We’re not lying to teens enough!

We must do a better job of lying to teens or they might see through all the lies we told them before.

White House Drug Czar: Teen Marijuana Use on the Rise

“We have been telling young people, particularly for the past couple years, that marijuana is medicine,” the former Seattle police chief argued. “So it shouldn’t be a great surprise to us that young people are now misperceiving the dangers or the risks around marijuana.”

That’s right. We must stop helping sick and dying people and stop telling the truth about the medical value of marijuana, or young people will start to realize that marijuana isn’t as bad as we’ve been telling them!

In what perverse world is that the basis for drug policy?

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48 Responses to We’re not lying to teens enough!

  1. Matthew Meyer says:

    Changes in perception of cannabis are the result of lies, but in the areas of tobacco and alcohol, it’s the steady conquest of truth.

    From ABC: “On the other hand, [Kerlikowske] said, a broad understanding of the harms of tobacco and alcohol has led to lower cigarette smoking and binge drinking in teens.”

    I guess this makes sense as long as we assume that the government has not been lying about cannabis.

  2. darkcycle says:

    I’m not gonna say this is he dumbest thing I have ever heard, ’cause I’m pretty sure I’ve heard dumber. I just cannot, for the life of me, remember what that was.
    Yes, all those impressionable teens, giving each other Chemotherapy and Radiation treatments, just because we told them it was medicine. They are misperceiving the dangers of Carbo-platinum poisons and ingesting them because we somehow allowed that they are are therapeutic and “safe”. We cannot tell children what is and what isn’t medicine. They may abuse it. And what about the problem of diabetic children sharing their insulin with their little friends on the playground? It’s difficult to wake a kid in an insulin coma up to come in from recess.
    And next they’ll be performing surgery on each other, because somehow it slipped out that THAT’s medicine too.
    Are human beings REALLY getting stupider at an exponential rate? or is it geometric, and it just SEEMS exponential? Or maybe it’s just our Drug Czar who’s getting stupider.

  3. Drew B. says:

    That man Kerlikowske, Leonhart, Sabbet, Chabot, and all the others have some serious pain coming their way for all the terror and lies they’ve spread.

    Castor oil used to be taken daily by many adults. It was even given to kids and told it was medicine! How many of us clamor for that now?! People use to go to the barbers for bloodlettings which was considered medicine, and I bet that could even be considered hallucination-inducing, yet how many kids make themselves bleed so they can get high from that?

    I see two factors at play which our evil overlords overlook. First, is since we are taking aim straight at the pocketbooks of the pushers, gangs, and cartels, they are worried. They are worried their revenues will go way down, so they are busy pushing their drugs everywhere, thus leading to an increase in drugs on the street. Second is the fact we’ve been successful in helping reduce the shame factor; this is desperately needed so we can help the people we’d never suspect as addicts, but are just waiting for an open hand vs. handcuffs.

    The only thing I see in this most recent line of “logic” from them is nothing but evil anti-American “stop free speech.” They are putting forth yet another brainwashing scheme to try to convince others, particularly the press, that they are to blame, that they need to prevent free speech, that they need to only write evil propaganda, that an open honest discussion with all the FACTS on the table is harmful.

    The first time I heard this line of garbage from the govt. I wrote for them to read that 99% of kids (~17yrs to 2yrs) WOULD NOT EVEN NOTICE if we legalized all drugs. It just is not something that’s on their radar and something they are not interested in. Most kids are all wrapped up in worries about what others think of them, what shoes are cool, how can they hide their flip phone in a case so it looks like an iPhone, etc…

    More bad news is that last night on the PBS News Hour Gwen Ifil said something about how an upcoming show would have a report on “teen drug use.”

    Given their last corrupt story, from Colorado I think — where they continued to pan LEAP — they spoke with lots of Drug Warriors who were as hard hearted and hard headed as ever.

    So I do NOT have the slightest notion this upcoming report from them will be anything but evil govt. propaganda. No comparisons to Portugal, no analysis of the DEAs and DAREs abysmal track record. Only moronic statements like “giving in,” and “waving the white flag,” and “opening the floodgates” with regard to the only viable option there is to stop pushers in their tracks and cut gang violence.

    The News Hour’s standards have fallen off the chart! They used to actually have a balanced discussion, but not when it comes to the Evil Religion of Drug War. They just fawn over the Thug Addicts and Men (and Women) of Lawlessness, their claims go unchallenged. Why? “Doing so might send the message we want everyone to become ‘ravenous druggies.'”

    When it comes to reporting on the Drug War, the News Hour has gone to the dogs!

  4. pt says:

    Isn’t the fact more kids are using actually a supply issue? And therefore more evidence that the war on drugs has failed? Funny (actually not) how they twist the facts to support their ends.

  5. Matthew Meyer says:

    >Isn’t the fact more kids are using actually a supply >issue? And therefore more evidence that the war on drugs >has failed? Funny (actually not) how they twist the facts >to support their ends.

    It’s a version of “Heads, I win; tails, you lose.”

  6. Ben Mann says:

    Yeah, because teen use of Advil is on the rise, too? Because responsible teens feel that they can just take whatever medicine you want, whenever you want?

    Informing teens of the TRUE risks of pot would be an effective deterrent. Hysterical condemnation of pot and false attribution of negative qualities to the drug only make the government’s words ring more and more hollow every day.

  7. Dante says:

    Teen use of MJ is up, while teen use of alcohol is down.

    So, the legal drug is being used less while the illegal drug is being used more. So, if our government really wanted to save the children from pot, they could make it legal and that would help based upon their own data.

