By Doctor Tom
An interesting result of the recent off-year elections was another surge in demand for cannabis (“marijuana”) legalization. Legal pot was more popular at the ballot box than the Tea Party, Right Wing politicians, and the (fading} reputation of Barack Obama, whose job approval rating fell to a new low.
Our struggling Prez- one of only 14 American chief executives to win in consecutive general elections- did so despite being perceived as Black and after openly admitting his own aggressive adolescent toking. He should have learned from that experience that such an admission is no longer the kiss of death it had been for Reagan nominee Douglas Ginsburg in 1987 after a tattle-tale NPR columnist disclosed his repetitive use.
In fact, a critical analysis of the progressive roll-back of state “marijuana” laws since passage of California’s Proposition 215 in 1996 suggests that a growing youth market had already existed and been growing progressively since the early Sixties. Indeed, it was that market that had inspired the repressive legislation Richard Nixon and John Mitchell pushed through an ignorant Congress in 1970.
That Nixon’s law has been so assiduously enforced around the world since 1970 does not reflect favorably on the vaunted cognitive ability of our species. However, it’s not the only destructive law ever enforced in “the Land of the Free” with near-catastrophic results. One needs only to recall that the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 helped propel us into a catastrophic Civil War, which could have been seen- at least retrospectively- as having been inevitable from the time Slavery was debated by our “founders” in 1787. Instead of dealing with it honestly, they opted to punt, a decision W.E.B. Dubois would later observe, “opened a road that led directly to the Civil War.”
Beyond that, what what I’ve learned about cannabis as medicine through simply taking detailed medical histories from (now) over 7000 admitted users in search of a “medical” recommendation in California is that the greatest disservice done by 42 years of rigorous CSA enforcement is not the four-fold increase in American jail and prison populations, nor even the obscene “collateral damage” we have allowed police agencies to inflict while enforcing a fundamentally stupid national drug policy.
The greatest damage done by the CSA may have been the misdirection of a greedy, for-profit pharmaceutical industry away from cannabis research (because it’s illegal !) and toward the the plethora of dangerous, but preferred- and legal- synthetic molecules developed by “Big Pharma” since the CSA was passed in 1970.
Based on my relatively unknown study of pot use in California, I’d like to venture what may strike many as a radical suggestion: if Obama would support cannabis legalization unequivocally, he would do more for both his tarnished reputation and the success of the much-maligned Affordable Care Act.
The reasons are two fold. As a re-elected President, he has nothing to fear politically and despite the self-interested claims of the two agencies created by our worst-ever president to enforce and lobby for his CSA, cannabis (“marijuana”) is much better medicine than most people realize.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Nixon’s law for me is knowing that until cannabis is made unequivocally “legal,” its benefits won’t become fully apparent for reasons I’ll have to develop at greater length in future posts.
One of the many realizations that have become clear to me over the past twelve years is that some people are so inhibited by its designation as an illegal “drug of abuse,” that even when they have a condition it often benefits, they resist suggestions that they try it. That attitude is so prevalent it frustrates me every day; especially when I hear Big Pharma’s expensive ads for the dangerous pot substitutes they push incessantly on TV. One more reason to revile the memory of RMN.
Cannabis not only treats the anxiety symptoms common to many vaguely classified Psychiatric disorders more safely and effectively than Big Pharma’s offerings, it also palliates a heterogeneous group of physical condition conditions known collectively as Autoimmune Diseases.
One feature autoimmune conditions are known to share is that their symptoms and findings are produced when the immune system misidentifies normal tissues (joint linings, for example) as “foreign” and attacks them with an inflammatory response. The best known of these conditions may be Rheumatoid Arthritis made popular by golfer Phil Mickelson in ads for Enbrel, which interestingly enough, has a long list of serious side effects and untoward reactions.
Pot is much safer than Enbrel, but they could never be compared head-to-head in a “controlled study” for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, several patients in my database with classic RA have been successfully treating it with cannabis for years. What also caught my attention was how well several other patients with Multiple Sclerosis (another condition considered autoimmune) have been doing well on pot despite the reluctance of main stream media to even mention its relatively well-known benefits. What I now realize, somewhat belatedly, is that investigation of the connection between cannabis and autoimmunity is long overdue.
Indeed, I can vividly remember 2 panel discussions on MS hosted by Larry King before his displacement displaced by Piers Morgan. I waited patiently for any mention of cannabis, but in vain. It was only then that I realized the full implications of our indefensibly stupid drug policy.
On a somewhat hopeful note, if Miley Cyrus can light up a J on stage, can legalization be far behind?
