Joel Edge wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:25:55 -0500, Gary Day wrote
> (in article
> <
a8fd1d0a-9470-4883...@qt10g2000pbb.googlegroups.com>):
>
>> "I dont need the govt telling what I can purchase"?
>>
>> In Georgia, prescribed medical use of marijuana by sick people is
>> illegal even if a US physician gives a prescription. In my state it
>> is legal. Why do you southerners feel that you DO need the govt
>> telling you what you can and cannot purchase. I guess freedom is just
>> not your thing.
>>
>
"One of the primary uses of medical marijuana is for pain control. However,
over-the-counter medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen and
prescription medications such as codeine can serve as safe, effective
alternatives to medical marijuana."
right here is the problem joel... none of those 'alternatives are by
definition safer". there is something called the LD-50:
Francis L. Young, Administrative Law Judge for the US Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) wrote in his Sep. 6, 1988 decision in a case
attempting to reschedule marijuana so that it can be prescribed by
physicians:
"Drugs used in medicine are routinely given what is called an LD-50. The
LD-50 rating indicates at what dosage 50% of test animals receiving a drug
will die as a result of drug induced toxicity...
At present it is estimated that marijuana's LD-50 is around 1:20,000 or
1:40,000. In layman terms this means in order to induce death, a smoker
would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is
contained in one marijuana cigarette.
NIDA-supplied [National Institute of Drug Abuse] marijuana cigarettes
weigh approximately 0.9 grams. A smoker would have to consume nearly 1,500
pounds of marijuana within about 15 minutes to induce a lethal response.
In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as a
result of drug-related toxicity."
- Acetaminophen (paracetamol) is one the leading causes of acute liver
failure, chronic doses of acetaminophen over 4 grams increase the risk for
liver failure and damage.
what are the LD-50 ratings for some common things?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_lethal_dose#Examples
note that this chart indicates that aspirin might be safer, yet the physical
impossibility of ingesting enough pure THC to overdose is not mentioned and
also the fact that nobody in history has ever overdosed on it. ever.
>
> Of course the alternatives don't get you high,
have you ever even tried cannabis? here's what it feels like: ever get a
lot of sun ie: mild sunburn and feel kind of funny at the end of the day?
that's what being "high" on cannabis is like. it's not really the wacky
experience you've probably figured it is. it helps people with stress and
with chronic pain without rendering them a babbling opiate-addicted junkie.
> but you avoid those nasty
> smoking based problems.
which "smoking based problems" would those be? could you point to a study
of cannabis smoking that shows any significant difference between cannabis
smokers and cannabis eaters?
> I'm sure you would want to avoid those.
i'm pretty sure that when people discover that cannabis alleviates their
symptoms and can be grown out of the ground for practically free, they can
put up with the mild euphoria that is clearly less debilitating and a
substance that is pharmacalogically safer than any over the counter or
prescription drugs known to man that corporations would LOVE to sell to
them and hope they get addicted to.
in the end, what you have to remember, joel... is that you are not a doctor
and neither is your government and you have no right to let your personal
opinion about cannabis cause anybody else to suffer. you don't like
cannabis? don't use it. problem solved.
think about that the next time you whine about helmet laws. i seriously
doubt that wearing a helmet causes you to experience debilitating pain.