    Funny, I don’t recall the Drug Czar making that point.

    I guess they really don’t care about saving the children.

  8. kaptinemo says:

    “Informing teens of the TRUE risks of pot would be an effective deterrent. Hysterical condemnation of pot and false attribution of negative qualities to the drug only make the government’s words ring more and more hollow every day.”

    Yepper, guaranteed job security. Generation after generation…with one small problem.

    This latest generation grew up with the Internet.

    As one progenitor of that same ‘Net put it so succinctly, “The Internet treats censorship as damage as routes around it”. But that’s in no small part because most of the minds who created and inhabit the ‘Net are the same kind of inquiring minds that are so anathema to authoritarians. The kind of minds that many of this latest generation possess. The kind of minds that are always asking the most dangerous question in any language: “WHY?”

    They have no tolerance for BS in any form, from any source, and have no respect for assumptions of credibility on the part of authority; exactly the opposite.

    So…the lard-brains at ONDCP that foolishly seek to manipulate them as if they were the fabled ‘tabula rasas’ (blank slates) will never gain anything but the contempt of their target audience. Those kids can find out whatever they want, now, and nothing can stop them short of a total societal collapse.

    But, just as the definition of insanity describes, the ONDCP just keeps trying to same old failed methods. As Don Rickles said of Congress way back in 1983, “They all ought to be put into a ‘home’, and stop bothering the American people!”

  9. claygooding says:

    From the ONDCP site:
    http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/pdf/Marijuana.pdf

    Health Effects
    “”Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

    In recent decades, marijuana growers have been genetically altering their plants to increase the percentage of delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active ingredient in marijuana. The average potency of tested marijuana from Federal seizures more than doubled from 1998 to 2008,7 as shown at left.

    THC acts upon specific sites in the brain called cannabinoid receptors, triggering a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the “high” users experience when they smoke the drug.

    Marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination,difficulty in thinking and problem solving,and problems with learning and memory. Studies have shown an association between chronic marijuana use and increased rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and schizophrenia.

    Other research has shown marijuana smoke to contain carcinogens and to be an irritant to the lungs. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50-70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke.

    This is the health effects noted by the ONDCP and NIDA
    after 40 years of searching for the smoking gun on marijuana and failing to find any proof positive of harm.””

    And any studies offered at the site as proof say “could be”,”may cause” or “possible effect”,nothing is stated as
    a definite causation of health risks,such as: “”Marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination,difficulty in thinking and problem solving,and problems with learning and memory.”” Not that it will,but that it can.

    Due to the fact that most people do not imbibe enough marijuana to cause the problems noted above,it is their way of double speak and inferring that it does this every time it’s used.

    If the above listed were true and the most possible harm
    attached would still be less severe than some of the pharmaceutical drugs being pushed all over our country.

  10. Cliff says:

    “They have no tolerance for BS in any form, from any source, and have no respect for assumptions of credibility on the part of authority; exactly the opposite.”

    And…their BS detectors are being finely calibrated because of how all the masters of the universe, best and brightest, blah, blah, blah (AKA banksters and pin striped bandits) have lied to our nation (there’s no better time to buy, get in for the big win in the stock market…) strip mined our wealth and robbed us of our national legacy of freedom, liberty and responsiblity for our actions.

    These kids read and understand that right now the carcass of our dead nation is being picked clean and those responsible are leaving them with a rather large bill. Meanwhile their ‘betters’ and elders are telling them not to consume cannabis.

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  12. Cliff says:

    “If the above listed were true and the most possible harm attached would still be less severe than some of the pharmaceutical drugs being pushed all over our country.”

    I heard one of the pharma commercials on the TV, I think it was for Celebrex, the announcer was reading the side effects and one of them was death. I was like, yeah, let’s go see our doctor for some of that.

  13. Duncan20903 says:

    Is there really some kind of surgery I could get to lower my IQ down to say, maybe a little above room temperature? It really would be a much easier life to be a moron.

  14. Duncan20903 says:

    Castor oil used to be taken daily by many adults. It was even given to kids and told it was medicine! How many of us clamor for that now?!

    Oh come on, that was a communist plot, and once everyone realized that the true name of the castor bean plant is ricinus communis people quit using it.

    Bloodletting? Does that include leech therapy? I wonder if you know that leeches are an FDA approved medical device. Maggots as well.

    Maggots and leeches: Good medicine
    By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY

    Two medical devices recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration seem more likely to appear on Fear Factor than ER.

    Calling them “devices” is a stretch. But just like stimulators and stents, prostheses and pacemakers, leeches and maggots are now classified as FDA-approved medical devices — the first live animals to earn that distinction.

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-07-07-leeches-maggots_x.htm

    I enjoy using this as an example when people say, “there’s no such thing as a medicine that is smoked.” Yes, and until 2004 there were no FDA approved medical uses for necrotic flesh eating insect larvae or blood sucking worms.
    ————————————————–

    Only moronic statements like “giving in,” and “waving the white flag,” and “opening the floodgates”

    Point out that General George C Custer also believed that one should never retreat or wave the white flag. How did that work out for him and his troops?

  15. Duncan20903 says:

    Damn clay, it sure seems that they’ve been listening to too much Alice Cooper.

    And here, my prize, Merrywanna. Isn’t she lovely?…And so deadly. Her kiss is fifteen times as poisonous as that of the rattlesnake. You see her venom is highly neurotoxic, which is to say that it attacks the central nervous system causing intense pain, profuse sweating, difficulty in breathing, loss of consciousness, violent convulsions and, finally…Death.

