AMA Calls for Review of Medical Marijuana’s Legal Status

[Tony Aroma]

If cannabis is re-scheduled from I to II, that's good for us EVEN IF the Pharmas want to jump in on the action with pills and lab-grown forms of THC.

I agree. If someone can come up with pill that is equally or more effective than the natural herb, what's the problem? If you are using it medicinally, why would you care what form your medicine is in. As long as it works and you can afford to buy it (a big if). And if a manufactured cannabis-based medicine is legal, it would follow that the natural herb be legal too. How can a drug be illegal in one form and legal in another? Maybe not.

Regardless of the possible implications, this is a BIG DEAL. The AMA is the only major medical group that has not jumped on the mmj bandwagon. They were the only ones left that the government could quote when it comes to the medical profession's view on mmj. There is no longer any medical group the government can point to to support their position that mmj is not recognized as medicine. One less leg for the feds to stand on to support their prohibition.

 

[slappyjack]

Marijuana is an herb. Not a drug.

It is an herb, but it's also a drug because it affects brain chemistry. No big deal, almost everything we consume is a drug.

It is certainly not a pharmaceutical drug.

 

[slappyjack]

I read it a little differently than you guys and gals. It sounds like they want a Pill form of Cannabis. That would suck! No growing anymore, unless you work for Merck, or Pfizer..... It would be like if you were growing Opium, highly illegal.. Better to get caught with a couple illegal Vicodin than an Opium Poppy Garden. Hopefully, I am wrong.....

I'll put my natural medicine up against their synthetic crap any day. Let the consumer decide which version works better.

The MJ growing community as a whole is MUCH larger than Pfizer and Merck, and as soon as we are allowed to leave our basements without the fear of prison we'll also have more power.

I say we fight them in the free market.

 

[Balazar]

I agree with slappyjack. I will put mine up against the product of any pharma company any day. Let the market make is own price. They may be able to mass produce capsule medicines and crappy weed, but we will become the boutiques or micro-brew equivalents. Inhalation will always be the fastest way to get pain relief weather combustion or vaporizing. Want quality? Go to your local shop. Want that one strain that really helps your migraines? Only your local guy will have it. Sure Pfizer will be the Coors of Weed but we will be the Left Hand and New Belgium. Many people will settle for cheep crappy weed just like many buy generic prescriptions and watered down Coors light. But if quality and personal care is what the customer wants rather than mediocre corperate crap there will always be a place for the local grower.

 

[Old time lurker]

big pharma should just stick to making enzyte, and leave ganj to the people who have been growing and breeding for years.

 

[SpasticGramps]

This is huge. The domino effect is starting to really crank up. It won't be long before we break the government's back. The point of no return has certainly been crossed. Now it's time to......

 

[Pythagllio]

How can a drug be illegal in one form and legal in another?

Well you need look no further than cannabis and Marinol...Marinol is schedule 3, and cannabis schedule 1. GHB is also schedule 1 as a street drug, and prescribable as a brand name.

Amazing how some people can find a rain cloud on the sunniest day. This is the best news MMJ has had this year, hell maybe even this century. This is smiling news, and you really need therapy if your pro-mmj and think this is bad news in any way.

 

[Balazar]

just look at opiate based pain killers. It's completely illegal to poses or grow an opium poppy or have a few derivatives like heroin. But it is perfectly fine to have a prescription to morphine, Oxycontin, etc. They are all things made from the poppy but the government decides which ones are ok and which are not. Look at how many people abuse pain killers and muscle relaxants too. I have health care and it would be a lot cheaper if I didn't have to pay for other peoples prescription drug habits.

 

[zenoonez]

Poppies growing in the front yard... that would be the day... its pretty sad when we think about the idea of freedom and what we have as freedom today...

 

[danut]

It is an herb, but it's also a drug because it affects brain chemistry. No big deal, almost everything we consume is a drug.

It is certainly not a pharmaceutical drug.

I bring up the distinction because of the way the CSA is written.

The FDA doesn't regulate herbs.

Drugs have to be approved before being in the public.

Herbs are there already. And unless it is discovered to be a danger, the herb is left alone.

A proper schedule for marijuana is not to be in the CSA at all.

 

[Totah Sam]

I read it a little differently than you guys and gals. It sounds like they want a Pill form of Cannabis. That would suck! No growing anymore, unless you work for Merck, or Pfizer..... It would be like if you were growing Opium, highly illegal.. Better to get caught with a couple illegal Vicodin than an Opium Poppy Garden. Hopefully, I am wrong.....

I think ya'll are missing something here.

"the Schedule I status of marijuana be reviewed with the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods."

They can't just come out and say, "oh and you can smoke it too." I think this leaves the door open for medicinal marijuana. Ambiguous at best but it does leave a loophole.

 

[farmerred]

So what constitutes "accepted use?" I mean the fucking American Medical Association accepts its use. I hope it all doesn't swing on the acceptance of a single man; the Surgeon General. Even if he was pro-mmj, one man shouldn't determine so much. He should schedule drugs according to the acceptance by large bodies like the AMA.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

This story is great news. Taking it off of the schedule one list is the only way to push for federal decriminalization or legalization laws.

Also I think Americans are starting to get sick of the over greedy attitudes of big biz. Maybe we can finally say fuck the drug companies, and help the people.

 

[darkhollo]

It's a big step in the right direction.

Glad to hear this news. Hopefully the movement will continue to pick up steam.

