Lady Victoria Eclectic Pagan's blog: "Cannabis"

Alone in her Birmingham, England home, a woman stirs a half teaspoon of cannabis into her hot tea. By seeking relief from pain and spasms caused by multiple sclerosis in this way she is, in the eyes of the law, a criminal.

She doesn’t take this action lightly and is not out for a recreational high. She simply wants a reprieve from the relentless pain that plagues her and, after sipping her tea, generally experiences about three hours of relief. Only those who live in chronic pain can fully understand her anguish.

Speaking of her predicament she says, “I want politicians to be nice to me… I’m sick.” One cannot put it more simply than that. (You can read the rest of her story and view the heartbreaking video on BBC News.)

Medical marijuana enjoys legal status in many parts of the world, where it is recognized as an effective treatment for chronic pain or nausea caused by conditions like multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, arthritis, and cancer. Canada, Chile, and the Netherlands have decriminalized or legalized it, and Australia and Belgium are conducting trials on its benefits.

Patients report that use of medical marijuana provides relief from spasticity, nerve pain, tremors, sleeping disorders, nausea, and depression, greatly improving quality of life.

In the United States and some other countries, social stigma and stereotypes twist the issue into a moral argument rather than a purely medical one.

Ironically, if you watch television for a few hours, you’ll be bombarded with ads for powerful prescription medications with lengthy lists of potential side-effects up to and including death, but they are perfectly legal… and encouraged.

They side-effects associated with cannabis are mild in comparison. Long-term smoking of marijuana has some of the same negative effects as smoking tobacco (a legal substance) and is associated with some short-term cognitive problems. For those living life in chronic pain, it is a fair trade for improved quality of life. It is a very personal decision, one that should not be criminal.

In the U.S., 14 states allow some use of medical marijuana with a doctor’s approval (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington), and legislation was recently introduced in Maryland.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration insists that legal medical marijuana already exists: “A pharmaceutical product, Marinol, is widely available through prescription. It comes in the form of a pill and is also being studied by researchers for suitability via other delivery methods, such as an inhaler or patch. The active ingredient of Marinol is synthetic THC, which has been found to relieve the nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy for cancer patients and to assist with loss of appetite with AIDS patients.”

According to some patients who have tried Marinol, it is much more expensive than traditional marijuana and does not effectively relieve their symptoms. “If I smoke a joint, the tremors go away most times before the joint is gone,” says one man with multiple sclerosis. “It makes my life a little easier.” Marinol, by contrast, “didn’t really do much of anything for me,” he said.

It is time for the United States let go of antiquated notions of marijuana and recognize its legitimate medical use. Stop penalizing the ill… please sign the petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/527173481?z00m=19821883 asking the U.S. Congress to recognize the benefits of medicinal cannabis.