    Such power and dignity…unhampered by sentiment. If I may put forward a slice of personal philosophy, I feel that man has ruled this world as a stumbling demented child-king long enough! And as his empire crumbles, my precious Merrywanna shall rise as his most fitting successor!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi8PMqqpwEg

  16. Drew B. says:

    @Duncan20903, I did know that leeches were now used in medical environments. However, they are not used to balance one’s humors; the reason for blood letting in the past.

    As you probably know they are used because they prevent clotting and remove built up blood in badly damaged areas of the body, like crushed fingers.

    I’ve not read that article, so using maggots is a new one to me. But I bet maggots are a lot easier to come by vs. leeches. Especially in the desert south west.

    “Yes, and until 2004 there were no FDA approved medical uses for necrotic flesh eating insect larvae or blood sucking worms.” Great line! It may take saying it quite a few times for me to get it right without smirking. And I can already see their tempers rage and blood pressure skyrocket. Hm, there may be a leech.app for that!

    Smoked salmon is medicine to me.

  17. DdC says:

    Think of the message being sent to the kids?

    Child Protection Racket

    Signs of Sickness and D.E.A.th

    The Latest ConPromise

    de·mon·ize tr.v.
    de·mon·ized, de·mon·iz·ing, de·mon·iz·es,

    1. To turn into or as if into a demon.
    2. To possess by or as if by a demon.
    3. To represent as evil or diabolic: wartime propaganda that demonizes the enemy.

    demon·i·zation n.

    Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary
    of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  18. Servetus says:

    Speaking of the latest medical uses for cannabis compounds, a recent publication on cannabidiol (CBD) research has shown it effective for protecting the heart tissue of people with Type I diabetes.

    To wit: “Remarkably, CBD attenuated myocardial dysfunction, cardiac fibrosis, oxidative/nitrative stress, inflammation, cell death, and interrelated signaling pathways. Furthermore, CBD also attenuated the high glucose-induced increased reactive oxygen species generation, nuclear factor-kB activation, and cell death in primary human cardiomyocytes.

    Collectively, these results coupled with the excellent safety and tolerability profile of CBD in humans, strongly suggest that it may have great therapeutic potential in the treatment of diabetic complications, and perhaps other cardiovascular disorders, by attenuating oxidative/nitrative stress, inflammation, cell death and fibrosis.”—Rajesh, et al., Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

    http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/abstract/56/25/2115

    You can bet Big Pharma won’t be beating a path to the CBD door, as CBD is not patentable and therefore not subject to corporatist price gouging. Marijuana as medicine is the only current option for Type I diabetics.

    No doubt this means arch prohibitionists with Type I diabetes are forcing themselves to die prematurely from heart disease.

    F#%k’em; they deserve it.

  19. vicky vampire says:

    OH pardon me, I must be the most horrible parent on the earth lie to my kids and other folks in generel about drugs please of course when they are very young you shelter them a little but government wants you to frickin continue lies. of course I don’t want my college age kids using hard drugs when they when their where younger ,but I did not adhere to this Oh my God attitude if they drink a little booze before 18 this insane no tolerance policy thinking throughout schools and commercials goes against parents customs that are different.They say not a drop of alcohol before 21 ,so DANGEROUS, my mom hispanic grew up European way allowed us to have a little wine and beer with meals since we were 15 ,I raised my kids the same and they were not even that interested in drinkin when younger cause it was not prohibited,so no big deal to them.I’m not saying there are no alcoholics in family but yes I do feel safer them doing a little weed than drinking heavily but lie hell no Iv’e always told them truth a drugs great ,good,bad and ugly conseguences of course the prohibs only want to hear the very worst. Its lieing that has this country in such a mess a wall of never ending lies about everything. Oh sorry I kinda double posted these same comments over on other post Wet Houses meant for this post. so yes you might be seeing double haha.

  20. vicky vampire says:

    A few more comments when I use cannabis with in conjunction with other pain stuff I’m able to get around better and do more and believe me my family notices my good days I quess and they know I used medical Cannabis so now I must lie about it medical benefits when my own kids can see with there own eyes how amazingly it has helped me in certain ways. but screw sick people to be sacrificed for what the insane obliteration of a natural plant. These people are like robots repeat the mantra of lies that’s all the Drug Czar does.

  21. LIES... says:

    ….Some years ago I had a favorable out look on our government , then , certain life events lead me to investigate cannabis. Upon finding the lies they put forth about cannabis, I also stumble upon government lies in many other areas, Gulf of thonkin , federal reserve lie , and many others. Then 911 happened and the’questions’ surrounding hows and whys and whos of how it happened. The economy crashed and the banker lies and all the money stolen….

    So how this government or any of its agencies can expect me or any other American to trust them is beyond me.

    The fact is , depite the lap dog maimstream medias propaganda, Americans are waking up to the fact our government IS one big lie.

    Then here we are, the ONDCP openly stating they have to lie.

    Your lies are coming back around to haunt you. Your foundation is a lie and will crumble , then you house shall fall.

    The nail in your coffin will be trying to end freedom of speech , open rebellion will happen, for that act alone will prove that you(government)are tyrants and that will be your end.

    So save your selves, save America….STOP THE LIES !!

  22. One other thought... says:

    …they know the use of cannabis opens the mind, there by causing people to question ‘authority’. That alone is reason enough for them to try stopping people from consuming cannabis…

    They fear open minds.They need you to be close minded to all but thier rule.

  23. ezrydn says:

    Droopy and his ilk don’t care one rat’s ass about ANY children, only their paycheck!!

