Scott I've been reading your blogs for about 2 or 3 weeks now on a regular basis. Actually you may be flattered to hear this but I have a lot of your blogs posted on my myspace (of course with references to you and stopthedrugwar.com) because I am here to get the word out. I spread the word everyday almost everywhere I go.

Anyway... I saw the same poll when i clicked on your link to the chicago tribune and I read it and the same thought crossed my mind as the other 90%. Its a given that I support it. But you... you think outside the box. You really know whats going on and I respect that. Do you support the use of medicine for medicinal purposes? That's all it breaks down to when it comes to the debate on medical marijuana because it is a medicine for those who need it whether it passes or not.

We're lucky to have people like you to stand up to the feds about this, people that know how to turn it around and make them look stupid. When I try, I'm the one that ends up looking stupid. I am only 17 though and I'm getting alot better at spreading the word in a mature manner and getting people to hear me out. My teacher always encourages me to stand-up for this because he knows how strong I feel about it.

Well, just wanted to say thanks for the blogs and keep up the good work!

also, I just wrote a 2 page persuasive essay on legalization and I know you wouldn't be super-impressed but if you would like to read it I'd be more than honored. If so email me, if not I totally understand.
sublimelover22@live.com
if anybody else would want a copy just let me know through email.

You have to be ignorant of Henningfield - Benowitz to even attempt to intellectually oppose "recreational" marijuana.

To keep Cannabis illegal while tobacco and alcohol are dispensed freely is murderously stupid.

http://tinyurl.com/Henningfield-Benowitz
http://www.google.com/search?&q=tashkin+cancer

Richard Steeb
San Jose, California

I read tonight, an alleged Illinois state legislator saying that there was no way he and his colleagues would vote for medical cannabis. He felt it was just a ploy to get cannabis legalized.

So, I guess, there are still plenty that view themselves as intellectuals that can oppose it. I wonder when he is going to use his brain and science, instead of emotion, to guide his conscience, But, otherwise, he seemed to have no problem with, knowingly, implicating himself, into the torture of chronically ill patients.

But, having been a pain doctor myself, I can tell you they have been doing that for years in the instance of people who have chronic pain. They will deny care, because they have no reason to worry about compassion. Those patients are just peons that never cross their mind. Being a pain sufferer, myself, now, it makes me, more than, a little angry. Knowing that THC can relieve the nueropathic pain I suffer, at a much reduced cost compared to the meds presently used, is infuriating! And, it could do it, with fewer side effects than those alternate treatments!

Actually you have to be less than informed about the matter as marinol only has THC and not the more inclusive cannibanoids included in raw cannabis which the few scientific studies seem to suggest have even more of a positive impact. I guess there could be some that would argue that we don't know enough about the "other" ingredients in raw cannabis to adequately distribute it but those folks probably don't have anyone in the family or sphere of influence suffering from various diseases which cannabis has shown a remarkable affect.
Also, I would probably suggest that highly charged inflammatory remarks toward those who oppose us are not helpful. Let the screaming idiots be them.

The only 2 "intellectually possible" reasons you could possibly oppose medical marijuana are that 1) you don't know/understand the facts, or 2) you have a vested interest

The only "intelligent" argument I've heard opposing MMJ is that medicine should not be smoked. I'd prefer to see MMJ legislation explicitly recommend alternative ingestion methods including Sativex (now doing fine in UK clinical trials) and for MMJ tax revenues to be set aside to develop safer/cheaper vaporizers and foods.

Ultimately, in a country where patients are free to smoke tobacco while taking other medications, it's nonsensical to ban the smoking of cannabis for medicinal use if the patient is willing to take the risk. We're free to use aloe from a plant rather than a store; plant aloe may be less purified/effective, but it's a free (somewhat) country.

Here's the poll we need: "As marijuana has proven medicinal properties, should the drug be federally rescheduled to allow more clinical scientific study of these properties?"

Tobacco *Subsidies* in United States totaled $530 million from 1995-2006.

Is it possible to intellectually argue for the prohibition of the least-toxic substance on the "controlled" list?

No, it isn't.