Drug WarRant

The Los Angeles Times lauds the American Medical Association’s reversal, but fails to understand basic facts.

For all the debate over whether marijuana has medicinal value, arguments that the drug has significant palliative properties or that it has none suffer from the same flaw: There’s little scientific proof either way.

This lack of conclusive evidence isn’t accidental. In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act, classifying marijuana — which had been illegal since 1937 — as a Schedule I drug, which meant that it had a high potential for abuse and no medicinal value. In keeping with this position, the government has allowed only the University of Mississippi to cultivate research-grade marijuana, and has so restricted access to its small supply that determining the drug’s efficacy is for all intents and purposes impossible. […]

The states that have legalized the drug’s use for medicinal purposes have done so on the basis of a small body of research and a large amount of anecdotal evidence, but more facts are needed.

Wrong.

Yes, it’s good that the AMA is encouraging more research. More research is always good. I’m in favor of more research. And yes, there has been a squelching of research because of the Schedule 1 status of marijuana. That needs to stop.

But that doesn’t mean that there is insufficient evidence to determine whether marijuana is medicine, nor that it is merely “anecdotal.”

This is because the vast majority of use of medical marijuana is for symptom relief, not for cures. Proof of symptom relief is simple.

• You have a symptom (pain, nausea, etc).
• You do something for the symptom
• The symptom goes away – the something worked… or
• The symptom doesn’t go away – the something didn’t work. Try something else.

You don’t need double blind test groups. You need one individual and his or her doctor (See the Institute of Medicine’s 1999 Report calling for N of 1 trials.) The doctor asks, “Did the pain go away after taking it?” “Yes.” “Then it worked.” Period.

It doesn’t matter if it was a placebo, a Hostess Twinkie, or prayer. If it relieves the symptoms, it works. The only issue is whether the side effects of the treatment are worse than the symptom or the side effects of other effective treatments. And we know that marijuana’s side effects are ridiculously better than just about anything else.

Now it’s an entirely different story if you’re looking for a cure. Let’s say I believe marijuana cures cancer. It’s not enough to believe it, because someone could end up taking marijuana instead of following other proven treatments that might save their life. Therefore proof (of the kind they’re always talking about) is necessary (and I hope they do the research to determine if this is true.)

There are tons of evidence to support the vast majority of medical marijuana usages to date. And there’s no reason to deny people their relief until some medically unnecessary standard is reached.

If a patient said that they didn’t want pain pills, but would rather relieve the pain through prayer, we might be skeptical, but we wouldn’t deny them the opportunity to find out. If they said that prayer would cure their cancer and they shouldn’t take any other treatments, we’d be horrified and try to convince them to take medical advice.

But we wouldn’t criminalize prayer.

“It’s time to use science and common sense to direct our efforts — not ideology, not positions of the past, but a fresh look at what the data tells us. We also need the willingness to rethink old positions and particularly to change direction when the science says it’s time to change direction”

That’s from a recent keynote address on drug policy. Who said it?

Update: Billy Bob gets a point for being the first to guess that it was by “Deputy Director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, A. Thomas McLellan. Gil Kerlikowske’s #2 guy.” It was delivered to the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD 46) of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday in Miami, Florida.

Of course, McLellan works for Kerlikowske, for whom changes of direction are not even in his vocabulary, so it’s not likely that the ONDCP or the administration are going to actually, in any significant way, follow those words.

But hearing them said can embolden others, and open up the minds of individuals who otherwise have been closed by government propaganda. And that’s where the real battles are that we’ll win — with the people, not the bureaucracy.

Consider this an open thread

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Many of you have read my piece on Irv Rosenfeld. He’s quite an amazing individual.

The Mail has a piece on him now: American stockbroker sets record for cannabis consumption with 115,000th joint (and it’s all legal)

An American stockbroker has one of the world’s most prolific cannabis smokers – thanks to a constant supply of the drug to treat a rare bone disease.

Fort Lauderdale stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld will tomorrow smoke his 115,000th joint – and it’s all legal.

The 56-year-old has been provided with cannabis by the government since 1982, when he became a patient in the Federal Drug Administration’s Investigational New Drug Programme. […]

He has been receiving 300 joints of the drug every 25 days for the past 27 years, NBC Miami reported. […]

‘If you truly think marijuana’s as bad as you think it is, explain me.’

115,000 joints and not only is his condition taken care of, but he has no other ill-effects. (Note: if he was able to get some good pot, instead of the low-grade stuff from the feds, he probably could have managed with a whole lot fewer.)