  24. Duncan20903 says:

    Maggots eat nothing but necrotic flesh, which when it gets infected may be the difference between saving a severe burn victim or not. If you’ve got severe burns on a significant surface area of your skin the doctors are hard pressed to remove every little bit of the necrotic tissue before infection sets in. Toss a couple of handfuls of maggots all over the burns and they think they’ve died and gone to heaven, or at least the local all you can eat buffet. In a couple of hours, voila! no more necrosis. Then the maggots get to learn that if something seems to good to be true, it probably is not.

    The only reason maggots and leeches are significant is when people talking about something being unqualified as medically useful because there’s nothing currently like it in the human medicine bag of tricks.

    I’m not aware of anyone with an advanced medical or scientific research degree that has proffered that smoked salmon is a medicine. I have no formal medical training so I will acknowledge my limitation and leave it to the medical professionals to decide. I mean, who’da thunk that moldy bread could increase our lifespan by as many years as it did. Shit, it likely increased my life span by 45 years and counting.

    There is a significant list of elite level researchers who have signed off on cannabis as medicine.

    We really need look no further than the action taken by the Iowa Board of Pharmacy when they took a petition to reschedule cannabis and recognize cannabis as medicine. They voted 6-0 (that’s called unanimous!) to move cannabis to schedule 2. Oh, let’s not forget that they refused to consider the petition when it was filed in 2008, had to be sued, court ordered to consider it, and had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table. Result: 6-0 says it’s a valid medicine (that’s called unanimous!)

    Oregon’s BoP also moved cannabis to schedule 2 earlier this year.

    Canada, Holland and Israel all recognize cannabis as medicine.

    Two States and 3 countries. In poker that’s called that a full house. The Know Nothing prohibitionists have nothing but a hand full of jokers.

  25. Duncan20903 says:

    Servetus, any special reason why you claim that CBD isn’t available to patent? Willow trees have been growing a long time but somebody got to patent aspirin.

    Regardless, the investment of nearly 9 figures by Bayer Shering into GW Pharmaceutical pretty much shows that theory to be untrue. There is a significant amout of interest by big pharma, Bayer isn’t the only pharma that has reserved a slice of the pie.

    Bayer has been involved since at least 2005.

    http://www.gwpharm.com/Sativex%20Launched%20in%20Canadian%20Market%20by%20Bayer%20HealthCare.aspx

    http://www.gwpharm.com/GW%20and%20Bayer%20Announce%20Marketing%20Agreement%20on%20Pioneering%20New%20Cannabis-based%20Treatment.aspx

    http://www.drugdevelopment-technology.com/projects/sativex/

    Buy some GWP stock. Get filthy rich. That’s my motto.

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  27. Duncan20903 says:

    I was rather surprised to notice that many media outlets are claiming that this is the first time ever that underage tobacco use rates are lower than “underage” cannabis use rates.

    How hard is it to find that 2009 was the first time ever?

    http://www.jointogether.org/news/features/2009/smoke-signals-marijuana-use.html

    Wowsers, this one’s going to come in handy when the Know Nothings assert that all heavy drug users “started” with cannabis. 59.1%, no fooling. It comes straight from the government commissioned war on (some) drugs propaganda factory no less.

    A majority of these past year illicit drug initiates reported that their first drug was marijuana (59.1 percent).

    http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k9NSDUH/2k9ResultsP.pdf

  28. claygooding says:

    Duncan,,,,shhhhhh,keep telling eople about where aspirin comes from and the ONDCP will be outlawing willow bark tea.

  29. darkcycle says:

    Duncan, one good piece of information is that HortaPharm, the Dutch Seed company that GW Pharma contracted with to develop their strains, developed a high CBN strain within just a couple of generations. (CBD is a breakdown product of THC and contributes little to the overall effects, CBN is where the ‘buzz’ is). Marijuana is a very hearty and fast growing weed which due to it’s dioecious (two sexed) nature is very easy to breed with. Also, it has been growing so many places that we still have huge genetic repositories of landrace stock with which to breed. Another reason big pharma and Monsanto just aren’t interested. All those tin foil hat “terminator gene” theories aside.

  30. Duncan20903 says:

    Well I’ve just had a pleasant surprise while looking at the “The NSDUH Report – State Estimates of Drunk and Drugged Driving” from SAMSHA. The fact that I had a pleasant surprise when looking at government statistics about “drugged” driving is a shocking surprise in itself.

    ———-Trends in Driving under the Influence of Illicit Drugs———-

    When combined 2002 to 2005 data are compared with combined 2006 to 2009 data, the Nation as a whole experienced a statistically significant reduction in the rate of past year drugged driving (from 4.8 to 4.3 percent), as did seven States: Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, and Pennsylvania (Table 2). No States had a statistically significant increase in the rate of drugged driving.

    http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k10/205/DruggedDriving.htm

    Well ain’t that a slap in the face of the “drugged driving” dangers the Know Nothings like to include in their standard issue hysterical rhetoric.

    Should I mention that 4 of the 7 states cited by SAMSHA as having statistically significant reductions in “drugged” driving From 2002 to 2009 are medical cannabis states? Do we also point out that Michigan wasn’t a medical cannabis state until 2008?

    This tidbit is also included:

    Reductions in past year rates of drugged driving were found both among persons aged 16 to 25 (12.9 to 11.4 percent) and among persons aged 26 or older (3.0 to 2.8 percent).

    Wow, I wonder why this report didn’t make the headlines. It was published way, way back in last week, 12/09/2010.