Article from the Irish Examiner... “GOD makes the earth yield healing herbs, which the prudent man should not neglect.” (Sirach:38:4). Well, quite — or as the legendary vernacular would have it, God made grass, man made booze — who do you trust? Cannabis sativa, that hardy adaptable plant that grows everywhere from your window box to the mountains of Asia, Africa and America, has been cultivated by ourselves for over 10,000 years. You would, however, be (almost) forgiven for thinking that it is a highly addictive, dangerous drug, so draconian and misleading is our current legislation, which classifies a gram of cannabis resin to be more harmful and potentially lethal than, say, a crate of whiskey. Yet the only recorded case of a person dying as a direct result of the cannabis sativa plant was when the unfortunate person was flattened by a bale of it falling on his head; this is in glaring contrast to the tens of thousands of poor saps who perish from alcohol related disasters each year, in stupid everyday tragedies involving everything from exploding livers to pranged cars, to murdered spouses and friends. And we pride ourselves on being a higher intelligence? Why are the derivatives of the cannabis sativa plant now illegal? Its uses — medicinal, therapeutic, ceremonial, recreational — have been documented in most important civilizations throughout history, with the first recorded medicinal usage showing up about 5,000 years ago in the court of the Chinese Emperor Chen Nung. His physicians found it helpful in treating a plethora of nasties from dysentery to malaria. It also has ancient connections with many world religions — Shintoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Zoroastrians, the Sufis of Islam, the early Jews, Coptic Christians, and of course the much loved Jah worshiping Rastafarians; in fact almost everyone except mainstream Christians, who have always preferred a drop of the hard stuff. The cannabis plant, apart from being able to grow almost anywhere in all kinds of soil (although, like the rest of us, prefers warmer climates) has had many uses over the millennia: the fibre has long been used to make clothing, paper and rope; the seeds used as food for humans, birds and animals; and the oil, in pre synthetic days, was ideal for lighting, soap, varnish, linoleum and artists’ paints. What other plant is so diversely useful that it is technically possible to paint a picture using hemp oil paint on hemp paper, while wearing a frock spun from hemp, in a room illuminated by a hemp oil lamp, having just washed with some hemp oil soap, while nibbling on some hemp seeds, having just had some tincture of hemp to alleviate any variety of aches and pains? That’s without ever smoking the stuff. It has been cultivated in India, the Middle East, South East Asia, America, and China since the year dot, yet many people in the West assume that dope smoking is a 1960’s hippie phenomenon. This might be due to the willful disinformation trotted out by successive Western governments, led by the United States, for reasons that can only be guessed at (although the notion of drinkers being easier to control does cross one’s mind — smokers are not as frequently insensible). There may have been more sinister reasons; in 1971, a chemist at the Arthur D Little company exposed the US government as having paid millions of dollars to his erstwhile employers to try and find military uses for the plant, a year after the same government had classified marijuana as Schedule 1 (that’s Class A, the same as heroin). None could be found — the only uses the chemists discovered for the plant were completely benign. Any self respecting pothead could have told them that and saved them a fortune. Yet, despite enormous evidence that the cannabis plant benefits a startlingly wide variety of medical conditions, it is still illegal in 44 North American states (but not in