8/3/2019 The Medical Side

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The Medical Side

(make sure Mr. Gs RAND study gets cited somewhere please)

I said at the start that the police have no business in the practice of medicine, and I stand by this

assessment. When legitimate terror threats to American security actually exist, it is difficult to watch our

wire-tapping friends use such excoriating terms as narco-terrorism to use high-tech weapons on drug

dealers, fearsome though they may be. Our fascination with imprisoning those who think differently

than ourselves can be attributed the ancient notion of dangerous classes, otherwise known eternally

as other. Ever since the Burlingame Commercial Treatya mid-19th

century law which targeted

Chinese-AmericansAmerica has made it her mission to root out thise who think differently, even at

the cost of providing effective and efiicient patient care.

It has long been known to researchers that cannabinoids (the active ingredient in cannabis)

have a synergistic effect when combined with opioids. In other words, pain reduction can be achieved

much more effectively by simultaneous administration of both morphine and marijuana. Plenty of

medicine have come from folk sources and, like aspirin from willow bark, we have to learn to accept

that substances can be used in various ways. The negative associations substances have are purely the

result of our own mental constructs interfering with proper perception. Cannabis, like aspirin, is not

intrinsically evil, and if cannabis can be used recreationally as well as medically, we will simply have to

get used to this fact. Federal injunctions reduce state medical boards to mere vassals, and this type of

infringement on medical dignity should be met with the strongest disapprobation.

Unfettered study of cannabis, like the study of alcohol and tobacco, is a far more effective way

to induce people to make healthy choices. Smoking and drinking rates have plummeted since the

Surgeon General began attaching warnings to both, essentially proving my point. While it might be

considered a small victory simply to remove cannabis from the Schedule I perch which it now currentlyinhabits, the truth is that such a win would be essentially irrelevant. Science doesnt preach self-

regulation, it is predicated upon it, and the authorities in positions of medical authority are the most

brilliant and gracious individuals American has to offer. Drug policy belongs to this band-on-the-run, and

a gracious transfer of power is long overdue.

The two main health arguments against cannabis are that it allegedly causes cancer, and that

it acts as a Gateway Drug. The second proposition is absolutely ridiculous. Any substance known to

man (milk, sugar, or beer to name a few) might be considered a gateway to harder substances.

Disprovibng a negative is not a requirement of the scientific method, but all current research shows

that any evidence of a gateway is simply spurious. On the flip side, Forbidden Fruit Syndrome is veryreal, and we must recognize that there is no way for the government to control unruly appetites and

placing the burden upon the shoulders of public health officials would surely be welcome.