  31. Servetus says:

    @ Duncan 20903, something has to be novel before it can be patented, and naturally occurring medicines aren’t new.

    When Dr. Felix Hoffmann at F. Bayer & Co. (the original German Bayer company) invented aspirin, he did it by acetylating salicylic acid, the active ingredient in willow bark, to create n-acetyl salicylic acid, or aspirin as we know it. Hoffmann also did the same to the morphine molecule, to create diacetylmorphine, or heroin, as we know it. Both these variations of the original molecules were patentable because they were new chemical analogues back in 1897, and because no one knew about C. R. Alder Wright, who actually invented heroin in 1874. Willow bark was originally used by the ancient Assyrians, Sumerians and Egyptians. So was opium. Both are really old medicines.

    Somewhere in my literature is a photo of one of the original Bayer company pain relief advertisements from the early 1900s. In it Bayer promotes both aspirin and heroin in big block letters on the same flyer. Truly bizarre.

  32. DdC says:

    When the crime is so minor, having marijuana, and the punishment is so unreasonable, taking people’s homes and years of their lives, as well as a very real Twentieth century shunning, one is forced to look for deeper motives. I have come to believe that it is not the proscription of a substance but the systematic oppression of a certain kind of people. There have been a whole series of decisions made, on local, state and federal levels, to the effect that hippies, by which is meant any committed liberal persons, are undesireable and are to be banned, interdicted, harrassed, discouraged, arrested and pee-tested. It is a blatant use of police power to frighten and intimidate millions of people into giving up a heartfelt spiritual practice and lifestyle.

    There are probably 25 million marijuana smokers in the United States alone, as well as millions more who if not smokers now, are still sentimental about it. The oppression to which I refer is for the purpose of keeping these millions of people off balance to minimize their political power. All those 500,000 pot smokers doing time are out of the political process, present but not able to vote. The urine test is the loyalty oath of the Nineties. The hippies are this season’s Jews, this season’s Reds…

    Who are these people? We are the yeast that makes the dough rise. And it’s not just us, there’s been people like us for centuries. Before there were hippies, there were beatniks, before there beatniks, there were bohemians. The European counterculture ran away from Nazî Germany. They brought hundreds of thousands of artists and musicians and writers into this country. Before that there were people like George Bernard Shaw and Voltaire and all the way back to Socrates. There have always been that fraction of people who have said, “I want to see the truth.”
    ~ Stephen Gasken

    The Great Marijuana Hoax By Allen Ginsberg
    7:38 P.M. Nov. 13, 1965 San Francisco, California, USA, Kosmos

    How much to be revealed about marijuana especially in this time and nation for the general public! for the actual experience of the smoked herb has been completely clouded by a fog of dirty language by the diminishing crowd of fakers who have not had the experience and yet insist on being centers of propaganda about the experience. And the key, the paradoxical key to this bizarre impasse of awareness is precisely that the marijuana consciousness is one that, ever so gently, shifts the center of attention from habitual shallow purely verbal guidelines and repetitive secondhand ideological interpretations of experience to more direct, slower, absorbing, occasionally microscopically minute engagement with sensing phenomena during the high moments or hours after one has smoked.

    It is not marijuana destroying the minds of the young. But confusion continued for power and greed in all forms. Well, the borders of evil will fall to the smugglers of light. We’re the Free Mexican Air Force, Mescalito riding his white horse, Yeah the Free Mexican Air Force is flyin’ tonight!
    ~ Peter Rowan
    The Free Mexican Air Force

    “Our programme is cultural revolution thorugh a total assault on culture, which makes use of every tool, every energy and every media we can get our collective hands on… our culture, our art, our music, our books, our posters, our clothing, the way our hair grows long, the way we smoke dope and fuck and eat and sleep -it’s all one message-the message is freedom”
    ~ John Sinclair (1969)

    Like the Red Menace of the early 1950s, the current drug hysteria has led to a loyalty oath – this time, the urine test. Extrapolating from margin-of-error figures supplied by manufacturers of standard drug tests (5 percent) and instances of laboratory mishandling documented by the Centers for Disease Control (15 to 20 percent), one can easily agree with a Northwestern University report claiming a national error rate of up to 25 percent. That means roughly one of every four persons tested for controlled substances could wrongly be fired, not hired or denied promotion.
    Reefer Madness By Abbie Hoffman
    The Nation, November 21, 1987

  33. Duncan20903 says:

    So you’re saying that Sativex isn’t patentable? Perhaps the trick is to mix up 2 cannabinoids or make it synthetically to make it patentable?

    I’m really not sure how you could not call it novel. For crying out loud that endo-cannabinoid system in mammals including humans was only discovered in the early 1990s, and it wasn’t until this decade that there was even a working knowledge of the endo-cannabinoid system. Add that to the fact that the government is doing every thing in it’s power to stonewall the development of beneficial cannabinoid medicine and this part of human medicine is barely more than a newborn baby.

