T
The420Guy
Guest
A Desert Storm veteran, phlebotomist, husband and father from Carmichael
John Ashcroft would have loved my grandfather. A World War II vet and
Baptist minister, my grandfather didn't play cards because they were "of
the devil." He even went so far as to throw his own stepson out of the
house for using marijuana in the early 1970s--a step I assume would warm
the tiny little hearts of anti-drug warriors everywhere.
Then, in 1974, my grandfather's doctor discovered prostate cancer and
gave him six months to live. My grandfather began chemotherapy and,
unable to eat, dropped to less than a hundred pounds. At six feet tall,
he looked like a skeleton as he painfully shuffled around the house. His
doctor, who had prescribed morphine and other opiates, recommended
cannabis, although he couldn't prescribe it. My grandfather and his
stepson re-formed their bond, broken years earlier. The same cannabis
leaves that once came between them now were healing both my grandfather
and his relationship with his stepson.
My grandfather gained weight and lived six more cantankerous years until
the cancer reappeared and metastasized to his bones. In 1980, after a
long valiant fight, he died at a local Kaiser hospital.
Conservative anti-drug warriors like Lyn Nofziger (an aide to former
presidents Nixon and Reagan) change their stance on medical marijuana
when conventional drugs fail their terminally ill loved ones. Those who
don't have this first-hand experience frequently sound as compassionate
as Santa Cruz City Council candidate Phil Baer who, when confronted with
medical-marijuana patients, said, "I think it would be noble of them if
they felt the pain a little bit and did something for the higher good."
The tone of his statement echoes the compassionate conservatism of good
old Nazi Germany.
Personally, I don't believe that Baer and Ashcroft are Nazis. I respect
and admire law-enforcement officials for the difficult job they do so
well. It's just that I have trouble telling the difference between the
frail, emaciated victims of Nazi concentration camps and the gaunt, pale
cancer and AIDS patients who are the victims of our misguided,
power-hungry government.
What's more dangerous: a drug that Francis L. Young, administrative law
judge for the Drug Enforcement Administration, called "one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man," or the ideologies of
those who would use any means necessary to legislate their own
moralities and who would ease imagined fears instead of the very real
pain people suffer each day?
Just say no to dangerous ideologies.
For News, Recipes, and Medical Info
Come visit at Medical marijuana (cannabis) - American Alliance for Medical Cannabis
Pubdate: Sat, 23 Nov 2002
From: Arthur Livermore <arthur.livermore@alumni.reed.edu>
and the AAMC Oregon Cannabis Exchange News
Guest Comment
Dangerous ideologies
By Jeff Scott
John Ashcroft would have loved my grandfather. A World War II vet and
Baptist minister, my grandfather didn't play cards because they were "of
the devil." He even went so far as to throw his own stepson out of the
house for using marijuana in the early 1970s--a step I assume would warm
the tiny little hearts of anti-drug warriors everywhere.
Then, in 1974, my grandfather's doctor discovered prostate cancer and
gave him six months to live. My grandfather began chemotherapy and,
unable to eat, dropped to less than a hundred pounds. At six feet tall,
he looked like a skeleton as he painfully shuffled around the house. His
doctor, who had prescribed morphine and other opiates, recommended
cannabis, although he couldn't prescribe it. My grandfather and his
stepson re-formed their bond, broken years earlier. The same cannabis
leaves that once came between them now were healing both my grandfather
and his relationship with his stepson.
My grandfather gained weight and lived six more cantankerous years until
the cancer reappeared and metastasized to his bones. In 1980, after a
long valiant fight, he died at a local Kaiser hospital.
Conservative anti-drug warriors like Lyn Nofziger (an aide to former
presidents Nixon and Reagan) change their stance on medical marijuana
when conventional drugs fail their terminally ill loved ones. Those who
don't have this first-hand experience frequently sound as compassionate
as Santa Cruz City Council candidate Phil Baer who, when confronted with
medical-marijuana patients, said, "I think it would be noble of them if
they felt the pain a little bit and did something for the higher good."
The tone of his statement echoes the compassionate conservatism of good
old Nazi Germany.
Personally, I don't believe that Baer and Ashcroft are Nazis. I respect
and admire law-enforcement officials for the difficult job they do so
well. It's just that I have trouble telling the difference between the
frail, emaciated victims of Nazi concentration camps and the gaunt, pale
cancer and AIDS patients who are the victims of our misguided,
power-hungry government.
What's more dangerous: a drug that Francis L. Young, administrative law
judge for the Drug Enforcement Administration, called "one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man," or the ideologies of
those who would use any means necessary to legislate their own
moralities and who would ease imagined fears instead of the very real
pain people suffer each day?
Just say no to dangerous ideologies.
For News, Recipes, and Medical Info
Come visit at Medical marijuana (cannabis) - American Alliance for Medical Cannabis
Pubdate: Sat, 23 Nov 2002
From: Arthur Livermore <arthur.livermore@alumni.reed.edu>
and the AAMC Oregon Cannabis Exchange News
Guest Comment
Dangerous ideologies
By Jeff Scott
