DdC

Dear Friend: After three-and-a-half years of waiting, the DEA has blocked the only proposed research project that could lead to FDA approval of marijuana as a prescription medicine.

Please read on to find out why this ostensibly bad news actually provides a big boost to the Marijuana Policy Project's efforts to pass federal- and state-level medical marijuana legislation ... as well as a boost to the medical marijuana case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

On December 10, the DEA announced its rejection of a 2001 University of Massachusetts at Amherst application to establish a facility to produce marijuana for FDA-approved research.

Please visit http://www.mpp.org/states/site/quicknews.cgi?key=824 and http://mpp.org/USA/news_786.html to read the news coverage.

Currently, there is only one source of marijuana that can be used in FDA-approved research -- the marijuana produced by the University of Mississippi for the federal government's National Institute on Drug Abuse. Significantly, this marijuana cannot be the marijuana that is moved through the FDA approval process, because prescription medicines cannot be government-owned ... which is why researchers have been trying for years to gain approval to produce a private supply of marijuana that can be tested, reproduced, studied in clinical trials, and ultimately approved by the FDA as a prescription medicine.

In rejecting the researchers' application, the DEA stated that it would allow only one source of marijuana in the U.S. -- the federal government's supply in Mississippi -- which makes it impossible that the FDA could ever approve marijuana as a prescription medicine.

And, just in case there is any doubt about the DEA's intent to block research, the DEA's letter goes on to say this: "Current marijuana research has not progressed to Phase 2 of the clinical trials because current research must use smoked marijuana, which ultimately cannot be the permitted delivery system for any potential marijuana medication due to the deleterious effects and the difficulty in monitoring the efficaciousness of smoked marijuana." Incredibly, the DEA is declaring that the FDA cannot approve marijuana before Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials are even completed (not that they even can be started with a private supply of marijuana). Visit http://www.mpp.org/pdf/DEA.pdf to download the letter.

In other words, the DEA has proven that the system is rigged to ensure that the FDA can never approve marijuana as a prescription medicine, because the DEA can always block the research that the FDA requires.

While the DEA's action is a setback for the effort to make marijuana available as a prescription medicine through the FDA approval process, it actually boosts MPP's efforts to remove penalties for medical marijuana through the legislative process ... and may help win the medical marijuana case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the Supreme Court three weeks ago, Justice Stephen Breyer suggested that patients should go to the FDA to get marijuana approved as a medicine, but now the DEA has slammed the door on that possibility.

By taking the hard-line position it has, the DEA has just eliminated our opponents' most effective and often-used argument against our federal and state-level medical marijuana bills -- that marijuana should move through the FDA approval process and therefore we shouldn't be trying to use the legislative process. Now that FDA approval is impossible, it blows apart our opponents' argument. MPP is making sure that all members of Congress and all state legislators nationwide hear this message loud and clear.

In sum, since the DEA's decision means the only way to protect patients from arrest is through state and federal legislation, our efforts in both Congress and the states are even more urgent.

MPP will be using the DEA's announcement to propel the various medical marijuana bills through the legislatures of Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, and Rhode Island. Please visit http://www.mpp.org/donate1095 to help us fund these campaigns.

Thank you, as always, for your support. Sincerely,

Rob Kampia Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project Washington, D.C.
Rob@mpp.org 20 Dec 2004



"Arbitrary and capricious" is legal language that was used by DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young in 1988 to conclude that DEA was obligated under the Controlled Substances Act to reschedule marijuana as a prescription medicine. DEA Chief Administrator Robert Bonner proceeded to arbitrarily and capriciously disregard Judge Young's well researched and reasoned decision, which the Act allowed him to do.

D.E.A.th Deceptions
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/DEAth.html

Cannabis Shrinks Tumors: Government Knew in 74
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n572/a11.html?1979

Bill Would Outlaw Internet Drug Information
http://makeashorterlink.com/?U311421D5

Secret Searches Bill
http://makeashorterlink.com/?G2E531BE5

THE BUSH-CHENEY DRUG EMPIRE
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/fre...ney-drugs.html

FDA-Approved Medical Marijuana Research Blocked
http://makeashorterlink.com/?T1A726E75

HASHISH FUDGE Soma and the Wootton Report

Urgent Warning about Industrial Hemp...
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z34261265

Political War On Drugs Makes Medical Casualties
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/th

White House Budget Office Flunks the DEA
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget...read9879.shtml

Drug Czar Accused of Supporting Terror
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread12099.shtml

Marijuana Drug Czar Distorts Report
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread14054.shtml

D.E.A. Confirms Grounds To Remove Cannabis from Sch#1
http://tinyurl.com/2l3tc



Police arrested an estimated 755,187 persons for marijuana violations in 2003, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total is the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprised 45 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.

Silencing Political Dissent
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Di...alDissent.html
Terrorism and the Constitution
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Ci...stitution.html
The Law of Posse Comitatus
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Ci...tatus_Law.html

Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children,
practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.
---Pat Robertson - speech at GOP Presidential Convention (1992)

The Folly of Our Drug PoliciesBy Steve Chapman
CN Source: Chicago Tribune December 20, 2004
People learn from experience, but the process can be very slow. In 1973, New York enacted what were known as the Rockefeller drug laws, which imposed some of the harshest sentences in the country. The other day, Gov. George Pataki signed a bill retreating from that draconian approach. It only took 31 years, billions of dollars, and thousands of lives that were wrecked because of youthful mistakes and very bad luck.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20048.shtml

The DEA's Smokescreen
CN Source: Republican December 19, 2004
Thumbs up, thumbs down The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency won't let Lyle E. Craker grow marijuana in his University of Massachusetts laboratory for a federally approved research project because it is against the law to smoke marijuana. Huh?

