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Another Crazy Medical Marijuana Lie From the Drug Czar

Our friends at MPP just caught the drug czar literally editing out the most important part of the American Medical Association's new position on medical marijuana. According to a new ONDCP "factsheet":

The American Medical Association: "To help facilitate scientific research and the development of cannabionoid-based medicines, the AMA adopted (a) new policy … This should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product."

Notice how it doesn't say what the "new policy…" actually is? That's because the original quote says, "the AMA adopted new policy urging the federal government to review marijuana’s status as a Schedule I substance." Leaving that part out isn't just confusing and dishonest; it looks ridiculous.

If it's now ok to use ellipses to pervert policy positions, maybe I'll just take AMA's statement and do this with it:

"This should…be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, [and] that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product."

Yeah, I like the sound of that. But I'm not going to print it on a "factsheet," because it's not true.

As accustomed as I am to seeing the drug czar's office routinely deploying these sorts of sleazy semantic deceptions, I'm genuinely awed by this one. They buried the lead so blatantly that anyone who reads it ought to just end up wondering what the hell AMA's "new policy" on medical marijuana actually is. And once Google answers that question in a half-second, you might as well have just told the truth or scrubbed AMA off the site altogether like I suggested weeks ago.
Permission to Reprint: This article is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license.
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Dirty Tricks

Well what can you expect from the drug czar, sometimes the truth is hard to swallow. We can expect more of the same from these guy's, that's what they are all about anyway, old habits are hard to break !

Would the AMA Endorse White Willow Bark?

Alternative medicines that include medical cannabis have traditionally been given little support by the AMA, whom Big Pharma appears to have in its pocket.  The ONDCP is taking advantage of an economically motivated stance by the AMA to make erroneous claims and inferences about medical marijuana.  The AMA’s position on medical marijuana can be illustrated by comparing cannabis to a different herbal remedy.

For example, white willow bark contains salicin, the basic chemical analogue for aspirin (N-acetylsalicylic acid).  As a natural pain remedy, herbal white willow does not irritate the stomach lining the way aspirin does, which means it’s less likely than aspirin to kill 1000 people every year.  The bark even has other chemicals in it that add to its therapeutic effect.  But it’s expensive to extract salicin from willow bark, so synthesized aspirin is the AMA-approved drug of choice made available over-the-counter to millions of pain medication customers of all ages.

If some chemical in willow bark got people high, the history of salicin pain remedies would have been radically different.  Given what we’ve seen occur with cannabis, neither salicin nor aspirin would have reached the legal market place, although there is no doubt a black market for willow bark would exist.

Giordano

Health food and herb stores sell white willow bark extract.

Since white willow bark is not illegal there is no black market or wars over white willow bark. The same should be true for every sustainable natural resource.

Cannabis

I am somewhat surprised that in light of all the past lies and misinformation that they would still use these tactics. Do they not know of the internet? We are all more educated about marijuana than we were 70 years ago because of the internet...except our government. They still seem to dwell in the 30's where the real threat were black men looking at white girls. You sometimes have to just sit back and roll your eyes at these folks. Perhaps more than anyone, it is they that need to light up a big one. One of the wonderful effects of using cannabis is that it expands your conscienceness and your self-awareness. The ability to laugh at yourself, and others is enhanced. A feeling of well-being and comfort is also a large part of the experience. These are all wonderful effects that could only benefit humanity. Recommended especially for the malignant closed mind syndrome too!

drug czar

Only the truly ignorant, or those who choose to act ignorantly for financial gain, can be fooled by these tricks. Shame of Gil for an obvious and easy to catch show of desperation. When your opponent is truly reeling on the ropes, he becomes desperate enough to resort to such garbage...leaving out the whole point and hoping no one notices or cares.

These squares, a term I use for all the supposedly intelligent yet prohibitionistically inclined, have NO shame. If they did have any shame or conscience, they could not slash the heart from a story to alter the effect and eliminate the truth. They are afraid of the truth...what sets us free scares them..and that is the way it should be..they are the evildoers..they are the liars and deceivers.

The LAW says that the drug czar must lie; it forbids him from even telling the truth about medical pot...it forbids logic and truth because the Feds know that as soon as the normal standards of debate and policy making are employed, they lose. They lose because they have no facts, no history, no science, nothing but lies and twisted and distorted ' fact' arranging to suit the lie..etc.

There should be some way to get notice out and flood the emails and phones at the ONDCP every time one of these sleight of hand tricks are used...to expose it immediately and demand correction...and INCLUSION of the relevant data that makes the story what it should be.

These dishonest govt stooges are a danger to us all.

the drug czars office is

the drug czars office is staffed by criminals what kind of world is this.when we cant trust our own goverment to tell the truth

Forgive, not forget

1. These officials, right up to the czar and the president, know their bread is buttered on the floor side by that $36-BIL. or whatever it now is that the govt. collects in $IGARETTE taxes, plus the power of the nicotine indu$try to send more billions-worth of well-dressed attractive white-teethed lobbyists to schmooze with every congressional staff member.

2. Haven't tried this, but can you make the salicin ingestible by soaking the WWB and grinding it in your blendor?

As Required

The drug czar is fighting the legalization of a schedule 1 drug,as he is mandated too in the policy of the ONDCP. He is using the only weapon he has,lies and edited propaganda. He has had the National Institute on Drug Abuse searching for a "smoking gun" of any harm that marijuana can do to human beings,or mice,or anything they could use it on,trying to find any kind of damage done by smoking marijuana and the best they can come up with is "possible links with" or "may be connected with" or some other anecdotal research phrase that doesn't carry actual proof of anything. The ONDCP has spent millions for those studies and is till looking.
The addiction level for marijuana is listed as possibly 12% by the governments own research,which is lower than the addiction rates for many household condiments or even water. The "withdrawal" from marijuana is possible restlessness,possible loss of appetite,possible nervousness and a possible loss of sleep,lasting up too 3 days .
The drug czar has no real weapons to use.

Gil is corrupt

ANYONE who would willingly take a job that REQUIRES him/her to lie to EVERYONE, damn near every single day of the job, is obviously corrupt and doesn't deserve any courtesy or kindness from those to whom s/he lies, whatsoever.

I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!

Impeachment

I thought we were allowed to impeach people we do not wish to have in office, in fact I thought the people is what the government is supposed to be for

Sure, the government is

Sure, the government is supposed to be by the people, for the people. And our government is obviously not! That is why they blocked the people's vote in DC 11 years ago when they voted for Medical Marijuana there. That block has only recently been lifted.

War On The People

Marijuana prohibition has been a total failure and is perhaps this country's greatest mistake. Not only has it created criminals out of nearly a third of the country's populace, it costs our society billions of dollars every year, creates a strain on our prison system, and has little or no effect on marijuana use in the US. In some cases, prosecuting marijuana use has turned non-violent, middle class kids into violent and unpredictable, career criminals. Once a person has a criminal conviction on their record, they are far less likely to find a good job and become a useful member of society. Other countries with more liberal drug laws have much lower rates of drug addiction among their people. I invite you to my web-page devoted to raising awareness on the assault on our civil liberties: http://freethegods.blogspot.com/

Lies our government tells us.

The government is for rich people and big busness,they can afford to fund the people in power and we pay for everythink with no input to the system.
SOME FUCKIN SYSTEM AINT IT something has to change.

Lies our government tells us.

Agree 100%  something is gonna have to give

Lies our government tells us.

AGREE 100%   something is gonna have to give

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