't prescription drugs, but they do have medical value and doctors can make use of this.

It is bad medicine for doctors to marry themselves to Big Pharma and forget their roots.

The term "medical marijuana" is sort of absurd as a term but not as a concept. But the term cam about to combat the negative stigma of the equally absurd term "marijuana" to describe the cannabis plant which was very widely used in medicine, textiles, for paper, and many other applications.

The medical use of cannabis is a valid concept and not a dead end by any means. Yes there are many cannabinoids that could definitely be beneficial in the treatment of different diseases. But on the whole, ingesting additional other cannabinoids has not been shown to be detrimental to patients looking for the benefit of one and not another. Top that off with the fact that Marinol is hugely expensive (as the other drugs based on other cannabinoids will be when they come out) and the potential benefit of a plant that costs very little to grow and maintain could mean financial and medical freedom for millions of Americans.

Semantics are fine and all, but people have used whole plants (and parts of plants) in medicine for thousands of years. In today's society, drug companies are very interested in phasing out any sort of effective traditional medicine and replacing it with a vast array of patented formulas that they pedal on an unsuspecting public by using well-meaning doctors as salesmen rather than working together with doctors to really provide the most effective care for any given patient.

 

[nageov3t]

frack, my mom and dad will revisit their decades-long argument over whether to live in NJ or NH. lol.

 

[DerekWilson]

In case anyone is interested, here is the email I wrote to the health committee:

Representatives,

I write to urge your support in the Health committee for H1380, the Medical Marijuana Act.

The original idea behind the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was to protect and inform Americans. Americans again need protection, but this time it is due to the refusal of the Federal Government to properly provide for the health and welfare of Americans. Political motivation, not science, has caused, for the past 70+ years, the denial of a safe and effective medicine, cannabis, to us.

Many well informed citizens who have read the research and discussed the science with their doctors have turned to the currently illegal substance and witnessed utterly miraculous results. For these patients, the only option to acquire the medicine they need is to turn to the black market. This not only puts them at risk for prosecution, but it forces them to put their lives in the hands of drug dealers, crooks, and organized crime.

I am sure you will have heard from patients who will plead for compassion. Allowing North Carolinians to use cannabis at the recommendation of a qualified medical professional is no different than allowing us to use opiates or other drugs when a doctor feels that the benefits of the treatment outweigh the potential risks. Our doctors are there for a reason and they should be allowed the freedom and afforded the respect their education has earned them to perform their duties to the fullest extent of their ability.

But even if we get past the debate for the use of cannabis, NC needs safe access to the drug.

H1380 provides very well for a state regulated dispensary system that is necessary, even if we are allowed to use cannabis to treat illness, to prevent patients from turning to criminals for their medical needs. We deserve a system that removes the fear of dealing with criminals from the medically needy. We deserve to have some level of confidence in the quality of a product many citizens already rely on for their medical needs. State regulated dispensaries can and will effectively provide this to our citizens.

Please let science, logic, history, and compassion prevail in this debate: please support H1380.

Thanks,
Derek Wilson

I figured that there would be plenty of support from patients begging their representatives for a removal of criminal punishment for using the drug to treat an illness ... but most of the states that allow medical marijuana still do not provide for dispensaries or other means of safe access. I figured this was a good aspect of the debate for me to focus on.

 

[Patranus]

Instead of wasting taxpayer monies on legislation that means absolutely nothing,why not use that money to lobby congress....the only governmental body that CAN make marijuana legal.

 

[smack Down]

Originally posted by: Patranus
Instead of wasting taxpayer monies on legislation that means absolutely nothing,why not use that money to lobby congress....the only governmental body that CAN make marijuana legal.

Because it is illegal at both the state and federal level. So if you make it legal at the state level, it greatly reduces the chance of being arrested.

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: smack Down

Originally posted by: Patranus
Instead of wasting taxpayer monies on legislation that means absolutely nothing,why not use that money to lobby congress....the only governmental body that CAN make marijuana legal.

Because it is illegal at both the state and federal level. So if you make it legal at the state level, it greatly reduces the chance of being arrested.

this is true ... actually, even city ordinances reducing the priority of enforcement can have a significant impact people's lives.

but in the case of medical marijuana, the more states that move in this direction, the more inherent support is shown to the federal government for a change in the law as well.

