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Federal chokehold on marijuana stymies studies on epilepsy, autism

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Re: Federal chokehold on marijuana stymies studies on epilepsy, autism

#61

Post by deelowe »

Anon1096 wrote: post #54
e40 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This shows the derangement of the people in charge. Why is this? Why this derangement on the subject of cannabis? I've read a fair amount, and every time I've brought it up, I get downvoted to hell. So, I'll ask: Anyone have a hypothesis on why a large number of our leaders, who happen to be older white men, are insanely against this plant?

Personally I'm anti drug use because of how many friends and family members I've seen turn their lives to shit after starting weed etc. I know there's a lot of fine users but so many of my friends turned to weed to cope and then from there went onto harder stuff like crack/cocaine. And really, I don't support people altering their mind states through the use of recreational drugs, alcohol included. It saddens me to s…

This article and the associated discussion thread you're contributing to here has zero to do with recreational use. Is this the core issue? People can't separate the two? Do people generally not realize that because of how it's scheduled there is no possibility for medical use and that this is starting to look like a really bad thing given the circumstances?

Re: Federal chokehold on marijuana stymies studies on epilepsy, autism

#62

Post by heurist »

e40 wrote: post #32
nopacience wrote: post #27

> In March, Insys launched a multinational study of 190 children to evaluate cannabidiol as a first-line therapy for infantile spasms. We are eager to see how well the compound performs when given in the first days and weeks of the condition. If it turns out to be effective, cannabidiol would represent a substantial improvement over current drugs, all of which have serious side effects: One, for example, causes irrev…

This shows the derangement of the people in charge. Why is this? Why this derangement on the subject of cannabis? I've read a fair amount, and every time I've brought it up, I get downvoted to hell. So, I'll ask: Anyone have a hypothesis on why a large number of our leaders, who happen to be older white men, are insanely against this plant?

In addition to blatant racism, I suspect much of it is due to the potential for cultural and spiritual revolution should marijuana (or psychedelics in general) become legal. We can look to the 60's for an example of what can happen when mind-altering substances become widely used recreationally. There were a lot of other factors at play then, but the growth of counterculture and subsequent pushback was the origin of many of today's political battles. I can see why conservatives are afraid of that rapid change - it will be incredibly disruptive to the established order. (I disagree with their fears).

Re: Federal chokehold on marijuana stymies studies on epilepsy, autism

#63

Post by refurb »

nopacience wrote: post #27

> In March, Insys launched a multinational study of 190 children to evaluate cannabidiol as a first-line therapy for infantile spasms. We are eager to see how well the compound performs when given in the first days and weeks of the condition. If it turns out to be effective, cannabidiol would represent a substantial improvement over current drugs, all of which have serious side effects: One, for example, causes irrev…

Interesting! This is the same Insys that is currently under investigation for paying kick-backs to doctors to prescribe fentanyl![1]

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/nyregion/fentanyl-subsys-...

Re: Federal chokehold on marijuana stymies studies on epilepsy, autism

#64

Post by deelowe »

throwaway76543 wrote: post #51
Thriptic wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marijuana is defined as a schedule one drug by the DEA, meaning they believe it has no accepted medical value and should not be studied. Being in possession of or trying to purchase this drug for a medical study would therefore be illegal. Publishing the results would be admitting you performed a federal crime and you would be arrested. Additionally, human studies require approval by an on site or third party institu…

Look, this is absurd. Yes, it's illegal but so what? Plenty of people have MMJ cards, have scanned their ID at a dispensary, or have applied for state cultivation licenses. The idea that academia is somehow prevented from engaging in this field because it's federally illegal is not credible and it tarnishes the integrity of the field.

Sure if you completely ignore how research is funded, how one makes a career out of performing research and why research is performed in the first place. Specifically, anyone performing medical research on marijuana is likely to lose any grants they have, is likely to lose their job for putting their employer at risk, is likely to not be able to find future employment for being so cavalier in their research and is likely to not see any meaningful result from their research because the drugs can't be produced in the first place.

