Thursday, August 12, 2010
Pot lady put down
Posted Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 4:00 AM
In a recent letter, Joyce Nalepka of “Drug Free Kids: America’s Challenge” made a number of interesting claims (see “Pot is strong, bad,” Aug. 5, 2010). I’ll address a few of them.
First though, please, Google search “Joyce Nalepka.” Catch her claiming that everyone who smokes a joint supports the “Afghanistani” drug dealers associated with 9/11. (What?) Or her claim that membership in Students for Sensible Drug Policy should be treated just like illegal drug use. (Witch hunt, anyone?)
Ms. Nalepka apparently would like to have the hundreds of thousands of Montanans who have ever consumed cannabis be arrested and incarcerated for their sins. This anachronistic prohibitionist fails to recognize fundamental principles of justice and liberty held dear by Montanans, and a few other pesky details known as “facts.”
In its 40-year history, NORML’s position has always been clear that there is nothing wrong with responsible adult use of marijuana, and that to treat adult use as a criminal matter is an expensive policy disaster and a moral outrage.
As for Ms. Nalepka’s claim of cannabis containing 47.5 percent THC: The government’s own data on the matter, gathered and analyzed by the Potency Monitoring Project at the University of Mississippi, finds that there has been a modest increase in average potency since the early 1980s, from around 4 percent to around 10 percent recently. However, this does’t make marijuana more dangerous—people simply use less.
Ms. Nalepka also implies that marijuana cannot be used as medicine. However, the federal government owns a patent (No. 6630507) on cannabinoids as neuroprotectants, there are thousands of studies that prove the clinical effectiveness of cannabis in combating a wide variety of ailments, and there’s an FDA-approved synthetic form of THC available as a prescription. At this point, to deny this natural plant’s medical value is absurd.
The tide is turning, and prohibitionists like Ms. Nalepka are fast becoming an endangered species. Montana’s medical marijuana program is a blessing for many people, but now it’s time to get past medical, and regulate cannabis for all adults.
John Masterson
Director
Montana NORML
Missoula
Comments (3)
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I've always felt, that the people who are most against marijuana, are probably some of the people who could most benefit from it's soothing qualities. Joyce is no exception.
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The prohibitionist like Ms. Nalepka have always used scare tactics and have always used lies because the truth is not on their side. If the truth was on their side they would not have to rely on lies and misinformation to make the case.
In fact marijuana is a safe substance, much safer than alcohol and should be a choice for responsible adults. Why do we drive people to use alcohol when marijuana is clearly a better choice.
We all know the medical benefits of marijuana, they are so numerous as it is safe and effective for many conditions. Before Ms. Nalepka goes after sick and dying people who use marijuana to gain some comfort, improve their mood, reduce pain, and sooth spasming muscles among many other benefits that are shown. Marijuana can be used topically to fight arthritis pain or MRSA, marijuana can be vaporized with no smoke, and marijuana can be smoked which allows patients to choose the amount they need. One puff for slight relief, two puffs for more relief.
Did you know the pharmaceutical version of marijuana (marinol) does not contain all of the valuable cannabinoids in marijuana but costs over $1200 a month!! Why do prohibitionists think we should be happy with Marinol? Because they know nothing about it.
Let's encourage freedom, let's encourage responsibility, but let's discourage the nanny state that Ms. Nalepka is so fond of.
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