 

[alchemize]

Passed the senate in Illinois too. It's a hugely watered down law (your drivers license is revoked if you have a card!), but baby-steps...

Surprised NC has the cojones, good for them!

 

[kage69]

Thanks for the heads up Derek, I'm sending this info to a couple of friends down there in the hope that they can lend their support. Makes me wish my sister hadn't put off her future NC residency!

I used to think the medical claims by mj smokers were highly suspicious, but still supported it's legalization due to the vast number of non-medical uses for the plant (that and the notion of liberty). A good friend of mine from HS fighting a terminal condition made me realize how wrong I was. It didn't save him, but it did allow him to lead a dignified, relatively normal life for his last 2-3 years. I know that meant a lot to him and his family.

At this point I think one must be a complete ideologue to ignore the medical abilities of this plant, keeping it illegal is absurd. Your last sentence in that email is perfect, I couldn't agree more. :thumbsup:

 

[NaughtyGeek]

"Cannabis is: an appetite stimulant, an antiemetic, a spasmolytic, a neuroprotectant, stimulates neurogenesis, a bronchodilator, an analgesic, a novel NSAID that is not a cox inhibitor, a kappa-opioid agonist (meaning it has potential treat addition to other drugs), an abortive migraine treatment, an antioxidant, and it can inhibit cancer cell growth and cause malignant cell death. "

How can big pharma profit if we're allowed to sidestep them and use nature's cure?

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: kage69
Thanks for the heads up Derek, I'm sending this info to a couple of friends down there in the hope that they can lend their support. Makes me wish my sister hadn't put off her future NC residency!

I used to think the medical claims by mj smokers were highly suspicious, but still supported it's legalization due to the vast number of non-medical uses for the plant (that and the notion of liberty). A good friend of mine from HS fighting a terminal condition made me realize how wrong I was. It didn't save him, but it did allow him to lead a dignified, relatively normal life for his last 2-3 years. I know that meant a lot to him and his family.

At this point I think one must be a complete ideologue to ignore the medical abilities of this plant, keeping it illegal is absurd. Your last sentence in that email is perfect, I couldn't agree more. :thumbsup:

:thumbsup:

 

[Modelworks]

As a NC resident I'm all for it.
Besides the drug effects from marijuana it has thousands of industrial uses for the fiber. Hemp paper requires nothing but peroxide to whiten, while pulp paper requires toxic chemicals and cost much more. Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper. Founding fathers grew their own crops for the many uses of it . Hemp also does not require the pesticides that other crops require and will grow almost anywhere. Shame the USA imports all its hemp from other countries because of the drug ban.

I can't think of any other crop that can be used for so many things.
It could be THE crop to make farming profitable again.
Drugs, fiber, ethanol from cellulose , paper, food products.

 

[lupi]

So, he doesn't have time to answer pms or emails for months on end, but can squeeze in some support marijuana post.


Coincidence?

 

[Fear No Evil]

Would legalizing it help you complete the cutover away from Fusetalk? Then I am all for it.

 

[Fear No Evil]

Originally posted by: lupi
So, he doesn't have time to answer pms or emails for months on end, but can squeeze in some support marijuana post.


Coincidence?

Dude.. he ran out of Doritos and had to make a run to the convenience store. Plus his bong was getting dirty so he had to make another stop to pick up a new one. Cut the guy some slack! You don't want him doing the cutover while sober and out of Doritos do you?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Good for NC, hopefully before long it will be completely legal even for recreational use. The other parts of the plant have industrial uses as well.

Never smoked (anything) before and I do not plan on trying, but here's hoping that others that do enjoy smoking it will be legally able to do so soon:thumbsup:

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: lupi
So, he doesn't have time to answer pms or emails for months on end, but can squeeze in some support marijuana post.


Coincidence?

Actually, to be very very honest, no it is not entirely a coincidence.

I hope those who've PM'd me or emailed me recently (for the last month) have seen that I've been around and active though despite also pushing forward on the vB transition.

The backlog of PMs (which I am sorting through) from march-april and part of may were due to a combination of the fact that my second child was born in the first week of March (hooray) and that the added stress, lack of sleep, increased caffeine intake, poor nutrition, etc. that resulted kicked up a series of migraines that came and went for almost a month.