    >:———Canadian patent held by Bayer :———

    Brand Name: Sativex

    Generic Name: (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol & cannabidiol)

    DIN: 02266121 52 mg/mL (27 mg/mL & 25 mg/mL)

    Patentee: Bayer Inc.

    http://www.pmprb-cepmb.gc.ca/english/View.asp?x=804

    —————————————————————————————————————

    “We will indeed be taking out plant variety rights’ on a number of strains that we developed as part of our R&D program. These rights prevent other parties using our specific strains to produce plant extracts without our permission. GW has only sought patent protection for strains we created; there are plenty of other varieties for people to use, they just can’t use strains we developed,” Guy said. “If people get into trouble for growing cannabis plants, it will be from the police for breaking the law, not from us. If somebody stole our genetic material or our products, that would be breaking the law, but our patents and commercial interests in no way further the drug war.”

    http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/4310.html

    ——————————————————————————————————————

    Patent References

    Method and apparatus for processing herbaceous plant materials including the plant cannabis
    Patent #: 4279824
    Issued on: 07/21/1981
    Inventor: McKinney

    Method for the production of 6,12-dihydro-6-hydroxy-cannabidiol and the use thereof for the production of trans-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol
    Patent #: 5227537
    Issued on: 07/13/1993
    Inventor: Stoss, et al.

    Process for the isolation and purification of taxol and taxanes from Taxus using methanol or acetone

    http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7344736/fulltext.html

    ——————————————————————————————————————

    In 1981, the government agreed to sell the Marinol patent to Unimed, and Unimed applied to the FDA for permission to market the pill as a treatment for nausea. In November 1984, the FDA rejected Unimed’s application because clinical tests that had been done on the drug were deficient. But Unimed hustled up some more data, and by June 1985, the FDA delivered its approval. A year later, the DEA gave it a green light.

    In 1987, two years after Unimed bought the Marinol patent from the NCI, the little company was flush with profits from the pill: $1.5 million in one year alone. In 1990, Unimed executives said they were anticipating a potential windfall of $80 million a year from the poor saps with cancer, and up to $1 billion a year from victims of the HIV virus. Marinol sales have never reached expectations. In fact, the company’s annual revenues have never topped $3 million.

    http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/HT_Marinol_0794.html

    ——————————————————————————————————————-

    U.S. Patent # 6630507
    In 2003, the U.S. Government as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services filed for, and was awarded a patent on cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants. U.S. Patent 6630507

    Abstract
    Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting of H, CH.sub.3, and COCH.sub.3. ##STR1##

    http://www.safeaccessnow.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=2084

    ——————————————————————————————————————

    Cannabinoid Patent; Cannabis & Movement Disorders – Dr. Ramos
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdjBTkuzQBs

    —————————————————————————————————————

    Cannabinoid patch and method for cannabis transdermal delivery

    Patent 6113940 Issued on September 5, 2000. Estimated Expiration Date: Icon_subject March 3, 2018.

    http://www.patentstorm.us/contactus.html

    ——————————————————————————————————————-
    A search of the keyword ” cannabinods ” on Patent Storm yields 4917 returns.
    http://www.patentstorm.us/search.html?q=cannabinoid&s.x=0&s.y=0&s=s

    It seems to me that it’s pretty darn busy down at the patent office in regards to something that can’t be patented. Wow, do you have any idea how much it costs to get a patent? Well neither do I but I’ll betcha dollars to dirt that it ain’t cheap. It costs $1410 in fees to the patent office unless you skip the “patent pending” which makes it $1300. There are periodic “maintenance fees” over the course of the patent’s life of about $3750. Then there’s a few 10 thousands of dollars in legal fees if you want to get it taken care of by a specialist. Patent law is so arcane that a serious inventor would be a fool to skip the lawyers. Just the fees of $5000 alone puts the cost of 4917 patents at about $24.6 million. But I guess for company like Bayer 24.5 million is just a rounding error.

    I’ve got to admit the potheads infatuation with the thought that the 2003 patent that the US Government is proof of anything. The USPTO doesn’t require that something works before they will issue a patent. The one notable exception being that they’re not issuing any more patents on perpetual motion machines any more. Yes, there have been a number of US patents issued for perpetual motion machines.

    Search Google —> “perpetual motion” site:www.patentstorm.us <— and you get 99 returns.
    ——————————————————————————————————————

    Are you ready to say uncle yet?

  34. DdC says:

    US Government Patents Medical Pot
    July 3rd, 2008 By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director

    Con Flicts of Interest Bush Barthwell & Drugs

    Health regulators have sent an uncompromising message that smoked cannabis will not be approved for use by MS sufferers, leaving the way open for GW’s under-the-tongue spray version of the drug.

    Former Deputy Drug Czar Andrea Barthwell is the new spokesperson for getting GW Pharmaceuticals’ Sativex approved for use in the United States. Bayer and GW Pharmaceuticals announce marketing agreement on pioneering new cannabis-based treatment.

    Cover-Ups, Prevarications, Subversions & Sabotage

    Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants

    Patent References 2304669

    US Patent 6630507 –
    Application: filed on 2/02/2001
    US Patent Issued on October 7, 2003

    Assignee: The United States of America, as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services

    (3S-4S)-7-hydroxy-ÆŠ6 -tetrahydrocannabinols
    Patent #: 4876276
    Issued on: 10/24/1989
    Inventor: Mechoulam, et al.

    Method for the production of 6,12-dihydro-6-hydroxy-cannabidiol and the use thereof for the production of trans-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol
    Patent #: 5227537
    Issued on: 07/13/1993
    Inventor: Stoss, et al.

    NMDA-blocking pharmaceutical compositions
    Patent #: 5284867
    Issued on: 02/08/1994
    Inventor: Kloog, et al.

    Neuroprotective pharmaceutical compositions of 4-phenylpinene derivatives and certain novel 4-phenylpinene compounds
    Patent #: 5434295
    Issued on: 07/18/1995
    Inventor: Mechoulam, et al.

    Nitroxides as protectors against oxidative stress
    Patent #: 5462946
    Issued on: 10/31/1995
    Inventor: Mitchell, et al.

