Marijuana Mis-Information and Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy

S.A.M.: "Smart Approaches to Marijuana" (what's so smart about it, anyway??)

Cannabis has been used as an herbal medicine for thousands of years, safely.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - It should be noted that Patrick Kennedy was a self-admitted addict to alcohol, cocaine and Oxycontin.

I routinely cruise the NYTimes for articles on marijuana, pro or con. You cannot imagine my surprise to read a "Letter to the Editor" dated Oct 27 2013, from Mr. Kennedy and his partner in crime, Kevin A. Sabet of SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana).

They referred to the legalization of medical marijuana in California in 1996 and revolted in horror that in 2004 California was opening dispensaries where marijuana products could be purchased. Their revulsion was based on the premise that now that marijuana was legalized, that there would be a rise in marijuana use and marketing.

These remarks were based upon a NYTimes front page article the previous day, entitled “Few Problems with Cannabis for California”. The article has 747 comments! The article is excellent and should any fears due to reefer madness.

Law enforcement agencies in California state that marijuana use leads to dependence, endangers the health of users (?) and encourages the use of other drugs. All of the latter are figments of someone's imagination, except Maybe for Mr. Patrick Kennedy.

Kennedy seems not to believe in the scientific and medical articles that marijuana is truly a medicine, which it has been for 5,000 years and has caused NO deaths, and really harmed very few users.

On Oct 29, 2013, two days later, Kennedy was prompted to write a continuing op ed to the effect that marijuana was a public health and safety threat. He gave no instances of this, or any references to support his mis-beliefs.

SAM, Kennedy's sounding board, offered some weird and essentially false comments about marijuana as medicine, as follows:

• There is medical value in marijuana, but that doesn't make smoked or ingested whole marijuana medicine.
• Marijuana is Schedule I because it meets the legal criteria for that –there is currently is no FDA-approved product of whole, raw marijuana – smoked, eaten or vaporized.
• In states where smoked marijuana for medical reasons is legal, less than 5% of users have HIV, glaucoma, cancer or MS. The average user is in his 30s and 40s and has a history of drug abuse, no chronic illness, and reports pain or headaches.
• What about the case of a child with intractable seizures? We can’t blame parents for wanting to try anything that seems to work, but we owe it to these children to have medications their parents can get from a pharmacy, not amateurs.
• Marijuana has side effects. Aside from making patients feel better, one of the main goals of treating an individual's pain is to improve functionality. Marijuana use often does the opposite.

I decided to check on Mr. Kennedy because I have read the family biography which disclosed that many Kennedy's were users of a whole variety of psycho-active drugs. In Mr. Kennedy's case, it was alcohol, cocaine and Oxycontin abuse. These three are far more dangerous and lethal than marijuana ever was. For his remarks, one writer for the Daily KOS writes in the headlines, “Mr. Kennedy, Are you High, Sir?” It surely sounds like must had the good stuff!.

This article had 472 comments over about 90 pages of readers disagreeing with everything Mr. Kennedy is preaching about. One of the many comments on the Daily KOS was There's no louder temperance preacher than a reincarnated drunk. In this case, an alcohol, cocaine and Oxycontin druggie.

According to the U.S. Government, we have more than a million legal marijuana users, but less than 5% are having any kind of problems. YOU CAN'T SAY THAT FOR ANY OTHER PSYCHO-ACTIVE SUBSTANCE.

MR. KENNEDY: YOU ARE ON THE WRONG HORSE, AND HEADED BACKWARDS!

For more information, SEARCH "Marijuana Leveque Cannabis", &/or see this article: Dr Phil Leveque: The Coolest 90-Year Old on Planet Earth

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