Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Stop the insanity over marijuana



Medical marijuana can bring relief to hundreds of thousands of people in pain.

 Please, please, please stop the insanity over marijuana. There is no reefer madness folks. No one is smoking pot and robbing liquor stores or raping victims because of pot alone. If they are perverts and criminals, they are going to do what they do regardless if they smoke pot or not.

There is not going to be an epidemic of zombie people because of weed. They already walk among us on cartel pot. In addition, we are already seeing this due to general cell phone usage.
The Democrats are using it as a tool to divide voters. Don't fall for it. Start with medical marijuana. Legalize, regulate, tax, and dispense to responsible buyers. Keep the tax rate low enough to avoid creating yet another vice-driven black market. Create an easy to use scale to reliably dictate the strength of the pot so buyers can safely use it, much like we do with alcohol proof and the heat scale of hot peppers.

First off, marijuana should not be a partisan political issue. Shame on the Democratic Party for pandering to voters over marijuana usage. How blatantly misleading and shallow! Instead of working with the Republican Party for medical marijuana decriminalization, they choose to divide the voters.
"Over the past couple years, more and more lawmakers, including people who’ll very likely run for president in 2020 like Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker, have signed onto legislation that would legalize marijuana at the federal level. This is increasingly becoming a mainstream position for Democrats." Vox

In plain English, people will vote for or against marijuana reform because one party supports it over the other! This is by design and stupid in the extreme! I say stupid because of the obvious medical benefits if for no other reason. Why does marijuana continue to be in the same class as heroin and opiates? Why is a plant that has been safely used both medicinally and recreationally for thousands of years all across the planet, have such a stigma placed on it in the last hundred years?

This is why I try my best to openly educate people on a subject many my age (66) are hush-hush over. Read. Think. Sift. Repeat. I know there are some of my readers who shake their head and think I am pushing things too far. In their mind it seems perplexing that a historically logical writer would think marijuana was safe and okay to use recreationally. It is okay. It is not the demon we were told it was and the special interest groups who would and are competing against pot want it to stay taboo.
“The sweeping Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, H.R. 2 (115), — better known as the Farm Bill, and signed into law by President Donald Trump on Thursday — legalizes hemp production and with it, potential sales of cannabidiol or CBD, a component of marijuana and hemp plants that has no psychoactive properties to get people high. It’s said to have anti-inflammatory and calming benefits, but questions about medical effectiveness remain.” Politico 12-25-18


Hemp and marijuana are genetically linked and the recent farm bill allowing the production of hemp is very important and amazingly overdue. Look at it this way. “One acre of hemp can produce as much paper as 4 to 10 acres of trees over a 20-year cycle, but hemp stalks only take four months to mature, whereas trees take 20 to 80 years. This information was known in 1916, according to a USDA report.” Wiki

The product list of superior products made from hemp is incredible and a downright threat to business as usual from the medical, lumber, and petrochemical industries and understanding this makes it easy to see why it is an illegal substance. The tobacco industry is heavily investing in the marijuana industry and that should have been a no-brainer to anyone watching. I wrote 5 years ago that they were a marriage made in heaven. Anything we can do to keep organized crime out of the pot industry is a win in my book.
So, to review, what must take place is a general loosening of State marijuana laws AFTER the federal government changes the classification of the plant from a schedule 1 drug. “Schedule 1 drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined by the federal government as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule 1 drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.” Wiki
Any rational person can see that marijuana does not fit as a schedule 1 drug.

Research by the government MUST loosen up the procurement laws for research facilities to actually conduct experiments. As it stands, private groups are miles ahead of the government and 99% of the reason is the tedious procurement and over-regulation between the DEA and the FDA. In their words, "A little-known research facility at the University of Mississippi is the only place in the country that is authorized to grow and test marijuana for medical research purposes. But this effort is stymied by a slow process for certifying scientists, a lack of funding and according to pot experts, an inferior product compared to what the booming cannabis sector has rolled out in recent years. “It’s brown, muddy garbage,” said Peter Grinspoon, a physician and board member of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, describing the Mississippi stock." Politico 12-25-18

Education remains the key element here and it is every voter’s responsibility to get a true understanding of what is involved. Ignorance is a poor excuse when standing up to facts and experience.


