Pubdate: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 Source: Bozeman Daily Chronicle (MT) Copyright: 2011 The Bozeman Daily Chronicle Contact: http://bozemandailychronicle.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1686 Author: Karen Bryan Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n367/a09.html?1326 POT GOOD FOR PEOPLE, NOT RX COMPANIES In response to Richard Begeman on May 28: He said medical marijuana was a farce or fairy tale. There are a lot of bad drugs out there, but marijuana is not one of them. As to a fairy tale, in 1974 there was a study at the Medical College of Virginia which showed anti-cancer effects. This study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 1975. The DEA quickly shut down the study. President Ford ended all research except pharmaceutical companies trying to make a synthetic but they were unsuccessful. The article was sent to Madrid where they did a study in 2000. Their study showed that marijuana slows growth, shrank or destroyed tumors of three cancers - lung, breast and virus-induced leukemia. Our government knows that marijuana works not only for pain but also for cancer. But because pharmaceutical companies do not want it to become legal, it isn't. If they can't patent it, they can't make money on it. You hear that all you have to do is go to your doctor and have him write an Rx. They can't because they could lose their license to practice medicine because it is a federal law. We need a federal law to made it legal. The new restrictions are basically outlawing it. How many people could have been saved by using this medicine? We need more research on the uses of marijuana, and not only by pharmaceutical companies. They have great lobbyists and have given a lot of money to our congressman, senators, governors and presidents to make sure it doesn't become legal. They have done a great job in making people fearful about marijuana and how evil it is. Shame on them for wanting money more than helping the people that they serve. Karen Bryan Bozeman - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.