Arizona, California, Oregon, Alaska, and the Washington State and DC — so plan that trip accordingly) and most of Europe. British police are practically begging the government to look towards our grown up Dutch cousins and de-criminalize it, but as yet the Blairites are terrified for alienating Mr and Ms Daily Mail, and in Ireland we seem to be too busy in the pub to care one way or another. Current official attitudes appear to stem from the time of the Marijuana Tax Act (1937) in the States, when the US government — despite a steady stream of doctors and medical professionals singing the plant’s praises and discovering more and more medical uses for it — began taxing its medical use, refused to fund medical research into its healing properties, and penalized its recreational use. The head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger, was responsible for release of the preposterous film Reefer Madness, an outrageously funny piece of black and white nonsense that depicted all American teenagers turning into psychopathic, thieving, sex crazed loonies after a lungful of cannabis smoke. The film was about marijuana, not crack, PCP, ice, heroin, or Alien acid blood, but, sadly, millions of non dope smoking citizens took this piece of blatant falsehood as truth. The human brain has its own unique receptors for THC (the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis), which would suggest that smoking or other methods of consuming the plant has been intrinsic in our development over vast tracts of evolutionary time. These neurone receptors are found in the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus, whose functions respectively relate to higher thinking and memory — which is why dope smokers are often deep in thought and have appalling short term memories. Short term memory, however, is the extent of harmful side affects, unless you smoke haystacks of the stuff mixed with harmful tobacco. Otherwise your average dope smoker is generally mellow, given to giggling, introspection, profound thought (well, sometimes) and guzzling pies at 2am. There is no vomiting, no blackouts, no psychosis, no collapsing internal organs, no need to worry — the worst thing that can befall a serious dopehead is lethargy, amiable vagueness, perhaps mild paranoia and possible weight gain from all the midnight pies. And that’s worst case scenario. Cannabis based medicines have been proved effective in the easing of symptoms of multiple sclerosis and other spasticity disorders, arthritis, spinal cord injuries, epilepsy, glaucoma, nausea (including the side affects of chemotherapy), insomnia, anorexia (think about it), and depression. All of these serious unrelated conditions can be eased by the magic cannabis plant — so why in the name of common-sense are tetraplegics criminalized for buying dope, cancer patients denied access to it, and multiple sclerosis sufferers prescribed valium (highly addictive, and turns you into a robot) as an anti spasmodic instead of cannabinoid preparations? Why are doctors not routinely prescribing derivatives of this gentle, healing plant as a complementary medicine, instead of stuffing their patients full of harsh non holistic chemicals? In fact, why are millions of ordinary people who recreationaly choose a joint in preference to a pint classified as law breakers? Why is it all right, socially and legally, to get completely rat arsed in public, yet it is not all right to smoke a joint after a meal? Or smoke a joint anywhere, for that matter? We are allegedly civilized people, yet we persist with embracing a government endorsed, government taxed drug that — after the first one or two units — dulls our cerebral function, makes us raucously boring, and will eventually make us slur, fight, throw up and pass out. Yet Mr Plod will arrest the person walking innocently past the bar room brawl for having a gram of hash in their pocket.