    Method of inhibiting oxidants using alkylaryl polyether alcohol polymers
    Patent #: 5512270
    Issued on: 04/30/1996
    Inventor: Ghio, et al.

    NMDA-blocking pharmaceuticals
    Patent #: 5521215
    Issued on: 05/28/1996
    Inventor: Mechoulam, et al.

    Certain tetrahydrocannabinol-7-oic acid derivatives
    Patent #: 5538993
    Issued on: 07/23/1996
    Inventor: Mechoulam, et al.

    (3S,4S)-delta-6-tetrahydrocannabinol-7-oic acids and derivatives thereof, processors for their preparation and pharmaceutical compositions containing them
    Patent #: 5635530
    Issued on: 06/03/1997
    Inventor: Mechoulam, et al.

    More …

  35. darkcycle says:

    Duncan, G.W. has patented their STRAINS (not an issue, as per my earlier post, MJ is very amenable to breeding programs), as well as two other critical pieces to the MJ puzzle. First, they patented their delivery method, sub-lingual/ oral mucosa spray, SECOND and more critical to their profits, they have found a way to preserve the extracta so that the THC does not continue to break down. That is, the relative ratios of THC/CBN/CBD are stable over long periods of time. If you’ve made tincture (particularly cold tincture by the AAMC recipe) you’ve probably noticed that the “head” effects are lost after just a few days once the stuff is decanted, leaving only (or mostly) only the ‘body’ high. G.W found a way around this. Their “tincture” maintains the THC levels.
    If I could figure out their system, I’d be infringing all over the place (for personal use, you understand).

  36. More lies, More deception... says:

    …with cancer, and up to $1 billion a year from victims of the HIV virus. Marinol sales have never reached expectations. In fact, the company’s annual revenues have never topped $3 million.

    Gee..I wonder why? Couldnt be that people found the natual whole plant works better now could it?

    Money money money. Its always about money. How about common sense and compassion. Oh ya, that dont make investors filty rich. Greedy selfish bastards, hope you choke on your money.

  37. Servetus says:

    Sorry Duncan20903, but it’s a matter of legal definition. There are patent categories related to chemical compositions and chemical processes, plant patents, novel drug delivery methods, etc., any of which might include CBD as an ingredient. Sativex would probably fall under the classification of a chemical composition patent. CBD by itself would only be patentable if no one knew about it within recent history, or if it were to be altered chemically while hopefully still producing the same or nearly the same desired biological effects. Obviousness is another barrier to patentability.

    Also, you can’t tell by the title of a patent what the new intellectual property actually is in an invention. The only way to determine that information precisely is to read the claims section of the patent, which occurs at the very end.

    BTW, there are plenty of people who successfully prosecute their own patent applications each year. I suggest googling a book company at nolo.com if you’re interested.

  38. Duncan20903 says:

    It’s still a far cry from “no patents whatever” available, and the claim that big pharma has no interest in cannabinoid medicine.

    But I’m still not getting how THC got patented, unless the USPTO made an exception since it was the United States that made the original patent application.

    I have no doubt that there are people who do their own paperwork for USPTO applications. That’s why the only firm dollar figure I gave for the almost 5000 filings with the USPTO for anything to do with cannabinoids were filing and maintenance fees payable directly to the USPTO. Though I do find it farfetched that Bayer Shering doesn’t hire lawyers. Also, those costs are only for US patents, not a single penny figured for patents in foreign, faraway countries like Canada.

    Anyway, at this point I think it might be more productive if we stopped this argument and took up sides on the argument of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

    Time will tell if I’m right or wrong, but I have put my money where my mouth is. I fully believe that cannabinoid medicine is going to be the next substantial breakthrough in human medicine. I won’t be surprised if the first trillion with a T medicine comes out of the cannabis plant. That belief is diametrically opposed to the thought that big pharma can’t make a buck from cannabis.

    Also, I don’t understand the arcana of “orphan drugs” and it seems cannabis might be included in that category. But again, that’s a United States-centric thing and there’s a bunch of other countries in the world. There are already 28 countries that allow at least limited medical use of Sativex so this particular medicine is not going to come from the US. That’s thanks to the utter stupidity of the US Government. So much for We’re number 1!, we’re not even going to be #29.

  39. Servetus says:

    Duncan20903, you’re right of course that Pharma does have an interest in CBD. I’d forgotten about Sativex®.

    Checking on the patent for Marinol® held by Solvay Pharmaceuticals in Atlanta, et al., it turns out to be a composition patent covering a process rather than a natural chemical, which is interesting; hence the consistent use of the term ‘method ’ in the patent claims. Someone with a different but novel method for administering THC could bypass the Solvay method patent.

    It’s possible a pharmaceutical company might want to file a similar process patent for CBD, and thereby charge umpteen wads of cash for each pill. But like Marinol, they’re going to have some serious competition from the natural cannabis product.

    Also, if the patent lawyers do all the work, filing for a patent costs anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000+, not including maintenance fees, etc. International patents cost about $80,000. Design patents are less. Many patent attorneys will refer their clients to the Nolo Books’ publications on patents to get the client to go as far as they can using a Nolo book as a guide, as it helps clarify the invention both for the inventor and patent lawyers, and any work done by the client is work that cannot be charged to the client by a patent attorney.