 .


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve Jouette: I dunno.... I just listened to some Grateful Dead, and all I’ve been doing is laying on the couch since then...

Ruthie Rodriguez Ames: Hey! I saw that film strip in school. Can you promise me that I’m not going to stick my hand into the fire on my gas stove or take my axe and go kill my neighbor?!😱

Jeremy Dodson I mean Colorado I heard tax it at like 25%. I mean as long as they put it to good use I.e. bridges and roads and others then I don't see nothing wrong with it.


- Bert Marshall: I believe taxing it on the same scale as alcohol would be proper, otherwise it is a citizen wallet rape.

Alan Dempsey: Excellent article Baytown Bert. I have always thought the government should do a comprehensive study on the effects of alcohol, tobacco, opiates and marijuana. They should first determine the health risk, and danger of using each one. I have known people that have died from alcohol, tobacco, opiates, but I do not know anybody that died from smoking marijuana? Then they should think what each one does not only to the individual, but to their family as well. Unfortunately, the study will probably never happen. That study will probably never happen because the alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical companies have money to stop that from ever happening...Just my opinion.

Anonymous said...

Sam Compton: I wonder why big Pharma isn’t lobbying for legalization?

Dona Dittlinger Dyer: CBD does work. It has helped my Arthritis better than most medicines

Cathy White: Start with just simple DECRIMINALIZATION across the board, THEN start legalistion.

Anonymous said...

Stephanie Howlett: Our party system is a failure for this reason. The answer is NEVER this or that. It is the combination of good ideas and reasoned compromise. I will never vote for a candidate who swears to tow the party line. THAT is stupid.

Bill Duke: I am proud to share Bert and you are right my friend.

Anonymous said...

Dandy Don Cunningham

I would like to comment on Bert Marshall's column in The Baytown Sun
the other day on marijuana. I am a good friend of Bert's and we have briefly
discussed this issue of marijuana.I have never used it, so I cannot
comment on how it affects people. I do feel that I can safely say
that, just like alcohol and drugs, it affects different people
differently, because no two people are alike. It must affect people
who use it with some degree of pleasure, which there's nothing wrong
with that, but it also affects their tolerance to pain, and probably
works to relieve stress in some way. Here again, different people will
react to it with different degrees of the measure of which these
effects have on them. It's just like some people will drink a glass of
wine or have a beer in the evening to relax, or even to give them some
relief of pain, such as a headache or backache. Marijuana must give
people relief from pain, otherwise there would be no argument for the
medical use of it. I am not questioning that.

Here is one of my concerns. In 1984, a local surgeon performed my
first hip replacement. When I did not have the expected result of not
having the range of motion in my hip joint (which was the whole reason
for having the prosthesis implanted), the surgeon recommended a
followup surgery which he referred to as a 'soft tissue release', to
allow more range of motion in my hip joint. My hip joint had been
surgically fused for 20 years, which is why I elected to have the
artificial hip joint done. During the second surgery, the surgeon
almost totally severed the sciatic nerve in my leg, causing permanent
paralysis from my knee, down to my foot. It was discovered that he had
been using cocaine during the period before and during both of these
surgeries. This was documented in The Baytown Sun, Texas Monthly
magazine, and other periodicals. He also, according to my present
orthopedic surgeon, did a very sub-par job of implanting the
artificial hip joint, which resulted in about 13 additional hip
replacements and revisions to it.