Note: There are millions of regular pot smokers in America and millions more infrequent smokers. Smoking pot clearly has far fewer dangerous and hazardous effects on society than legal drugs such as alcohol. Here is High Times's top 10 reasons to marijuana should be legal, part of its 420 Campaign legalization strategy. 10. Prohibition has failed to control the use and domestic production of marijuana. The government has tried to use criminal penalties to prevent marijuana use for over 75 years and yet: marijuana is now used by over 25 million people annually, cannabis is currently the largest cash crop in the United States, and marijuana is grown all over the planet. Claims that marijuana prohibition is a successful policy are ludicrous and unsupported by the facts, and the idea that marijuana will soon be eliminated from America and the rest of the world is a ridiculous fantasy. 9. Arrests for marijuana possession disproportionately affect blacks and Hispanics and reinforce the perception that law enforcement is biased and prejudiced against minorities. African-Americans account for approximately 13% of the population of the United States and about 13.5% of annual marijuana users, however, blacks also account for 26% of all marijuana arrests. Recent studies have demonstrated that blacks and Hispanics account for the majority of marijuana possession arrests in New York City, primarily for smoking marijuana in public view. Law enforcement has failed to demonstrate that marijuana laws can be enforced fairly without regard to race; far too often minorities are arrested for marijuana use while white/non-Hispanic Americans face a much lower risk of arrest. 8. A regulated, legal market in marijuana would reduce marijuana sales and use among teenagers, as well as reduce their exposure to other drugs in the illegal market. The illegality of marijuana makes it more valuable than if it were legal, providing opportunities for teenagers to make easy money selling it to their friends. If the excessive profits for marijuana sales were ended through legalization there would be less incentive for teens to sell it to one another. Teenage use of alcohol and tobacco remain serious public health problems even though those drugs are legal for adults, however, the availability of alcohol and tobacco is not made even more widespread by providing kids with economic incentives to sell either one to their friends and peers. 7. Legalized marijuana would reduce the flow of money from the American economy to international criminal gangs. Marijuana's illegality makes foreign cultivation and smuggling to the United States extremely profitable, sending billions of dollars overseas in an underground economy while diverting funds from productive economic development. 6. Marijuana's legalization would simplify the development of hemp as a valuable and diverse agricultural crop in the United States, including its development as a new bio-fuel to reduce carbon emissions. Canada and European countries have managed to support legal hemp cultivation without legalizing marijuana, but in the United States opposition to legal marijuana remains the biggest obstacle to development of industrial hemp as a valuable agricultural commodity. As US energy policy continues to embrace and promote the development of bio-fuels as an alternative to oil dependency and a way to reduce carbon emissions, it is all the more important to develop industrial hemp as a bio-fuel source - especially since use of hemp stalks as a fuel source will not increase demand and prices for food, such as corn. Legalization of marijuana will greatly simplify the regulatory burden on prospective hemp cultivation in the United States. 5. Prohibition is based on lies and disinformation. Justification of marijuana's illegality increasingly requires distortions and selective uses of the scientific record, causing harm to the credibility of teachers, law enforcement officials, and scientists throughout the country. The dangers of marijuana use have been exaggerated for almost a century and the modern scientific record does not support the reefer madness predictions of the past and present. Many claims of marijuana's danger are based on old 20th century prejudices that originated in a time when science was uncertain how marijuana produced its characteristic effects. Since the cannabinoid receptor system was discovered in the late 1980s these hysterical concerns about marijuana's dangerousness have not been confirmed with modern research. Everyone agrees that marijuana, or any other drug use such as alcohol or tobacco use, is not for children. Nonetheless, adults have demonstrated over the last several decades that marijuana can be used moderately without harmful impacts to the individual or society. 4. Marijuana is not a lethal drug and is safer than alcohol. It is established scientific fact that marijuana is not toxic to humans; marijuana overdoses are nearly impossible, and marijuana is not nearly as addictive as alcohol or tobacco. It is unfair and unjust to treat marijuana users more harshly under the law than the users of alcohol or tobacco. 3. Marijuana is too expensive for our justice system and should instead be taxed to support beneficial government programs. Law enforcement has more important responsibilities than arresting 750,000 individuals a year for marijuana possession, especially given the additional justice costs of disposing of each of these cases. Marijuana arrests make justice more expensive and less efficient in the United States, wasting jail space, clogging up court systems, and diverting time of police, attorneys, judges, and corrections officials away from violent crime, the sexual abuse of children, and terrorism. Furthermore, taxation of marijuana can provide needed and generous funding of many important criminal justice and social programs. 2. Marijuana use has positive attributes, such as its medical value and use as a recreational drug with relatively mild side effects. Many people use marijuana because they have made an informed decision that it is good for them, especially Americans suffering from a variety of serious ailments. Marijuana provides relief from pain, nausea, spasticity, and other symptoms for many individuals who have not been treated successfully with conventional medications. Many American adults prefer marijuana to the use of alcohol as a mild and moderate way to relax. Americans use marijuana because they choose to, and one of the reasons for that choice is their personal observation that the drug has a relatively low dependence liability and easy-to-manage side effects. Most marijuana users develop tolerance to many of marijuana's side effects, and those who do not, choose to stop using the drug. Marijuana use is the result of informed consent in which individuals have decided that the benefits of use outweigh the risks, especially since, for most Americans, the greatest risk of using marijuana is the relatively low risk of arrest. 1. Marijuana users are determined to stand up to the injustice of marijuana probation and accomplish legalization, no matter how long or what it takes to succeed. Despite the threat of arrests and a variety of other punishments and sanctions marijuana users have persisted in their support for legalization for over a generation. They refuse to give up their long quest for justice because they believe in the fundamental values of American society. Prohibition has failed to silence marijuana users despite its best attempts over the last generation. The issue of marijuana's legalization is a persistent issue that, like marijuana, will simply not go away. Marijuana will be legalized because marijuana users will continue to fight for it until they succeed. Learn more about High Times's 420 Campaign marijuana legalization strategy.

