California Medical Assn. calls for legalization of marijuana

[MichaelB]

California Medical Assn. calls for legalization of marijuana - latimes.com

The announcement:

The state's largest doctor group is calling for legalization of marijuana, even as it pronounces cannabis to be of questionable medical value.

Trustees of the California Medical Assn., which represents more than 35,000 physicians statewide, adopted the position at their annual meeting in Anaheim late Friday. It is the first major medical association in the nation to urge legalization of the drug, according to a group spokeswoman, who said the larger membership was notified Saturday.

Not because they support the use of marijuana or believe it has beneficial properties

Dr. Donald Lyman, the Sacramento physician who wrote the group's new policy, attributed the shift to growing frustration over California's medical marijuana law, which permits cannabis use with a doctor's recommendation. That, he said, has created an untenable situation for physicians: deciding whether to give patients a substance that is illegal under federal law.

This recommendation makes a lot of sense. Lawmakers, not Doctors, should be asked to make this choice.

 

[antmary]

California Medical Assn. calls for legalization of marijuana - latimes.com

The announcement:

Not because they support the use of marijuana or believe it has beneficial properties
This recommendation makes a lot of sense. Lawmakers, not Doctors, should be asked to make this choice.

I would like to see marijuana legalized. That would take the profit motive away. I really don't care if my neighbors have a marijuana patch growing. I do care that the criminal element has entered into the picture; I resent having to be afraid of hiking for fear of running into a "patch." And, the cartels from Mexico are really scary to me.

I don't want to live my life monitoring what others put into their mouths. Finally, I don't think politicians should be practicing medicine without a license

 

[ziggy29]

I understand the arguments against legalization and I don't endorse MJ -- I've never used it and never cared to, even if it were legal -- but really, I think there are far worse problems to tackle. Tax it, regulate its sale (much like tobacco or alcohol), reduce street crime and gang/drug cartel activity, treat stoned driving like drunk driving and make people accept the responsibility for what they do while stoned. And get some non-violent offenders out of jail so we won't have to parole rapists and armed robbers due to overcrowding.

Again, I don't endorse the stuff but I think criminalization and prohibition create more problems than they prevent.

 

[samclem]

If marijuana has medical value (and there seems little doubt it does, in some cases), it would seem best to have doctors prescribe the THC or whatever is responsible for the beneficial effects rather than have Granny toking on a doobie of unidentified strength from an uncontrolled source. It's hard to believe that inhaling smoke into the lungs (with all kinds of other chemicals in that smoke), is the best way to administer pharmaceuticals.

All of this is separate from the legalization debate.

 

[powerplay]

The federal government does provide marijuana to a very few patients (only 4 now) under an old program. The stuff comes from the University of Mississippi where it is grown. This story was recently in our local paper.
Federal Medical Marijuana Program Still Providing Cannabis To Qualified Patients | THE Weed Blog

 

[HFWR]

I understand the arguments against legalization...

I don't...

If marijuana has medical value (and there seems little doubt it does, in some cases), it would seem best to have doctors prescribe the THC or whatever is responsible for the beneficial effects rather than have Granny toking on a doobie of unidentified strength from an uncontrolled source. It's hard to believe that inhaling smoke into the lungs (with all kinds of other chemicals in that smoke), is the best way to administer pharmaceuticals.

All of this is separate from the legalization debate.

Government-approved bong...

Seriously, though, why can't granny grow her own, if so inclined?

 

[brewer12345]

Seriously, though, why can't granny grow her own, if so inclined?

Perhaps it would slip to a govt policy of benign neglect? If you google poopy tea you will find a whole bizarre subculture of people apparently bent on fooling around with making tea out of poppy heads grown in their own gardens. Growing opium poppies is technically illegal, but since they are popular ornamentals the authorities have evidently chosen to leave otherwise law-abiding gardeners alone as long as there are no obvious signs of attempts to make opium in your rock garden.

 

[REWahoo]

If you google poopy tea...

Poopy tea and cow patties. Isn't that something you find at the Omaha stockyards?

 

[SteveL]

At the risk of sounding political (maybe moving this to the political topic section), the entire drug thing has become a huge fiasco.
The war on drugs is over, and we lost.
Just look to Mexico to see what our effort to keep drugs out of peoples' hands is costing. I don't take/use any of this stuff I don't know why people want to. However, trying to keep them from having their drugs isn't working. It is time to do something different.

 

[brewer12345]

Poopy tea and cow patties. Isn't that something you find at the Omaha stockyards?

Whoops. "Poppy tea."

That has to rank as one of my better typos this year.

 

[meekie]

If marijuana has medical value (and there seems little doubt it does, in some cases), it would seem best to have doctors prescribe the THC or whatever is responsible for the beneficial effects rather than have Granny toking on a doobie of unidentified strength from an uncontrolled source. It's hard to believe that inhaling smoke into the lungs (with all kinds of other chemicals in that smoke), is the best way to administer pharmaceuticals.

There is a THC pill, but from the people I know who've taken it, it doesn't work as well. This article has a lot of the same experiences:

Does the Pot Pill Work? - CBS News

 

[donheff]

Did we have a poll on this? If so, I forgot but voted yes.

 

[ronin]

If so, I forgot...

Side effect? Cue the Dead.

 

[HFWR]

Whoops. "Poppy tea."

That has to rank as one of my better typos this year.

But it's some good ****...

 

[ERD50]

Whoops. "Poppy tea."

That has to rank as one of my better typos this year.

But it's some good ****...

The tea people were just jealous of that civet cat **** coffee.


Kopi Luwak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good catch by REWahoo, my eye-brain connection just saw "poppy", had to go back and check.


-ERD50