I realize that cocaine is far stronger than marijuana, but I don't
believe that this substance should be freely available to persons who
regularly perform tasks which require total concentration, mental
clarity, and physical ability. Marijuana may not affect all people to
the extent that it might impair their abilities to perform these
tasks, but who decides that?
I do agree that perhaps, in some cases, that marijuana use,
possession, and intent to sell cases may be too severely dealt with,
especially with first-time offenders. However, just like any other
substance which can impact judgment, ability, and skills, it must be
regulated to some degree.

I realize that, since I have never used it, my opinion may not have
much value, but because of the substance abuse of one person, I have
lost my leg, including the hip joint, all because of the use of
mind-altering drugs. I believe that because this substance affects
different people in different ways, there still should be some type of
regulation on it, and not just allow it to be available to anyone who
wants it. I in no way mean to show any disrespect to Bert, but just
want to give my view on the subject. Thank you for allowing me to do
that.

Anonymous said...

SS: Don I never knew that. That is terrible. I'm so sorry. But I will say that coincidentally enough, cannabis was forced into the Schedule 1 category by Nixon and then ta da the pharmaceuticals blew up. From what I'm reading, cannabis is the cure for a LOT of things and would put the pharmaceuticals out of business. Cocaine and cannabis do NOT belong in the same category at all. I've prayed about this a lot and I truly believe that cannabis was created by God as medicine.

Anonymous said...

MF: Totally not fair to compare coke and cannabis in the same category. Drinking alcohol gives worse results than marijuana ever has. Stacey is right. The government was funding cancer research using cannabis as a treatment and getting good results. The pharmaceutical companies knew they couldn't profit from something they couldn't control. Big pharma was born and the pharmaceutical lobby convinced the government to stop the funding and make it illegal. There is no profit in curing disease, only from treating the symptoms.

Anonymous said...

Shane: Alcohol is legal, yet you wouldn't want your hip replaced by a surgeon who is intoxicated. The same logic applies to marijuana. I don't think anyone is arguing it doesn't impair senses/ability, as do many currently legal substances.

SB: The people, like myself, who REALLY need cannabis to survive, know how to medicate effectively without getting “stoned”. It isn’t just about pain either. I have a paralyzed stomach and constant nausea. I also have interstitial cystitis and when I’m not on cannabis therapy a urinate a lot of blood and bladder tissue and the pain is worse than child birth. It doesn’t work by covering the pain, it works by actually stopping the mast cell degranulation in the lining of my organ tissues. It’s an INCREDIBLE God-made provision. All legalizing will do is cut down cartel activity, free up space in prisons, and stop drug violence. Keep it illegal and everyone will just keep breaking the law to stay alive... like I am FORCED to. :,(
Agony, or opiate addiction. Those are my legal choices. Thank you but no thank you.

Steve: This from a cousin in Austin, TX in her late 30's with horrible anxiety problems. -- Truth is you’d be shocked to know how many God-fearing, church going, little old ladies regularly use straight up weed just to manage their chronic pain. It’s sad and so unfortunate that so many of our elders are dealing with so much constant pain. I'll be glad if Texas gets the go ahead for medical prescriptions only, not recreational. I agree 100% with her.

Anonymous said...

Shane Buss: For many people suffering from Epilepsy it remains the ONLY effective medicine, and has many fewer side effects than the alternative, thousands of MG of extremely strong prescription drugs.

Anonymous said...

Darren B.: I support the legalization of marijuana. The letter proves the point and I don't need to add anything..except..Legal or not I personally don't partake so that has nothing to do with my opinion.

TW Bocksnick: The main reason it isn't legal already is because the big pharmas have our politicians in their pockets. I will go out on a limb and say, that I have a sneaking suspicion that some of them are also in the pockets of the cartels. Hence the fight for both legalization AND a wall. But that's a whole other can of worms.

Bruce M: I support the legalization of marijuana. It is a very expensive law to enforce and serves no purpose.

Reviving my lost Trackables.

 Reviving my lost Trackables. BaytownBert 3-15-24 Over the last 20 years, I’ve purchased and in many cases released somewhere short of 150 T...