Hemp and Marijuana - Myths & Realities Abstract Surely no member of the vegetable kingdom has ever been more misunderstood than hemp. For too many years, emotion-not reason-has guided our policy toward this crop. And nowhere have emotions run hotter than in the debate over the distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana. This paper is intended to inform that debate by offering scientific evidence, so that farmers, policymakers, manufacturers, and the general public can distinguish between myth and reality. Botanically, the genus Cannabis is composed of several variants. Although there has been a long-standing debate among taxonomists about how to classify these variants into species, applied plant breeders generally embrace a biochemical method to classify variants along utilitarian lines. Cannabis is the only plant genus that contains the unique class of molecular compounds called cannabinoids. Many cannabinoids have been identified, but two preponderate: THC, which is the psychoactive ingredient of Cannabis, and CBD, which is an antipsychoactive ingredient. One type of Cannabis is high in the psychoactive cannabinoid, THC, and low in the antipsychoactive cannabinoid, CBD. This type is popularly known as marijuana. Another type is high in CBD and low in THC. Variants of this type are called industrial hemp. In the United States, the debate about the relationship between hemp and marijuana has been diminished by the dissemination of many statements that have little scientific support. This report examines in detail ten of the most pervasive and pernicious of these myths. Myth: United States law has always treated hemp and marijuana the same. Reality: The history of federal drug laws clearly shows that at one time the U.S. government understood and accepted the distinction between hemp and marijuana. Myth: Smoking industrial hemp gets a person high. Reality: The THC levels in industrial hemp are so low that no one could get high from smoking it. Moreover, hemp contains a relatively high percentage of another cannabinoid, CBD, that actually blocks the marijuana high. Hemp, it turns out, is not only not marijuana; it could be called "antimarijuana." Myth: Even though THC levels are low in hemp, the THC can be extracted and concentrated to produce a powerful drug. Reality: Extracting THC from industrial hemp and further refining it to eliminate the preponderance of CBD would require such an expensive, hazardous, and time-consuming process that it is extremely unlikely anyone would ever attempt it, rather than simply obtaining high-THC marijuana instead. Myth: Hemp fields would be used to hide marijuana plants. Reality: Hemp is grown quite differently from marijuana. Moreover, it is harvested at a different time than marijuana. Finally, cross-pollination between hemp plants and marijuana plants would significantly reduce the potency of the marijuana plant. Myth: Legalizing hemp while continuing the prohibition on marijuana would burden local police forces. Reality: In countries where hemp is grown as an agricultural crop, the police have experienced no such burdens. Myth: Feral hemp must be eradicated because it can be sold as marijuana. Reality: Feral hemp, or ditchweed, is a remnant of the hemp once grown on more than 400,000 acres by U.S. farmers. It contains extremely low levels of THC, as low as .05 percent. It has no drug value, but does offer important environmental benefits as a nesting habitat for birds. About 99 percent of the "marijuana" being eradicated by the federal government-at great public expense-is this harmless ditchweed. Might it be that the drug enforcement agencies want to convince us that ditchweed is hemp in order to protect their large eradication budgets? Myth: Those who want to legalize hemp are actually seeking a backdoor way to legalize marijuana. Reality: It is true that many of the first hemp stores were started by industrial-hemp advocates who were also in favor of legalizing marijuana. However, as the hemp industry has matured, it has come to be dominated by those who see hemp as the agricultural and industrial crop that it is, and see hemp legalization as a different issue than marijuana legalization. In any case, should we oppose a very good idea simply because some of those who support it also support other ideas with which we disagree? Myth: Hemp oil is a source of THC. Reality: Hemp oil is an increasingly popular product, used for an expanding variety of purposes. The washed hemp seed contains no THC at all. The tiny amounts of THC contained in industrial hemp are in the glands of the plant itself. Sometimes, in the manufacturing process, some THC- and CBD-containing resin sticks to the seed, resulting in traces of THC in the oil that is produced. The concentration of these cannabinoids in the oil is infinitesimal. No one can get high from using hemp oil. Myth: Legalizing hemp would send the wrong message to children. Reality: It is the current refusal of the drug enforcement agencies to distinguish between an agricultural crop and a drug crop that is sending the wrong message to children. Myth: Hemp is not economically viable, and should therefore be outlawed. Reality: The market for hemp products is growing rapidly. But even if it were not, when has a crop ever been outlawed simply because government agencies thought it would be unprofitable to grow?