--dh

 

[Marywanna]

I wish every Dr would get a copy of this report and READ it. Maybe they can educate themselves.

 

[Tony Aroma]

I hope it all doesn't swing on the acceptance of a single man; the Surgeon General. Even if he was pro-mmj, one man shouldn't determine so much. He should schedule drugs according to the acceptance by large bodies like the AMA.

Sorry to dash your hopes, but it does. But not the Surgeon General. It's the Attorney General (another general) who decides what schedule a controlled substance is in or if it should be moved to another schedule. He can, if he so chooses, request an evaluation of a particular substance by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. By law, no input from the medical community is required. And in practice, none is ever requested.

 

[Bud Spleefman]

This is the verbiage in the news story that had me concerned...

the report urges that "the Schedule I status of marijuana be reviewed with the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods."

The AMA states right there that their goal is cannabis based medicine, not legalized MMJ. And, they want alternative delivery methods, aka, "NO SMOKING!"

Not trying to rain on the parade, as another poster mentioned.... I just think there is no way the AMA is on our side, they get their bread buttered by the Pharma Lobbyists, who don't want Medical Marijuana!

 

[fatigues]

Pharma lobbyists this, Big Pharma and Big medicine that...shadows in the corners.

A lot of you guys could benefit from the use a lot less ideology when discussing these things. Not everything is compelling evidence confirming Michels' Iron Law of Oligarchy or clear indications of a government conspiracy, you know.

Moreover, the language used in any change in policy from a large organization like the AMA is, inevitably, a product of a compromise of positions between various stakeholders. The language employed contains olive branches extended to various factions within the AMA, and beyond. They have their battles to fight internally as well, just as we do.

There are progressive liberal physicians, and there are conservative prohibitionist physicians as well. Sometimes their motives are born of economic self-interest and sometimes it's about their overall political, ethical or religious beliefs. The AMA is not a monolithic organization. It represents a multiplicity of viewpoints from within the medical profession.

The point to take away from it is this: whether your overall interest is medical or recreational use of marijuana, this is a huge and positive development that we will spin and spin again to assist us in achieving our goals.

Why someone wants a drug changed to a different Schedule is entirely secondary if it is, in fact, removed from Schedule 1. Politically, this makes all sorts of things possible which were not otherwise possible.

The Prohibitionists don't want marijauna removed from Schedule 1 because they believe this will lead to legalization. It has nothing to do with whether marijuana is, in fact, a drug with medicinal properties. They know it is too. They don't care about the truth of that. Their obstinance and resistance to marijuana's removal from Schedule 1 is a deep fear that it will lead to Marijuana's legalization. Their longterm belief that the acceptance of medical marijuana will facilitate recreational legalization happens to be SPOT-ON CORRECT. Every one of you here knows it, too. That doesn't make their lies justified, but it sure as hell does explain them.

And we put forward more than a few of our own expedient exaggerations about the beneficial medical effects of marijuana, too.

If any of you have read this month's High Times article on Rick Simpson and the miraculous cancer fighting (and diabetes curing too! It's MAGIC!!) of "cannabis oil" and didn't roll your eyes and mutter "snake oil" as the incredible claims mounted one after the next without any independent verification of Simpson's claims, then your ability to critically think and exercise rational judgement is significantly impaired. Clearly, some of us spread our own lies, too, in service of the cause.

The removal of marijuana from Schedule 1 IS, in fact, a significant milestone towards legalization. That's why we want it. It serves our interests to support claims of medicinal value for marijuana - whether those claims are truthful or not (many are, but some are not).

Let's not buy too far into some of our own highly questionable political spin, please. Things like that have a way of twisting around to bite you when it can be extremely inconvenient.

 

[Grizvok]

This is the verbiage in the news story that had me concerned...

the report urges that "the Schedule I status of marijuana be reviewed with the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods."

The AMA states right there that their goal is cannabis based medicine, not legalized MMJ. And, they want alternative delivery methods, aka, "NO SMOKING!"

Not trying to rain on the parade, as another poster mentioned.... I just think there is no way the AMA is on our side, they get their bread buttered by the Pharma Lobbyists, who don't want Medical Marijuana!

Do you just not understand? That crap about them creating alternate delivery methods DOES NOT FUCKING MATTER. The important thing here is them "reviewing the schedule I status of marijuana." Marijuana WILL NOT be legalized or decriminalized on the federal level for a long while now IN MY OPINION; the victory here lays in a federal institution stating as a fact that marijuana does have medicinal value.

This is great news and you'd have to be brain dead to think otherwise.

 

[ureapwhatusow]

I cut this post from the other AMA thread


"the Schedule I status of marijuana be reviewed with the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods."

in other words the American medical association is saying make it legal enough for bug pharma can develop it into commercial medicines

make it a schedule that allows for research, not it is a medicinal agent in it natural form

I think if you had any idea of the amount medications that are endorsed by doctors who are paid on the back end for said endorsements

ive posted news articles about that here prior


FUCK THE AMA

they sued my grandfather to get him to raise his fee because they felt he charged to little

Amazing that every institution (government, medical, religious) that turned there back on the rights of marijuana users for all these years are immediately embraced as making huge strides at changing marijuana's legal status

THE ONLY REASON THEY GIVE A FUCK IS CAUSE THEY SEE SOMETHING IN IT FOR THEMSELVES

thats how i see it

being able to use it in a trial is not freedom for all doctors to prescribe it to all patients and does not guarantee that anyone will be able to manufacture it
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