What If?

On the local news last night there was a report on some research with marijuana and cancer. It turns out that the active ingredient in marijuana might stop cancer. The story seems to be an update to this one:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm

Add that information to a 2006 report that showed no connection between heavy marijuana smoking and lung cancer:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729_pf.html

Before I continue, let’s join hands and repeat “Medical stories in the media are always wrong…medical stories in the media are always wrong.” So this blog post is more of a “what if” sort of thing.

What if it turns out that smoking marijuana doesn’t cause cancer, and actually inhibits it better than anything you can buy in a baggie from a guy who has a suspicious rash?

I know, I know, the cancer-fighting component of marijuana probably needs to be administered in some concentrated form to be effective against cancer. So smoking marijuana, or eating it, probably wouldn’t work. But this is a “what if” post.

Now take a look at the “Fact Sheet” produced by a division of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse folks.

http://www.well.com/user/woa/fspot.htm

If the science around marijuana curing cancer were to become indisputable, and if smoking marijuana delivered the medicine, would they ever mention that in the fact sheet?

In other words, might the “fact sheet” ever be balanced for both the good and the bad?

Updated Marijuana Fact Sheet

1. Marijuana cures cancer.
2. Marijuana reduces stress.
3. Marijuana helps digestion.
4. Marijuana improves your sex life.
5. Marijuana is expensive, thanks to your government.
6. Marijuana is illegal, thanks to your government.
7. Marijuana will make kids lazier and stupider than usual.
8. Marijuana causes psychological dependence, similar to jogging.
9. Marijuana is expensive, similar to an iPhone.
10. Marijuana reduces the number of highway accidents.

That last one is just a guess based on the weasel-wording used by government groups to describe marijuana use and driving. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard of an accident caused by marijuana use alone. But I’ve heard of several accidents caused by people who WEREN’T gripping the steering wheel with both hands, focusing intently on the road, and driving 5 miles per hour under the speed limit.

NOTE TO KIDS: Don’t use marijuana. There are good reasons you aren’t allowed to do adult things such as vote, fornicate, or sign legal documents. Your brain isn’t developed enough to understand those reasons.

If science someday proves marijuana promotes good health and safety, would the government ever recommend it for adults?

Comments

[Mokkery]

[If science someday proves marijuana promotes good health and safety, would the government ever recommend it for adults?]

Yes, of course, if that was what the people wanted.

What kind of government would ignore the will of the people?

[Enough Wealth]

I can only presume it would eventually get legalised IF it were ever scientifically proven to do no significant harm (to self or others). It wouldn't even have to have proven benefits. After all, if were simply a matter of kill-joys banning anything that was enjoyable, prohibition would still be in force. Do you really think the government wouldn't legalise a potential tax source if it was as harmless as you make out? They'd jump at the chance to move from tobacco revenue to marijuana revenue. And the big tobacco companies would be very "helpful" in facilitating the transition.

Anyhow, anything I write is unlikely to affect those who think cannabis should be legalised. I just wish they'd go sit quietly in the corner with those that think babies should be given lead-painted toys to suck on. (I'm sure that there's a "study" somewhere that proves that lead is really good for you and "might" cure cancer.

Regards
http://enoughwealth.com

[synapticmisfires]

Eventually, I think the government will change to the will of the people, EVEN in democracy, I think a longrun, scientifically-substantiated push would have to break through. Of course there will be a TON of resistance from those who are already indoctrinated, and from the tobacco companies, whose self-interest will be affected, but I think a consistent research-based approach, over generations would where that down.

[Captn Rob]

Ohh I remember now....

You asked a hypothetical question. Does Pizza cure cancer? I don't think we should risk it. Lets go get some! Oh yea. That mean little dog with the bat is freaking me out.

[Captn Rob]

Uhhh Scott...... Scooottt.....

What were we talking about?

[Captn Rob]

Scott,

What a great hypothetical thingy you have written. You know what my mom used to tell me when I posed a tough hypothetical question to her... She would say "Thats nice honey. Remember you are a completely unique individual.... Just like everyone else."

I think if you think abut it, you can get the answer to whatever question you thought you asked me to think about............................... I think?