    Re Marinol patent claims:

    http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=zpeYAAAAEBAJ&dq=solvay+marinol

  40. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    .
    @More lies, More deception…, I think you’re using older data, and with your screen name probably should be extra careful not to post things that aren’t 100% true. I specifically recall reading that Marinol revenues had topped $20 million. That’s still a fucking sad joke as there are dispensaries in California that do that volume in a month.
    ………………………………………………..
    That $3 million Marinol sales metric is from 1994. IIRC Marinol was still on schedule 2 in 1994. Lots of doctors avoid writing Rx’s for schedule 2 drugs like the plague.

    http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/HT_Marinol_0794.html
    ………………………………………………..
    http://biotuesday.ca/2009/10/27/cannasat-lighting-up-tch-drug/ says that Marinol revenues are $150 million a year. Color me skeptical, it smells like a stock market fraud from a glance.
    ………………………………………………..
    http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2008/06/par_pharmaceuticals_to_sell_ge.html Well this one says annual sales of $190 million as of 2008, doesn’t smell like a scam. That’s US only revenues.
    ………………………………………………..
    Wow, they’ve come up with a “cure” for merrywanna a dick shun.
    http://www.bioportfolio.com/news/article/122704/Cannabis-Withdrawal-Symptoms-In-Non-treatment-seeking-Adult-Cannabis-Smokers.html
    ………………………………………………..
    Marinol as an aid to quit smoking cigarettes. Caution, the linked screed is filled with Know Nothing prohibitionistic style hysterical rhetoric. Presented here for nothing more than shits and giggles.

    http://www.articlesbase.com/quit-smoking-articles/dont-despair-if-youve-failed-numerous-attempts-to-quit-smoking-cigarettes-3136616.html
    ………………………………………………..
    OK, here it is, For the 12-months ending December 2007, Solvay reported MARINOL(R) sales of 105 million.

    http://ir.watson.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=65778&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1170280

    Well they certainly snuck that past me. But Marinol sales have definitely broken $3 million. But this doesn’t support the claim of $190 million in US only revenues in 2008, because that press release is Watson Pharma licensing Marinol to produce the generic. Marinol is now ‘off patent’.
    ………………………………………………..
    Abbot Pharma bought Solvay.

    http://www.abbott.com/global/url/pressRelease/en_US/60.5:5/Press_Release_0819.htm

    People please, please quit with the big pharma has no interest in cannabinoids. That may have been true 10 years ago but those days are long gone. I can’t relate how annoying I found it that for years after the price of gold had come out of its trough pot heads would still claim cannabis was priced more dearly than gold. Yeah, it was true when the Bank of London was pushing all of its gold out the door but once they ran out, it ceased being true. Abbot buying Solvay, Bayer in bed with GW Pharma, the big money is quietly moving to take the profits that cannabinoids are most certain to generate. Y’all can cry over ‘big business’ corrupting or ‘spoiling’ or whatever is the wail or the teeth gnashing du jour among the people who don’t understand economic theory if you’d rather cry about it. The market doesn’t give a shit how you, me or anyone feels. Like it or love it, the invisible hand does its thing without caring spit about us. I’d rather jump on the bandwagon and make some $$$. Don’t say I didn’t tell you about this 10 years from now. GWPRF.pk closed at 1.72 today. It’s been flat for over 5 years. GW Pharma is reporting profits. Oh yeah. Don’t be bothered by the stock being priced in pence, the main market for GWP is the London Stock Exchange.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6AL1AH20101123?feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssHealthcareNews&rpc=43

    Otsuka Pharmaceutical, I never heard of them. More stuff to look up.

  41. darkcycle says:

    On top of all that, guys, Marinol ISN’T TCH, it’s Dronabinol, a precursor, naturally produced in the liver by the metabolism of THC, and one step along the chemical chain to the active blood variant, when ingested orally. Dronabinol cuts out one metabolic link in the chain to the blood stream in oral administration. That’s so it comes on a little faster than, say, eating a hash brownie.

  42. darkcycle says:

    Pharma will likely follow the US Government’s lead and try patenting Cannabinoids for specific purposes. As well as novel delivery, preservation, packaging, etc. It is worthy of note that (I believe) a judge overturned those patents….
    It is easy to see an interest, but the last thing Pharma wants is to have to compete with the whole, crude plant, which, time and time again has proved to be the patient’s choice.

  43. allan420 says:

    Gil must have forgot that that the Congressional Research Service already prepared the info for him:

    Medical Marijuana: Review and Analysis of Federal and State Policies.

    The report stated,

    “A statistical analysis of marijuana use by emergency room patients and arrestees in four states with medical marijuana programs—California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington—found no statistically significant increase in recreational marijuana use … after medical marijuana was approved.”

    The CRS report referred to

    “Another study [that] looked at adolescent marijuana use and found decreases in youth usage in every state with a medical marijuana law. Declines in usage exceeding 50% were found in some age groups,”

    The CRS report added,

    “California, the state with the largest and longest-running medical marijuana program, ranked 34th in the percentage of persons age 12-17 reporting marijuana use in the past month.”

    Finally, the CRS report concluded that,

    “No clear patterns [concerning teen use] are apparent … “ state-to-state and that “more important factors are at work in determining a state’s prevalence of recreational marijuana use than whether the state has a medical marijuana program.”

    C’mon Gil, I’m a poor, blue collar, senior, working man with an old computer, outdated browsers and just a few years of college, but I found this in no time. Seems you need both a dictionary and some tutoring on using Google. Lying asshat.

  44. undrgrndgirl says:

    @servatus…i’m certain that cbd can be patented or already has: U.S. Government Patent #6630507 Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants…

    cbd is a cannabinoid and in this case probably an antioxidant…

  45. That was an amazing post you put up. ^^bI hope you keep on updating this page!!

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