It never ceases to amaze me how..

[Locut0s]

governments continually deny people suffering in pain, often dying, the right to smoke a few grams of pot a day because of the "social" implications of it.

I find the whole argument about medical marijuana laughable. We are talking about allowing people who are dying and suffering in horrible pain the right to smoke pot. Whether pot has medicinal qualities or not should be beside the point. Let them have herrorin, cocaine, or LSD if it helps. We are talking about relieving the pain of the suffering and dying after all. Instead we are stuck arguing if a few grams of marijuana really does or does not have medical value.

[louis-t]

1. That's why 'compassionate conservatism'

is a myth. Funny, I had just read another thread about this and was thinking exactly the same thing.

[Internut]

2. Note that in this case it was the

"liberal" wing of the Supreme Court that denied the sufferers. The dissenters (Scalia, Thomas and Rehnquist) were the most Conservative members of the court.

[melissinha]

4. I was confused about that

I know...Dissenters were Rehnquist, O'Connor and Thomas...

From what I understand, it came down to a states rights issue. Is that right?

IMHO BushCo wants it cause it doesn't threaten prescription drug companies....I heard on Springer that Marinola ???is that it.. the drug that is derived from Marijuana costs $600 for a 1 month supply.

[Internut]

6. My mistake - yes it was O'Connor, not Scalia

what it comes down to is twisting the Constitution to the breaking point. The only power that the Federal Government has to interfere in this case is under the "interstate commerce" clause. Over the years, Supreme Court has stretched the definition of "interstate commerce" to the point of absurdity, and it now has lost all meaning. Anything and everything under the Sun is now "interstate commerce".

Example: if you leave the bathroom without washing your hands, the Supreme Court will argue that the Federal Government is allowed to regulate that on the basis of the fact that by you not using the soap, which could have been bought from a company in another state, that falls under the "interstate commerce" clause. Sounds absurd, but similarly absurd decisions have been handed down in the past.

[Pockets]

3. I guess they should use Jack Daniels

Alcohol combined with narcotic pan killers is especially effective, AND they are the drugs of choice by the Right!

[forgethell]

5. I agree with you

the US drug policy is completely insane. Why, for instance, can't terminal cancer patients have heroin to block the pain that other drugs can't? Makes no sense. What are they afraid of? The TP might get addicted?

And it could be set up so that it was prescribed and then obtained at the pharmacy. I mean, it's not really like they have any success with the drug war, now.

[firefox]

7. The saddest thing is pot should be legal

Laughing grass has not always been illegal you know. The politicians talk freedom and liberty, but when you cannot smoke a joint in peace you should know that something is horribly wrong.

Prohibition killed the real research that would have answered the questions still waiting on answers as far as the cannabinoids and natural extracts from cannabis. Prohibition is a horrible demon and the saddest thing about withholding the miracles of cannabis from medicine is that pot should be legal in a "free" society.

Free Cannabis For Everyone. The real criminals are at the top of government.

[EC]

8. New drugs to increase appetite are out for cancer patients

so they don't want pot to take away from that business.

A friend of mine had cancer last year (died) couldn't eat and hold down food, so they gave him one of the new medicines to help, well he just threw it up, so it didn't help a thing, he died more from starvation then the cancer (doctor said if he could have held down food, he would have had a fighting chance) in the end...

[firefox]

9. CannabisNews.com and Raich stories

This decision is one of the biggest things that could happen in the story to Free Cannabis. However, it should not be lost that the biggest story of the ruling concerns confirmation that there is all but no Constitutional limit to federal power.

I feel certain that today will set a new record for hits at CannabisNews- http://cannabisnews.com/ The person that does CannabisNews also has a personal website where all the Raich articles are accumulated- http://freedomtoexhale.com/raich.htm The articles on this ruling will be coming from everywhere and the best source to find them listed is that FreedomToExhale link.

All of this is somewhat unnecessary except for the numerous and constant lies the government tells us concerning marijuana/cannabis. The biggest one of these concerns what I term "The Schedule One Lie." There are three criteria for this. One says that the substance can have no medical value. Well, cannabis is the greatest medicinal plant on the planet and the real problem is that it has tremendous medical value. And if you take the word "value" on its everyday use, you cannot find anything of greater value, because it is all but free.

There is a second criteria that you could summarize as being addictive. I can agree that cannabis can be habituating about like masturbation, but it is not physically addictive as mentioned in the recent Select Senate Committee Report on Illegal Drugs from Canada in September, 2003.

A third criteria for schedule 1 status, is that it is not safe even under a doctor's care. This would be the criteria summarized in the word harm. This is absurd as all the demonization studies have really shown is that cannabis will define safety in medicine and we have tens of millions of people using black market cannabis without doctor's supervision and no great harm has surfaced.

The ill will of the government can be seen in their denial to answer a lawsuit using the Data Quality Act by Americans for Safe Access. The Data Quality Act requires government to use proper science in their statements and when the law met the demonization by government, the government ignored the law and did not answer the challenges brought forward by Americans for Safe Access.

All of this would not matter to the cannabis community in regards to cannabis if there were a proper classification of cannabis on the Schedule of Narcotics in the CSA. I say it should be a Schedule 4 substance myself and I can recognize Schedule 5 as an intellectual choice.

But the people that want to see Free Cannabis are just as concerned about correcting a government that brought us this god-awful prohibition that gets 2000 Americans a day arrested in direct opposition to what used to be unalienable rights. This decision is more important in what it does for those that brought us this prohibition. It solidifies federal hegemony and is an expression from the highest federal court that there are no real limits on federal power that the Constitution sought to limit.

For people developing a cannabis perspective on the corruption in government, you need to study up on "The Schedule One Lie."

On the Data Quality Act, there are several things at the ASA website, with this just being the origin of the Data Quality Act challenge- http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=1465

Free Cannabis For Everyone