[Swen]

Just for fun, google "number one cash crop". Hint: It ain't soybeans.

[Bobby]

You forgot at least one item on your revised fact sheet:

Marijuana can get you extended stays at well-managed "hotels" where you get "free" room and board (aka jail, for those of you in Rio Linda)

[LA Clay]

Considering that Washington once said, "the vote is to important to be in the hands of the common person" I say yes.

[Sondra]

not as long as Hearst controls the paper industry and Dupont controls the chemical industry

Hearst owns vast forests.
Trees need 5 chemicals to become paper, hemp needs one.

[Chica]

I'm not a pot smoker. Never have even tried it, but really don't see the big deal. A lot of crimes are committed under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol makes you want to go out and socialize and do crazy things that you normally wouldn't (yes, I drink). There's a reason they call it "liquid courage".
http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/costs/a/aa980415.htm

Pot just makes you want to snack, sit home and giggle.

Alcohol will always be legal due to tax revenue ($5 + million in 2005) and the black market implications of making it illegal.
No matter how good it is for you, the government will never legalize marijuana because there is no way to tax something you can grow in your backyard or basement.

[TallDave]

"What if it turns out that smoking marijuana doesn’t cause cancer"

This has been known for sometime, despite attempts by the NIH to bury studies relating to the issue. Marijuana does not cause head, neck, throat, mouth or lung cancer; tobacco causes all five. S.G. Koop suggested this may be because tobacco absorbs radioactivity much more effectively than most plants while it is alive. Also, nicotine is a poison, and tend to shut alveoli (little sacs in the lungs), while marijuana tends to open them.

The only known negative health effect of marijuana is a 30% greater risk of heart attack for about 30 minutes after smoking. If taken orally, marijuana has no known negative health effects.

[niCk(MemBeth)]

In the Netherlands, where it has been decriminalized, marijuana consumption is considered something old hippie tourists do. Sales to locals is rare.

Perhaps marijuana can finally solve all the worlds problems, maybe not, lets try it and found out.

[Bob]

If I were the CEO of a major cigarette company, I would have a warehouse full of seeds and some good land already set up. Then I would have all my high priced lobbyists work on getting marajauna legelized.

I would have a crop out within months of the legelization, and I would be raking in the cash.

[RML]

KD wrote: Anyways, I really hope the government doesn't allow the legalization of the drug. It'll become a crutch for a lot of people who use it. Since it causes dependancy, you really can't be so easily trusting of people to use it wisely.

You mean like beer and tobacco? Or medicine? Those aren't quite forbidden, last time I checked.

And scores of adolescents and adults are already addicted to much stronger, more dangerous and more addictive drugs than you'd care to know. So, what's wrong with some pot?

[Dave's not here!]

From the "Fact Sheet": 'Studies of men and women may have a temporary loss of fertility.'

Because infertile studies are bad, right?

[EJ Moosa]

Did you know that the first laws passed by the US government on marijuana was that it had to be grown?

Seems there was a serious shortage of rope.

The liquor lobby will not let marijuana get close to be legalized...

Another reason to vote Ron Paul-It's for your health!

[rewboss]

They would -- eventually. It would take a generation or two, but it would finally get through.

Just in time, of course, for a new study revealing that cannabis rots your bowels. But such is scientific opinion -- or at least, such is scientific opinion the way the tabloids report it.

[jake]

"7. Marijuana will make kids lazier and stupider than usual."

Impossible. They've already achieved nearly the maximum amount of laziness and stupidity. Just a smidgen more and they'll be both too lazy & stupid to breathe. They're already too stupid to smoke pot and possibly too lazy also.

Oh, and anti-marijuana bucketheads? It's like abortion: if you don't like it, don't have one.

[Dan]

I think the government would get behind legalizing marijuana if it cured cancer. So many people can oppose drugs in the abstract, but cancer affects something like 1 in 3 families, so the support would be there, and there would be no rational voice against it. You find a cure for cancer, people are gonna demand the cure.

I spent some time in a skin cancer post op room. People had lips removed, noses cut off, ears... You give them a cure better than that, they are all signing up

[Bri]

Q: If science someday proves marijuana promotes good health and safety, would the government ever recommend it for adults?

