Margaret Polovchak Wants to Put Cancer Patients in Jail
Why? Because she thinks it will help save the children:
It's wrong on so many levels, one scarcely knows where to begin. But I guess we'll start with the fact that teen marijuana use declined for 10 years straight after the national debate over medical marijuana emerged in the mid-90's.
You see, Illinois isn’t the first state where this conversation has taken place. There's actually an abundance of empirical data to consult before spouting off mindless speculation. Here, check out this helpful chart showing how almost every state that legalized medical marijuana experienced a subsequent decline in teen marijuana use.
Now you'll never find me arguing that passing medical marijuana laws makes kids less likely to try it. But the fact that rates of use have fluctuated similarly in states with and without such laws really just massacres the idea that having a public debate about marijuana policy somehow endangers children. If you want to see an endangered child, check out this video of a SWAT team shooting two dogs in front of a 7-year-old during a bust for a small bag of pot.
Anyone who's concerned about children getting mixed messages in the medical marijuana debate should stop lying about medical marijuana. You know it's medicine because the Institute of Medicine said so. You know it's medicine because its main ingredient is approved by the FDA and the manufacturer even marketed it as "legal marijuana." You know it's medicine because seriously ill patients continue to turn to it for relief, even when doing so places them at risk of being raided and imprisoned simply for trying to make their cancer suck a little less.
The effort to protect children from the dangers of drugs is a noble one, but taking medicine away from people who need it is one strategy that shouldn’t even be on the table.
A discussion of legalizing medical marijuana in Illinois is likely fueling an increase in the number of Park Ridge teenagers using the substance, the Maine Community Youth Assistance Foundation contends.
Margaret Polovchak, executive director of MCYAF, said increased dialogue about marijuana legislation in the state leads to a greater public perception that the substance is not harmful, resulting in a growing number of users.
It's wrong on so many levels, one scarcely knows where to begin. But I guess we'll start with the fact that teen marijuana use declined for 10 years straight after the national debate over medical marijuana emerged in the mid-90's.
You see, Illinois isn’t the first state where this conversation has taken place. There's actually an abundance of empirical data to consult before spouting off mindless speculation. Here, check out this helpful chart showing how almost every state that legalized medical marijuana experienced a subsequent decline in teen marijuana use.
Now you'll never find me arguing that passing medical marijuana laws makes kids less likely to try it. But the fact that rates of use have fluctuated similarly in states with and without such laws really just massacres the idea that having a public debate about marijuana policy somehow endangers children. If you want to see an endangered child, check out this video of a SWAT team shooting two dogs in front of a 7-year-old during a bust for a small bag of pot.
Anyone who's concerned about children getting mixed messages in the medical marijuana debate should stop lying about medical marijuana. You know it's medicine because the Institute of Medicine said so. You know it's medicine because its main ingredient is approved by the FDA and the manufacturer even marketed it as "legal marijuana." You know it's medicine because seriously ill patients continue to turn to it for relief, even when doing so places them at risk of being raided and imprisoned simply for trying to make their cancer suck a little less.
The effort to protect children from the dangers of drugs is a noble one, but taking medicine away from people who need it is one strategy that shouldn’t even be on the table.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
I wouldn't doubt that, as
I wouldn't doubt that, as far as she's concerned any and all "empirical data" regarding medical marijuana has somehow been falsified - due to the "liberal media bias"...
Well that, and it totally goes against her strong sense of "Truthiness" - which is obviously infallible, and beyond all reproach. /s
Taking medicine from serious ill patients is sadism. Period.
Noble is the last word that comes to mind to describe people who use the drug alcohol and are willing to deny others the right to use medicinal OR recreational cannabis. Polovchak is so worried about kids doing marijuana, she should be quite a bit more worried about kids doing alcohol, because that can easily be a matter of life and death and not just for the user. Why is she so hard on patients using the best available medicine and on people who prefer cannabis, and so easy on the alcohol abusers who do so much more catastrophic damage than cannabis users ever could? She wants to keep sending the ludicrous and dangerous message that cannabis is more dangerous than alcohol. That encourages kids to use alcohol, and encourages kids to use hard drugs once they realize they were lied to about weed. And in general encourages kids (and adults) to be cynical and distrustful of their elders and their society. Kids are said to be good at sniffing out hypocrisy and alcohol supremacism over weed is as wildly hypocritical as it gets.
People should be held responsible for their actions as individuals that violate the rights of others, instead we are punishing all cannabis users, no matter how responsible, and scapegoating them for the crimes of alcohol abusers, and forcing people to use the killer drug, even if they can't handle alcohol. Hard to say whether the policy is more unjust or more unwise (violence-promoting).
And the drug warriors are still refusing to debate the subject, which is a sure sign that something is very wrong. Why would you be afraid to debate if you really believe in your cause, drug warriors?