This one is by James Swift in the Kennesaw Sate University Sentinel: Actually, DON’T legalize it, and it’s a lot of fun.

I’m going to take a controversial stance and assert that marijuana shouldn’t be legalized. As a college student, that puts me in a very detested minority and sets me up for perhaps four years of campus castigation. […]

Alas, I vaunt my innate principles over such vanities, regardless. Sure, I may miss out on a few dates and get my tires slashed by a guy in a Phish tee-shirt, but that’s the price of so-called “free” speech, I suppose.

Ah yes, the martyr. Like so many of the great ones over the centuries, willing to suffer in order to maintain his principles. So noble. So admirable. Unless, of course, you’re completely (and easily provably) wrong. Then, it’s sad and pathetic.

A little note to James: if you’ve decided you’re willing to be a martyr, I suggest really doing some research to make sure you know what you’re talking about.

OK, so what are the principles that he defends?

To the “Really Green” Party out there, I proclaim the following: in your rhetoric, you claim that the illegalization of marijuana is due to corporate finagling and government paranoia. Essentially, pot is outlawed because the suits can’t regulate it, anybody can grow it and that billions of dollars that would’ve been taxed end up squandered as a result.

As much as I hate to say this, the government isn’t always preoccupied with devouring your wallet. If I may use some second grade logic; dead people can’t possess money. Therefore, it benefits the government to instigate measures to prolong the existence of its citizens to insure that fiscal funds are later usurped. Hey, it’s a necessary evil, that taking care of citizens’ well-being, you know.

The authentic rationale for marijuana’s illegalization is that it kills people, plain and simple. Sure, one joint isn’t going to give you a brain tumor, but a good forty years of exposure? Yeah, there’s going to be some negative implications on the smoker’s health. A granule of asbestos won’t give you lymphoma, but a lifelong courtship with the product very much will. Thusly, if a known carcinogen is introduced to the general populace, it is the government’s job to help curb the miasmic Diaspora.

Hey, some cute writing there (I love miasmic Diaspora), but “dead people can’t possess money” is your argument? “it kills people, plain and simple.” Really? Can you name one?

I can name people who were killed by drinking water, yet I cannot name a single one killed by marijuana (not to say that there haven’t been any in some way over the long term, but if it was really a significant issue, there would be evidence.) And, of course, as we all know, the best evidence shows that it contains the ability to destroy cancer. There is at least as much evidence that use of marijuana will prolong your life as there is that it will shorten your life.

Oh, and by the way, James. Just how well has the government been doing using prohibition as the tool to curb the Diaspora?

But wait, he’s got more!

Marijuana inhibits one’s cognitive capabilities, which ensures deterioration of one’s physical capabilities, which in turn, provides a risk to public safety. How efficient is a half-baked construction worker, huh? You want to undergo a filling while under the care of Cheech Marin, D.D.S.? For those of you who really believe that the drug is “harmless,” maybe you should try talking to the neglected child of a marijuana-user. Yeah, it’s a victimless crime, all right.

And then go talk to the neglected child of a soap opera watcher. Or the neglected child of a church bingo player. What does that have to do with legalization? And getting a filling from Cheech Marin, D.D.S.? Sure, I’d be happy to, if he was really trained as a dentist, but he’s an actor. If he was a dentist, he’d know not to be stoned, or drunk, or tired, or getting a blow job while drilling. There are things you do in your free time that you don’t while working. And again, legalization has no relevance here.

Ah, but James also has philosophy.

Those factors considered, my prime reasoning for maintaining the ban on marijuana stems not from a health or sociological standpoint, but a philosophical one. Marijuana is an agent that distances the user from the world, from the totality of reality as it exists. For a soul to desire such absconding, there is clearly a pre-existing disenchantment, a sense of insecurity and ineffectiveness. These are real problems, with real consequences, that marijuana simply masks and keeps the individual from exploring and resolving.

Ah, I see. Well, we’d better ban all those escapist movies, then. Science fiction — not allowed. Theatre — gone. iPods —(talk about distancing from the real world!) — illegal, along with all music. Any kind of play-acting (OMG, the children!) Yeah, a person must be sick to want to escape from the real world for even a short time. Best to make all that illegal.

The good news? Based on what I’ve seen in the comments at his article so far, James will be getting his wish to play the martyr.

