Prayer or Marijuana?

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that “no sound scientific studies” supported the medical use of marijuana, contradicting a 1999 review by a panel of highly regarded scientists.

But it appears to flout the spirit of a 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine, a unit of the National Academy of Sciences.
The institute was appropriately cautious in its endorsement of marijuana. It said the active ingredients of marijuana appeared useful for treating pain, nausea and the severe weight loss associated with AIDS. It warned that these potential benefits were undermined by inhaling smoke that is more toxic than tobacco smoke. So marijuana smoking should be limited, it said, to those who are terminally ill or don’t respond to other therapies.{Source}

To get around the smoking issue, make a tea from marijuana. From what I have read, you get the same benefits, without the harm from the smoke. No one seems to be testing this form of self medication. It’s like the scientist are researching if marijuana helps with pain management, while keeping in a reason for most people not to use it. Isn’t it time the scientists do some research on the tea. Does it work? Is it harmful? It is also time to take the “moral values” out of scientific research on, at least, this subject.
It is against the law to let animals suffer. Why should humans have to suffer? Expecially for a political reason!
The announcement inserts the health agency into yet another fierce political fight.
Susan Bro, an agency spokeswoman, said Thursday’s statement resulted from a past combined review by federal drug enforcement, regulatory and research agencies that concluded “smoked marijuana has no currently accepted or proven medical use in the United States and is not an approved medical treatment.”
Ms. Bro said the agency issued the statement in response to numerous inquiries from Capitol Hill but would probably do nothing to enforce it. {Source}

So what? There are many legal drugs which either do nothing for some people, or are even deadly. Should we make them illegal because they may not be proven to help all people? Should they be illegal because they cause harm or even death to some people? No!
We, as American’s, have Rights. Not just those which are innumerated. We have the right to use any substance we wish. Even if it is harmful. Think alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, eating bad fat and other foods which are injurious to us. We have the right not to exercise, not to maintain a healthy weight. We have the right to not have a medical treatment, even to save our lives. We have the right to not allow our children to have medical treatment. The list can go on and on. We do stupid things all the time. But that is our right.

How come when it comes to marijuana and other street drugs, we become crazy? Mr. Limbaugh preaches all the time about putting all drug abusers away for life. And yet, he is a drug abuser. Yes, he used legal drugs, but not legally obtained. Don’t see him turning himself in, pleading guilty and going away for life.

This report says that they have not found any medical benefit for the use of Marijuana in medical treatment. So what?
In the largest study of its kind, researchers report “that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications. They also said they had no explanation for the higher complication rate in patients who knew they were being prayed for, in comparison to patients who only knew it was possible prayers were being said for them”.

Should we make pray illegal? If you follow the logic used in the medical marijuana question, you must make praying for a patient illegal. After all, you are not benefiting them, you are actually bringing on more complications, which may lead to their deaths. No one has said that using marijuana for medical benefits has killed anyone or made for more complications. Under this reasoning, yes we should make prayer illegal.

There is always the placebo effect. With prayer, it seems the placebo effect is not helpful. It actually is dangerous. If you think something will help you, it may not. But, physical use of a substance does often help. Even though it is only a placebo.

Many people self medicate themselves with alcohol. That is legal. Many people self medicate with prayer. That is legal. Some people self medicate with marijuana. That is illegal under the Federal Laws. Some States have made it legal. But the Federal Government still interfers with the States Rights. Our Human Rights!
Whatever gets you through the day and night. As long as it is not harming others, why should any of us care what others do?

My father-in-law died of stomach cancer. He went to a hospital run by the same religion he was a member of. They did not believe in addictive drugs being given for the relief of pain. Because they believed that you would not be “saved” if you met your maker while under the influence of an opiate. He suffered for months. I am sure that a loving God, who put all these helpful pain and stress relievers on His planet, did not intend for His children to suffer. Did He not say that everything was for our use?

Treat all others as you would like to be treated. If you use any substance, what makes it okay for you to use it? The law? Isn’t our system based on equal justice under the law. How can this be equal justice?
Stay out of my life! Stay out of my body! Stay out of my medical treatment, especially one which is between my Doctor and myself! Stay out of my religion or my choice to not be religious! Just stay out!
I will decide what is best for me. No one else. I will take advice from people who have proof of the truth on any subject. But I will not have my life choices decided by someone else’s beliefs.

A popular government, without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.

~James Madison~

I am an “American Citizen: All Rights Reserved!”