If you want to see an endangered child
you can also visit the homes of alcoholic domestic violence perps, or of victims of fetal alcohol syndrome. Doesn't it matter to drug warriors that cannabis just does not have the same relationship to violence that alcohol does? That's not just an opinion, it's stark cold reality, documented in the U.S. by the Centers for Disease Control. When are the drug warriors going to grow up and deal with it and stop throwing science into the garbage can?
Margaret, I am sorry you are
Margaret,
I am sorry you are so confused about medical marijuana and the likely effects it would have on youngsters. CA, which has the largest medical marijuana program in the nation, has seen a DECREASE in the amount of illicit marijuana use among minors, since the implementation of medical marijuana programs in that state. I have been a pro-medical marijuana advocate for 20 years. I would be very happy to help you get your facts straight. Your discredited rhetoric is a gateway to more prohibitionist laws and draconian punishments. PLEASE inform yourself and abandon your ridiculous organization, which is opposed to having an intelligent discussion. This discussion is long overdue. You are on the wrong side of history. Go drink your Jim Beam and smoke your cigs, and give this some more thought. (During my 20 year tenure doing this work, I have noticed that most people who oppose medical marijuana are alcoholics and smokers, so much for leading kids in the correct direction!)
Gotta watch out . . .
for the dreaded "public perception" that a harmless substance really is, well, harmless.
Margaret Polovchak is a Cold Blooded ONDCP Operative
Ms. Polovchak’s organization (MCYAF), including her salary, is funded by grants from the ONDCP. She also raises money locally. Ms. Polovchak has been praised by her community leaders for her grant writing ability, which has added many of our tax dollars to their local economy.
Margaret Polovchak’s rhetoric at community meetings is laced with ONDCP misinformation. She also uses her government funded organization as a front to campaign against the adoption of medical marijuana in Illinois. She is circulating a form petition letter that lists former drug czar Peter Bensinger and her among its signers and backers. Peter Bensinger, the lame schmuck who introduced asset forfeiture to the drug war, probably thinks his opposition to medical marijuana will save his piss testing business. Tough luck, Peter. Things change.
Ms. Polochak’s use of MCYAF resources to influence an Illinois election involving medical marijuana is a violation of the 1939 Hatch Act, which “prohibits using any public funds designated for relief or public works for electoral purposes.” This is a woman who will go to any lengths to suck up drug war capital. Strangely, she is also a woman who gives speeches before the local Rotary Club describing her bariatric surgery.
Giordano
What about the children?
How will the kids get good weed when it's regulated and sales are overseen by those checking IDs? Think of the children! They need relief and prohibition is the only sure fire way to provide that relief to them, albiet through black market channels.
Yes!
With the present situation, it is like feeding the school kids to the dealers on a silver platter. Dealers don't card, people! And the catch 22 to all of this is that the drugs have to be legal to be regulated. Can't regulate "illegal" drugs! People need to start thinking out of the box!
It's really not
"out of the box" thinking that is needed, it is just plain common sense!
No human being has a legitimate right to tell any other adult human being what s/he may ingest for pleasure, sustenance, or medicine. And no person, group of people, or government has a legitimate power to arrest, fine or incarcerate any human being for what s/he ingests, period. "My body, my decision. It is that incredibly simple. If my body is not my own, freedom is a myth."
I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!
Respectfully disagree.
As a pain management doctor, I was told how to practice medical care of chronic pain patients by the medical board. Because I did not do it their way, (and not according to scientific standards) I am now without a medical license!
There were a few relatives that complained that the patients were getting "too much" pain medicine. (They were not the ones in pain!)
Common sense won't work on these people. They need to think out of their "drug prohibitionists' box", anyway. Those prohibitionists, that would argue, would say that it is common sense to ban these drugs, and enforce the drug laws since their abuse often results in deaths of someone's family members. (So much for personal responsibility!) They would say they have the legitimate right to (try to) prevent the death of their loved ones.
Out of the box, means a different approach than using jail as a drug treatment program! Prohibition has failed. And, it has caused today's Mexican crime scene to look like the US during the time of alcohol prohibition and Al Capone! People have to realize that prohibition has failed.
Picking on MMJ
In reading the whole article, the polls she is citing revealed an increase in All forms of drug use as well as alcohol with the use of LSD rivaling MJ as far as percent of increase, so why does she isolate MJ for her attacks? Her ignorance of the true stats about legalizing MJ is appalling. If ignorance is bliss, she must be ecstatic!
"goddamn those pothead drivers"
There's a reason no one goes around saying that. There are millions of people who would love to be able to say it but they know it's just too big a lie to pull off. Margaret Polovchak's drug on the other hand has the country terrorized by all the violence people commit under its influence every day. But she's too busy fighting a war on medicine to notice. Maybe she's so slow she still doesn't understand that alcohol is a drug.
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