Medical Marijuana: No Longer Just for Adults
marcman
Medical Marijuana: No Longer Just for Adults
By KATHERINE ELLISON
Published: November 21, 2009
At the Peace in Medicine Healing Center in Sebastopol, the wares on
display include dried marijuana — featuring brands like Kryptonite,
Voodoo Daddy and Train Wreck — and medicinal cookies arrayed below a
sign saying, “Keep Out of Reach of Your Mother.”
The warning tells a story of its own: some of the center’s clients are
too young to buy themselves a beer.
Several Bay Area doctors who recommend medical marijuana for their
patients said in recent interviews that their client base had expanded
to include teenagers with psychiatric conditions including attention-
deficit hyperactivity disorder.
[...]
As advocates of increased acceptance try to win support, they may find
their serious arguments compromised by the dispensaries’ playful
atmosphere.
OrganiCann, a dispensary in Santa Rosa, has a Web site advertisement
listing the “medible of the week” — butterscotch rock candy —
invitingly photographed in a gift box with a ribbon. OrganiCann also
offers a 10 percent discount, every Friday, for customers with a valid
student ID.
octoad
"marcman" <marcman...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:70340d69-9f78-4042...@m38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/health/22sfmedical.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
[...]
****************************************************
That's my county!
But to be fair, factual, and at the risk of ruining the sensationalistic
approach taken by the article, OrganiCann lists this as one if its rules:
"No person under the age of 18 years old is allowed on the premises of
OrganicCann at any time, for any reason. You will be asked to leave and you
will not be served if you bring someone under the age of 18 years old to the
collective."
In other words, your student ID will get you a discount on Fri if you're an
adult student (of which there are tens of thousands at SRJC and several
thousand more at Sonoma State), no minors get discounts and they aren't even
allowed in the building.
This place also offers 10% discounts for veterans and seniors 3 days a week,
compared to the Fri only discount for adult students. I'm not sure that's
all that "playful".
And that candy that's supposedly enticing kids is packaged like its from
Tiffany and Co, not like Pop Rocks. See the site for yourself:
I guess the casual nature with which weed is viewed in NorCal just has to be
played up by the media elsewhere, because we're different than a lot of
other places. Typical response.
O
marcman
> "marcman" <marcmanstud...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:70340d69-9f78-4042...@m38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/health/22sfmedical.html?partner=rss...
Thanks for the "on-site" clarification, it was a little worrisome to
me. The future of MMJ in other states as well as the campaign to
legalize across the board could be adversely effected by dispensaries
that cross certain lines.
I'm still a little concerned about MDs recommending MMJ to minors
though, for the same reasons.
marcman
> marcman wrote:
>
> >Thanks for the "on-site" clarification, it was a little worrisome to
> >me. The future of MMJ in other states as well as the campaign to
> >legalize across the board could be adversely effected by dispensaries
> >that cross certain lines.
>
> someone a bit older.
>
These kids don't have cancer, they have ADHD. The MDs are considering
MMJ instead of Ritalin and the like. Here's the part that bothered me
the most - from the article:
===
Marijuana is “a godsend” for some people with A.D.H.D., said Dr.
Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist who has written several books on
the disorder. However, Dr. Hallowell said he discourages his patients
from using it, both because it is — mostly — illegal, and because his
observations show that “it can lead to a syndrome in which all the
person wants to do all day is get stoned, and they do nothing else.”
===
Is it me, or is that a heaping helping of double talk? How could it
be a "godsend" if at the same time "it can lead to a syndrome in which
all the person wants to do all day is get stoned, and they do nothing
else.”
The whole purpose of treating ADHD is to help the child (or adult, but
in this case child) focus and concentrate. How could wanting to get
stoned and do nothing all day be an acceptable side effect?
> >I'm still a little concerned about MDs recommending MMJ to minors
> >though, for the same reasons.
>
> I have absolutely no problem with that. It's safer than aspirin.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n31Nuj_AvTg
>
If its safer than aspirin, then let's not be giving aspirin to the
kids. As far as MMJ, in cases of fatal or likely fatal disease, like
cancer or AIDS, I would defer to the doctor. But ADHD? I dunno man, I
may not be a doctor, hell, I don't even play one on TV, just hard for
me to imagine that MMJ is the answer to ADHD.
Joker
I think it's more adversely affected by folks who believe any negative
crap that's printed. Newspapers love sensationalism--Medical Cannibis
Collective Tries To Hook Teens!--because there is never any shortage
of knuckleheads who will get excited over nothing. And crap is easier
to write than intelligent, thoughtful, honest reporting.
marcman
> but your heart might stop, your balls will melt, your liver will
> congeal, your lung will fill with tar and if your boner lasts for more
> than 4 hours see a doctor...
>
> >> >I'm still a little concerned about MDs recommending MMJ to minors
> >> >though, for the same reasons.
>
> >> I have absolutely no problem with that. It's safer than aspirin.