A: “What a perfect question to muse over during my afternoon milk bath," I thought when I picked up this little gem of a hypothetical while surfing at work just before heading to home from work. Within the hour as I sat in the milky suds, the inquiry shook my intellectual foundations that I trembled myself into a neck-high buttery tomb. My fat ugly wife then came in, slurping her eggnog through the large opening allowed by her missing two front teeth, and drenched me with meringue.

Hmmm, Scott, you’re right. Any comment does instantaneously become clever and funny just by randomly mentioning meringue.

[Tim Martin]

Comment on the comments
Apparently many of your readers do not understand that illegal drugs are already the most heavily taxed items in American society. If they were "made legal and taxed" it would be a huge reduction in actual government revenues. Government in America is exactly as advertised on our money: read the top line: Federal Reserve Note. The Federal Reserve IS THE GOVERNMENT. They have secretaries, janitors, accountants, senators, congressmen and presidents as menial labor to serve the PEOPLE who are the central bank.
Those same people are the ones building out the American Prison system (Dresser Industries AKA Haliburton AKA KBR) Every minute of jail time dealt by our court system puts money in the pockets of the PEOPLE who are the central bank.

Another subtle point of taxation comes from draining off american spending money from hard goods. You buy a fifty dollar thing you are good for for a couple years, buy a 50 bag and you're ok for a few days or a few hours, depending on the product. It's gone gotta buy more. The money for the bag is already fully taxed income. The money for the thing, in my case, will likely go on my schedule C and therefore is a tax reduction.

The wasted money can then be printed as new currency. The Federal Reserve can print money at will, the only control is a tricky formula to maximize results which include more than gross dollars. One problem in their formula is the appearance of consumer inflation. (Actual inflation occurs before the ink is dry.) Contraband priced drugs curb the appearance of inflation. The actual inflation is a direct tax on the american citizen base.

The absurd cost of narcotics runs up the credit debt of the total population. All interest payments utimately benefit the PEOPLE of the central bank. (The place where your IRS taxes go)

Our police force was not expanded to deal with increased crime. Crime was increased to assist in the expansion of our police force. We as taxpayers pay for these police whose only loyalty is to the central bank. Talk to a cop about the constitution and your rights and you will land behind bars. Be the son of a central banker and that cop will spend his life in jail for a moment of impoliteness even if you kick him in the nuts while playing with his gun. So whose your daddy?

As for health benefits effecting our government, probably the healthiest thing we know about is good food. We have a 100% consensus on this conjecture throughout all human history. Various federal agencies have made the production of good food against the law. Lethal poison is bad for your health, yet all American food must by law contain poisons.
The central Bank benefits tremendously from your suffering and sickness. It's a winfall for them. By definition the central bank IS the insurance industry. Actuarial tables make payments and premiums balance but each event carries additional administrative charges. When you get sick, they Hi Five.

The PEOPLE of the central banks are the primary owners of the pharmco biz. A huge part of the contraband drug biz is manufactured/distributed at a profit by these Pharmcos.

But the single darkest part of the whole drug scam is that all federal agencies involved are themselves crimes against the constitution. Such agencies have a place at the state level. Let one state make a drug illegal and the neighboring state doesn't then the free market will decide what's right. 50 states will offer a real experiment leading to truth. One federal government will only serve the law of mother nature: The strong abuse the weak for personal profit and pleasure.

[Johnski]

hmmm...cancer is bad, and weed is good....interesting concept...

http://www.awritersblock.com

[KD]

You forgot increases your chances of getting a psychotic disorder on your updated fact sheet. And I think newer research has suggested that marijuana is as bad for your lungs as smoking.

Anyways, I really hope the government doesn't allow the legalization of the drug. It'll become a crutch for a lot of people who use it. Since it causes dependancy, you really can't be so easily trusting of people to use it wisely.

[Billy Arvia]

It would definitely become legal but the push would not come from the pharmaceutical companies - it would come from Frito Lay, Jeno's Pizza Rolls and White Castle.

www.triplebee.squaresapce.com