Re: Federal chokehold on marijuana stymies studies on epilepsy, autism

#65

Post by will_brown »

honkycat wrote: post #35

Everyone confused about the fucked up laws around drug control and the like in the united states: It is about locking up poor people in order to keep them from voting. It is about filling our prisons with non-violent offenders so we can force them to work for slave wages, and line the owners of the prisons and the politicians they fund's pockets. It's about political suppression, not about some moralistic crusade to…

Sure maybe the Nixon campaign/administration used laws that were on the books to target certain groups...but the laws already existed for more than a generation.

Similarly, private for profit prisons, while they existed earlier, weren’t really a thing (as we know them today) until the 1980’s.

So the idea drug laws were created as a weapon against hippies and blacks (30 years in advance) or to line pockets of prison owners (50 years before the true for profit prison system) seems off. Even political suppression, women just got the right to vote, blacks were already actively being suppressed from voting by Law when marijuana prohibition laws were created (and continued to be until the civil rights movement and the voting rights act of 1965).

Re: Federal chokehold on marijuana stymies studies on epilepsy, autism

#66

Post by jakelazaroff »

Anon1096 wrote: post #54
e40 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This shows the derangement of the people in charge. Why is this? Why this derangement on the subject of cannabis? I've read a fair amount, and every time I've brought it up, I get downvoted to hell. So, I'll ask: Anyone have a hypothesis on why a large number of our leaders, who happen to be older white men, are insanely against this plant?

Personally I'm anti drug use because of how many friends and family members I've seen turn their lives to shit after starting weed etc. I know there's a lot of fine users but so many of my friends turned to weed to cope and then from there went onto harder stuff like crack/cocaine. And really, I don't support people altering their mind states through the use of recreational drugs, alcohol included. It saddens me to s…

Can we not agree, though, that scare tactics around victimless crimes (in the sense that the victim is also the perpetrator) are demonstrably ineffectual? Abstinence-only sex education, for example, correlates positively with teen pregnancy rates [1], whereas opioid overdose education is shown to decrease opioid death rates [2].

Without getting into the moral argument of whether or not people should be able to choose to alter their mental state through drugs (are we cool with coffee as well?), it seems clear to me that the best policy is one of education and harm reduction, not FUD and prohibition.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3194801/

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4688551/

Re: Federal chokehold on marijuana stymies studies on epilepsy, autism

#67

Post by deelowe »

sp332 wrote: post #28
vorpalhex wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's incorrect. Those states explicitly legalized the possession and consumption of marijuana. That legalization is in conflict with the federal prohibition - so consuming marijuana in those instances is not a state crime (any more then walking down the street or eating cake is) but might still be a federal crime in those cases where the federal government has the ability to charge you (interstate commerce).

What's the difference between being legalized and being not prohibited?

Saying that it's federally prohibited within the state is dubious, because of the issue of states rights. Constitutional scholars would argue the federal government has little to no ability to control what substances a state wants to prohibit within the state itself. The only way this was worked around to begin with is the stretching of the interstate commerce law, which only applies when crossing state lines.

Re: Federal chokehold on marijuana stymies studies on epilepsy, autism

#69

Post by andrewhn »

jmcmichael wrote: post #57
andrewhn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cant find this interview anywhere. I only see the far left leaning media sites reporting on it. No evidence this statement was actually made by John Ehrlichman. Do you have any?

Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2016/03/23/nixons-d... CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-rich... The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/richard-ni... Channel4: https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-war-drugs-... These were all in the first page of Google results with the query 'John Ehrlichman quote drug law'.

But where is the interview???

I dont trust any of these sources.

Re: Federal chokehold on marijuana stymies studies on epilepsy, autism

#70

Post by gnulinux »

nopacience wrote: post #27

> In March, Insys launched a multinational study of 190 children to evaluate cannabidiol as a first-line therapy for infantile spasms. We are eager to see how well the compound performs when given in the first days and weeks of the condition. If it turns out to be effective, cannabidiol would represent a substantial improvement over current drugs, all of which have serious side effects: One, for example, causes irrev…

What drives me crazy is, if you go to a psychiatrist today and lie about having hard time sleeping, they can immediately prescribe you Ambien which not only causes dementia and other neurological problems in long term use, but systematically makes people do absolutely batshit crazy things they'll never remember the next morning. In the US, drug regulations are absolutely ridiculous and have no scientific basis, it is randomly decided by a few individuals and systematically affect the lives of each and every person living in the US, citizen or not. I can't even begin to believe how&why we let things like this happen.
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