The March slip was definitely mostly baby related (sorry), but after that medical issues have taken their toll.

I haven't had the same difficulty I did with migraines this year for a very long time (maybe since 2004).

I've tried the traditional abortive treatments (triptan drugs) which mostly work alright when I'm not dealing with a sort of self-perpetuating migraine situation like the one I was dealing with recently. The abortive treatments I rely on stopped working and couldn't break the cycle.

Because I've tried topamax before and found it's side-effects to be horribly debilitating (despite it's effectiveness) I asked my doctor for other treatments. I was given an SNRI and it did help break the cycle in combination with other triptan drugs (which have their own negative side effects), but the SNRI had the effect of making me completely apathetic and emotionless. I didn't care about anything and I didn't really care that I didn't care. Everything suffered for the week I was taking the drug.

Since my migraines had subsided and I was able, in that time, to eliminate caffeine from my diet, eliminate other things from my diet, increase my vitamin intake, get better sleep, reduce my stress levels (even if it was because nothing could have stressed me if it tried), I stopped taking the SNRI and have only had two migraines since (that's a comparatively good thing unfortunately).

I have it on very good authority that cannabis could have been very effective in aborting my migraine cycle as I do know people in states with MMJ laws that have personally seen great benefit from the drug.

Because it directly and severely impacts my life, I think I should have access to all possible treatments that could potentially show a benefit. I've tried so many off-label treatments for migraine and the ones that worked had such intensely negative side effects that I am not willing to use them long term. I think I should have the right to try a treatment that others have claimed is very effective and causes fewer side effects than any medicine I've ever been prescribed for migraine.

And if this law does pass and cannabis does work for me (which I hope to find out some day), that means less absences of me from here and fewer missed PMs.

 

[Fear No Evil]

I find it extremely hard to believe you are this pro-weed and you have not tried it yet. Lets be honest here. If the headaches are as bad as you say and other treatments haven't worked.. I certainly would have tried it.

 

[40Hands]

I told a few friends that live there to look into this. Stepping stones...

 

[Blackjack200]

Originally posted by: OCguy

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
While I support this, at the end of the day, medical marijuana is a dead end.

There is already legal (at the federal as well as the state level) synthetic THC; it's called Marinol. But Marinol is not nearly as effective or useful as Marijuana because there are more than 400 chemicals in Marijuana that contribute to it's medical utility. Until someone can isolate all those compounds and do clinical research on their effects (almost impossible with a Schedule 1 substance) the AMA will never be behind it. Here's an excerpt from a letter written by a doctor:

Mark Stanford

While there may be specific individual chemicals within the marijuana plant (called, cannabinoids) that may have some potential therapeutic value, the whole plant does not. Ingesting the whole plant intending for the therapeutic benefit of a few specific cannabinoids represents a host of clinical and safety concerns.
As a comparison, nicotine may have medicinal value for some types of medical conditions, but there is no clinical or medical rationale for consuming the whole tobacco plant. This is because there are many chemicals in tobacco that are toxic and contraindicated in general, particularly when one inhales the smoke from the burning plant itself. Because of this, we do not have a ?medical tobacco.? The same dynamic can be applied to the marijuana plant. The term ?medical marijuana? can be misleading because the inhalation of burning vegetation is simply not medicine by any modern medical standard.

http://www.sccgov.org/SCC/docs...s/DADSMedMarijuana.pdf

Marijuana and LSD are non-toxic substances that should be removed from the DEA's Schedule 1 and not added to any other Schedules. This will facilitate clinical research into potential therapeutic applications for the various chemicals and compounds found within cannabis.

Don't get me wrong, I hope this passes because it will help erode the idiotic policies in place at the federal level, but ultimately "medical marijuana" is a bankrupt idea.

Apparently you have no idea that Obama has instructed the DEA to stop raiding MMJ facilities. This has not 100% stopped it, but MMJ is basically legal in my state (CA). To say it is a dead end sounds ignorant.

This isnt to say that a hard-line president couldnt be elected next, but at least for the next 4-8, MMJ is here to stay.

Apparently you have some reading comprehension problems. I stated that I support these efforts because they help erode the idiotic policies at the federal level

I'm aware of what Obama did, that's exactly what I said. The point of my post is that MMJ will never be the ultimate solution to MJ policy. How can it be when it's not supported by the medical establishment?