Via Reason

Jeralyn at TalkLeft received this from the Department of Justice:

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Institute of Justice and Bureau of Justice Assistance are hosting a symposium November 18-20, 2009, to explore the potential for implementing predictive policing strategies to help make communities safer. Predictive policing integrates data analysis with law enforcement strategies and tactics. To find out how best to apply predictive policing approaches, the DOJ is supporting a number of police departments nationwide in demonstrations, or field experiments, designed to test the effectiveness of various predictive policing strategies and techniques.

Without greater drug policy reform, I somehow doubt that “predictive policing” is going to lead us to improved policing. It seems much more likely to lead to an additional excuse for suspicion-less searches of black youths in urban areas, with any “minority reports” conveniently suppressed.

Since the day his officers gunned down two pet Labrador dogs and handcuffed two innocent people for hours in a drug raid in 2008 at the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Prince George’s County Sheriff Michael Jackson has clung to what seems like a preposterous notion that his men did nothing wrong.

Of course, that insistence is accompanied by constant stonewalling — blocking Mayor Cheye Calvo’s every attempt to get even basic information from the county.

And this is just one of many instances. So what kind of fallout is the Sheriff facing?

Jackson confirmed to political associates last week that he’s running for county executive.

Don’t be surprised, though, if Jackson suffers only modest political damage from the dog-shooting incident. In a crowded Democratic primary in September, he’ll be targeting voters who welcome a tough law-and-order candidate.

Note that discovery on the Calvo case could be blocked by Jackson until after the election. Convenient.

Kudos to the folks who raised a ruckus this week about the fact that the DEA had not yet removed the reference to American Medical Association’s support for marijuana being in Schedule 1. With the AMA’s turnaround last week, it was unlikely that the DEA would actually, uh, mention the AMA’s call for a schedule change, but it certainly made sense to get the old info cleared off.

It’s gone now. Which, if you read the changed page, is kind of like removing one maggot from a large sack of feces.

So CNN paid 8 million dollars to make Lou Dobbs go away. Could be money well spent. However, if they wanted me to stay away from CNN, I’d do it for half that. Maybe less.

I’m all for gender equality, but… not this way.

As drug violence seeps deeper into Mexican society, women are taking a more hands-on role.

In growing numbers, they are being recruited into the ranks of drug smugglers, dealers and foot soldiers. And in growing numbers, they are being jailed and killed for their efforts.

This is from a while ago — it got lost on my desktop. Secretary Napolitano Applauds President Obama’s Intent to Nominate Grayling Williams as Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement.

The Office of what? Huh? How is it that I’ve been writing about drug policy for over 6 years and I missed an entire federal drug war bureaucracy? And it’s been around since 2004! Apparently they somehow coordinate “stopping the entry of illegal drugs into the U.S.”

So, how’s that going?

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed this article about medical marijuana and the workplace. It included this passage:

Clouding the issue even more is a decision earlier this month by the U.S. Justice Department not to pursue criminal charges against medical marijuana producers and users in states where it’s legal.

“That’s a very significant retreat from federal policy,” said Mark de Bernardo, executive director of the Institute for a Drug Free Workplace. “Marijuana is a dangerous drug that detrimentally affects the workplace. It has impacts on health care costs, productivity, accidents and employee turnover.”

I wrote a letter to Mr. de Bernardo, asking him for any data he had to support his claims, but he hasn’t responded. Surprise, surprise.

I’d still love to hear from you, Mark.

Breaking at The Agitator

This is great news. Look forward to hearing more details.

Item #1: Boomers see views relaxing on marijuana

“There’s gotten to be greater tolerance, that’s for sure,” said Lee, the son of one-time acting Maryland governor Blair Lee III. “I know literally hundreds of people my age who smoke. They are upright citizens, good parents who are holding down jobs. You take two or three puffs, and you’re good to go. I’m not a Rastafarian; I don’t treat this as some holy sacrament. But pot is fun.”

Item #2: US opens its first marijuana cafe

The Cannabis Cafe in Portland, Oregon, is the first to give certified medical marijuana users a place to obtain the drug and smoke it, as long as they are out of public view, despite a federal ban.

The cafe was formerly a speakeasy and adult erotic club, Rumpspankers. Technically it is private, but is open to any Oregon members of Norml – a group pushing for marijuana legalisation – who hold a medical marijuana card. It has no drinks licence.

Well.

Clearly, such a casual approach to such a dangerous drug means we should expect some serious ramifications.

What do you think will happen first? The fall of civilization, the forced marching of all our children off the edge of a cliff, or a plague of locusts?