Pubdate: Sat, 24 Nov 2012
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
Copyright: 2012 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact: http://newsminer.com/pages/submit_letters_to_editor
Website: http://newsminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764
Author: Mystiek Lockery

MARIJUANA FACTS

Letter to the Editor

To the editor:

Did you know...

Marijuana/cannabis prohibition was not recommended or even supported 
by the medical community, and its conception, drafting and support 
originated from the political and business communities.

Only after a long campaign of negative, carefully constructed false 
propaganda and threats did medical professionals begin to back the 
government's anti-marijuana rhetoric.

Scientific research run by highly reputable scientists and doctors 
and several reports commissioned by our government and other 
governments show marijuana to be medically beneficial and not harmful.

The Drug Enforcement Administration itself has funded marijuana 
research with the hopes of finding negative results but then defunded 
the project and suppressed the information, when there were positive 
results instead.

Only substances that have no medical value whatsoever qualify as 
Schedule 1 drugs. Marijuana does not qualify, but is kept there regardless.

The DEA's refusal to let marijuana be used medically without 
harassment, prosecution and imprisonment has caused and will continue 
to cause literally millions of people to suffer needlessly, and many 
to even die when marijuana would have helped them live longer and 
with a better quality of life.

The deaths where marijuana is named as a cause involve other 
substances like alcohol, prescription drugs or other illegal drugs. 
Marijuana alone has never killed anyone; you cannot overdose on it. 
It would take hundreds of pounds consumed in an hour. You'd pass out 
before reaching anything near a lethal amount.

Marijuana, used medically or recreationally, does not cause long-term 
damage to the body or mind (the Shaffer Report, a 1970s huge 
government study). The DEA uses what scientists call "gutter science" 
(example: Dr. Tulane's study, that was often quoted by the DEA as 
proof that marijuana destroys brain cells) to "prove" its position. 
It also uses parts of studies and findings to slant what people will 
perceive as the whole result.

Everything I have said here is true and verifiable through several 
sources. A very good book, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," by Jack 
Herer, gives many references and covers a large amount of information 
I don't have room for here.

Mystiek Lockery

Fairbanks
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