Reply By: cactoblastaPosted: Tuesday, July 05, 2005I don't think marijuana should ever be fully legal - I've seen too many of my friends become deadshits after using it regularly for a few years - I do think it should, like most currently illegal drugs, be legal for the elderly, those in intense pain or the terminally ill.For someone who's going to die in a few months addiction is not really a problem. If it kills the pain who does it hurt? Or for someone like littlewhip, if it works better than the prescription stuff then why not? It's not like she's selling it at the front of preschools (you aren't, are you?). And again, with such a victimless crime making it illegal for the elderly is just stupid. Do they really care if they get shifted from the nursing home to maximum security? It's just a different TV and a different soulless little room.Medical marijuana makes sense. It's just a shame profits and pious better-than-you bullshit is considered more important.

I agree totally legal would be a problem, medical pot should be allowed period.

btw nice to see your name around cacto, where you been?

Same place - Indonesia. Just been a little less active online recently, and a lot less informed due to difference in news broadcasts here. So I haven't been posting as often.

welcome back Cacto

Its far easier for a kid to get his hands on a bag of weed than it is for him to get his hands on a bottle of liquor or even a pack of cigarettes these days.

Yeah? That's depressing. Don't US kids have hobos any more? I remember paying homeless guys to buy alcohol and cigarettes back in my school days. It's a shame they don't do that any more. It was practically a cottage industry.

LONG POST
I would think more of it has to do with certain politicians that are so against it (even if they aren't really against it but I'll get to that later) and yes it also has to do with the wishes of the pharmaceuitical companies. They certainly get their noses in their too, if not always directly. I'm sure you're aware that there's big interest by people who could stand to lose alot of money, then the lobbyists get involved. The lobbyists (who shouldn't be allowed to exist) are very powerful and they have a lot of money. The also give a LOT of money to politicians in the form of election donations etc. So some of the lobbyists work for the pharm companies, maybe not directly saying they're looking after their interests, but they are. I think some of these companies could lose some money, but really not that much. Opiates would still be used in large amounts all over the US and Canada. Weaker opiates like Vicodin (hydrocodone) and (oxycodone) (why oxycodone is SCH II while Hydro is III is such a laugh, ,oxycodone is only a little bit stronger than hydro) would still be used millions every year. Don't forget there are a lot of people that don't like to smoke pot, and if they're in pain that needs painkillers they would much rather take Ibuprophen or even a vicodin. Some people just will not take mj for pain. So that still leaves a large market for them. Now when it comes to the strong painkillers I don't thikn the manufacturers of those drugs have much to worry about at all. When someone is in such severe pain, ,say from an operation, or they just broke the tibia in their thigh, they need morphine, or dilaudid. Marijuana may help but it has never been proven that mj helps with intense pain. MJ can be great for headaches (some types) and it can be excellent for certian types of pain. For certain types of pain such as neuropathic pain, some say mj works mu ch better than even morphine. For intense pain IME mj simply makes that pain worse. I'm a long time mj smoker, and I've found in times of intense pain (breaking shoulder) mj did'nt do a thing for the pain. In fact, because of mj sensatizing effect, I felt the pain more not less. That's what baffles me about mj and makes me wonde if we need to know more about how mj actually works to kill pain. For certain types of back inuries mj can work great, probably because it relaxes the muscles in the back, for wicked toothache, again I fould the fact that mj seems to have a sensitizing effect (makes the senses more aware) and that sensitizing effect seemed to make the tootht ache pain worse not better. So, bottom line IMHO, is that if mj was legalized for medical use, there would be some types pain that it would work great for and other types where mj that won't do the trick. So we will still need opiates, I think those companies should realize this and not worry so much. Another point is, pharm researchers are alwas trying to find ways to make opiates less addicting or to find ways to make lower doses more effective (Less addiction) Well, I've always found that if I take my med (I'm on morphine for chronic pain) and then have a few hoots after, , it seems to make the morphine kick in better an provided better pain release and it seems to make it last a bit longer too.
As for the poharm companies not making a proffit on mj, if they used some innovation they could. Look at that company in Britian that has been testing and researching for along time know. They're finding there a better types of pot suited to pain killing (I think the more indica based IIRC because they are more relaxing ) some of the consituents in the mj seem to work better for pain than others. They are working out new ways of delivering said marijuana. Now they came out with a mister of some type IIRC and it provides all active consituents of mj to your body in a simple sublingual spray. For canceer patients this is a godsend. Quick squirtt uunder the tongue and the effects are kicking in within a matter of minutes. For cancer patients who don't like smoking thi will of tremendous hellp for them. For patients on chemo, you don't have to swallow a pill and wait an hour for it to kick in because by that time you've thrown up the capsule over and over again. If that medicine can't get at least into the persons bloodstream in a matter of a few minutes at the most they'll just vomit up the medicine again. So having it soaking through the mucosa immediately and entering the blood stream in a minute this can be a god send. The
]Of course the sill thing is in Canada are health board took a quik look at it, realized we all ready know what kind of side effect profile mj has as we've been studying it for l years in other contexts. Health Canada jus had to make sure this method of in gestment was safe and voila, we now have this medicine at our disposal. I can't remember the exacct name of the drug, ,but a simple google searh on subligual marijuna should bring something up. Make sure it's the legit company out the Britian or Ireland I think it was.
Just goes to show, if these idiots would quit being so worried about mj not being able to be patented because its plant, well use a little goddamn ingenuity. These guys with the pot mouth spray got a patent for theres and they'll make money. If the other companies would just op en their minds up and refuse to even try they get find many useful compouinds in mj, I Mean theres enough in there. But nope, so far it's a company that decideds to be a little risky, use some intuision and thinking out of the box and they know are making maney on a patent for mj
IF thre's spellling mistakes I apologize, my typ[ing is and if I don't have my spell check to correct you might find some mistakes (I really can spell you know+