> >>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n31Nuj_AvTg
>
> >If its safer than aspirin, then let's not be giving aspirin to the
> >kids. As far as MMJ, in cases of fatal or likely fatal disease, like
> >cancer or AIDS, I would defer to the doctor. But ADHD? I dunno man, I
> >may not be a doctor, hell, I don't even play one on TV, just hard for
> >me to imagine that MMJ is the answer to ADHD.
>
> side of marijuana and adhd.
>
> >>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=DetailsSearch&...
>
Thanks for the link, looking forward to looking into it.
> --
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosepetal236/- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
marcman
MDs are definitely writing rec letters for minors albeit with the
minor's parent's permission. Perhaps the dispensary named isn't
selling it to them, but somebody is.
> Newspapers love sensationalism--Medical Cannibis
> Collective Tries To Hook Teens!
I think I misread it. First they (the NYT) talk about selling MMJ
(legally) to minors, then they start talking about this named
dispensary selling it to students. As O pointed out, they said
students, they meant 18+ students, but the way they wrote it (or the
way I read it or both) led me to believe under 18 students. Either
way, my main concern was MDs writing recs for minors. First, I'm not
sure what *my* position is on that yet, although I'm presently leaning
against it as I explained in my previous post, and second, regardless
of what position I may wind up taking after becomming more educated on
the subject, its hard for me to imagine that bringing minors into the
equation is going to help persuade the people that need to be
persuaded in order that "we" can win this fight and get MMJ in all 50
and eventually legalized across the board.
> --because there is never any shortage
> of knuckleheads who will get excited over nothing. And crap is easier
> to write than intelligent, thoughtful, honest reporting.
Did you just call me a knucklehead???
I didn't think so. ;)
octoad
> Thanks for the "on-site" clarification, it was a little worrisome to
> me. The future of MMJ in other states as well as the campaign to
> legalize across the board could be adversely effected by dispensaries
> that cross certain lines.
> I'm still a little concerned about MDs recommending MMJ to minors
> though, for the same reasons.
I can't imagine that most kids with ADD or ADHD would be better off stoned
on pot than not. Then again, I can't imagine that many are better off on
Ritalin or any of the other numerous drugs doctors dope them up with.
Not to mention that I don't believe that many kids with that diagnosis have
anything wrong with them to begin with, besides being bored with a crappy
school or annoyed with a miserable homelife. I think the diagnoses are way
overused.
Pot can't possibly be the answer.
But the article talks about what could be a worrisome trend regarding what
I'm sure is a handful of docs prescribing pot for kids with ADD and ADHD,
then tosses in some gratuitous insinuations that a local pot store is part
of some sort of general trend of dispensing weed to minors. Hey, if a kid
is puking all over the place because of chemo or something, sure, give it a
try. Maybe a kid or two with ADD or ADHD might get some small temporary
benefit. But this pot store isn't selling weed to any minor, let alone even
letting them into the building.
I'll tell ya who would benefit: Alzheimers patients. We have several at
the home where I work who were recently put on Marinol, the pill form of
THC. They've gone from barely eating a damn thing and wasting away to
eating almost normally and putting a few pounds on their skeletal frames.
Their moods have gone from zombie like, or aggressive, or even regularly
violent, to cheerful, smiling, singing and dancing happy.
Obviously the actual smoking of weed would be far too dangerous for most of
the folks I'm talking about as they'd burn themselves and probably burn our
facility down, but I wonder if the smoking of pot would benefit those in
earlier stages who are still capable of smoking something without it ending
in a 911 call.
And hey, at OrganiCann, seniors get a 10% discount 3 days a week!
O
Lfh
<snipped all the shit that I couldn't keep my attention on>
> Is it me, or is that a heaping helping of double talk? How could it
> be a "godsend" if at the same time "it can lead to a syndrome in which
> all the person wants to do all day is get stoned, and they do nothing
> else.”
>
> The whole purpose of treating ADHD is to help the child (or adult, but
> in this case child) focus and concentrate. How could wanting to get
> stoned and do nothing all day be an acceptable side effect?
Because the kid is now focusing and concentrating on getting high and
doing nothing all day. Small steps are still steps.
> But ADHD? I dunno man, I
> may not be a doctor, hell, I don't even play one on TV,
Look, I play one often on this TV-looking thing I stare at all
day . . . hmm, maybe Joe is right. Why am I staring at this thing all
day when i could be out saving the world by seeing countless DNB and
other shows and smoking a lot of dope. And speaking of dope, I wonder
what's on TV while I wait for these brownies to cool down so I can get
the fucking kids to focus on *something* besides, well, whatever they
were not focusing on before, and, uh, what were we talking about
again. After tasting and tasting and tasting to make sure the brownies
came out just exactly perfect, suddenly I don't feel like doing
anything but watching TV and, oh, yeah, I'm a play one on this TV
looking thing doctor and, well, I don't remember why you brought that
up.
Fre(u)d
sparksfly
> "marcman" <marcmanstud...@gmail.com> wrote in message
They don't necessarily need to smoke it, they could eat it or drink
it.
Mike