This is a smokescreen by one federal agency to obstruct legitimate scientific research that will help determine the risks and benefits of marijuana as a prescription medicine.

Craker, as director of the Medicinal Plant Program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is qualified to conduct the research, which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The DEA objects because it cannot allow smoking to be the "permitted delivery system" for marijuana as a potential medication.

Craker should appeal the decision.

For those living with the pain and nausea associated with cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and other serious illnesses who might benefit with marijuana as a prescription drug, we wish him success.
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20046.shtml

MAPS
http://www.maps.org
DEA Ruling Renders Approval Impossible
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20037.shtml
Up In Smoke: A Setback for Medical Marijuana
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20035.shtml
U.S. Puts Brake on 'Pot' Studies
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20034.shtml

Marijuana works: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_2491789

DdC

MMJ User Tries To Stop DMV from Taking Her LicenseBy Brian Melley
CN Source: Associated Press December 21, 2004
The Department of Motor Vehicles postponed a driver's license test for a medical marijuana user with a case before the Supreme Court after her lawyer claimed on Tuesday that she was being unfairly targeted for review without any driving violations. Diane Monson received notice from the DMV earlier this month that she needed to appear at a re-examination hearing Thursday or would lose her license. The notice did not say why she was selected, but she said with the exception of a speeding ticket 15 years ago she had spotless record.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20054.shtml

":Compared to alcohol, which makers people take more risks on the road, marijuana made drivers slow down and drive more carefully.... Cannabis is good for driving skills, as people tend to overcompensate for a perceived impairment."
Professor Olaf Drummer,
a forensic scientist the Royal College of Surgeons in Melbourne in 1996

Australia: No Proof Cannabis Put Drivers At Risk (2001) http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1849/a09.html

UK: Cannabis May Make You A Safer Driver (2000)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1161/a02.html

Crancer Study, Washington Department of Motor Vehicles
"Simulated driving scores for subjects experiencing a normal social "high" and the same subjects under control conditions are not significantly different. However, there are significantly more errors for alcohol intoxicated than for control subjects"

University Of Toronto Study Shows Marijuana Not A Factor In Driving Accidents (1999)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0325110700.htm

Australia: Cannabis Crash Risk Less: Study (1998)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n945/a08.html

U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (DOT HS 808 078), Final Report, November 1993:
"THC's adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small"

Australia: Study Goes to Pot (1998)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n947/a06.html

cannabis and driving UK
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/174.html#driving



Drug Warriors Make Millions Off Marijuana
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20045.shtml

President Ronald Reagan, at the urging of then Vice President George Bush, appointed Carlton Turner as the White House Drug (czar) Advisor in 1981. Soon after Turner left office, Nancy Reagan recommended that no corporation be permitted to do business with the Federal government without having a urine purity policy in place to show their loyalty. Carlton Turner became a rich man in what has now become a huge growth industry: urine-testing.



FASCISM:
1 -a. Totalitarianism marked by right-wing dictatorship and bellicose nationalism.
2. Oppressive, dictatorial control. - The American Heritage Dictionary

"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one."
From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935

"How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured...No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveller in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer..."
HARRY J ANSLINGER
Commissioner of the US Bureau of Narcotics 1930 1962

"All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it. Therefore, the intellectual level of the propaganda must be lower the larger the number of people who are to be influenced by it."
From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935

No! ... Nancy Reagan 1980

Psychologist Tonya Canoso of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center testified yesterday that marijuana is "highly addictive" and leads to medical, family and legal problems. That could be a compelling reason to ban even its religious use.

The USA Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy 1987
"Cannabis can be used on an episodic but continual basis without evidence of social or psychic dysfunction. In many users the term dependence with its obvious connotations, probably is mis-applied... The chief opposition to the drug rests on a moral and political, and not toxicologic, foundation".

"Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise."
From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."
Harry Anslinger, U.S. Commissioner of Narcotics, testifying to Congress on why marijuana should be made illegal,1937.
(Marijuana Tax Act, signed Aug. 2, 1937; effective Oct. 1, 1937.)

"The masses have little time to think.
And how incredible is the willingness of modern man to believe."

"Another weapon I discovered early was the power of the printed word to sway souls to me. The newspaper was soon my gun, my flag - a thing with a soul that could mirror my own."
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini together in the heyday of 1930s fascism.

Bush. Religious drug treatment in Texas
http://makeashorterlink.com/?J17E13B28

Addiction: A Brain Ailment, Not a Moral Lapse
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread17430.shtml

Organic aid for cocaine addiction
http://makeashorterlink.com/?A1B124A37

Smoking Ganja
http://makeashorterlink.com/?E60D23F18



AIDS, DEPRESSION & HUNDREDS OF OTHER PRIMARY MEDICAL USES
The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer

One well known effect of THC is to life the spirit, or make you "high." Cannabis users in Jamaica praise ganja's benefits for meditation, concentration, consciousness-raising and promoting a state of well being and self assertiveness.5 This kind of attitude adjustment, along with a healthier appetite and better rest, often represents the difference between feeling like you are "dying of" AIDS or cancer and feeling like you are "living with" AIDS or cancer. Cannabis also eases small pains and some big ones and helps senior citizens live with aches and pains like arthritis, insomnia and debilitating infirmities, and enjoy life in greater dignity and comfort. Legend has it, and medical evidence indicates, that cannabis is the best overall treatment for dementia, senility, and maybe Alzheimer's disease, for long-term memory "gain" and hundreds of other benefits. U.S. statistics of the 1970s indicated that you will live eight to 24 years longer if you substitute daily cannabis use for daily tobacco and alcohol use. New research is outlawed, of course.

Stepping Off Hard Drugs With Cannabis
http://www.potpride.com/steppingstone.htm
LEGALISE CANNABIS TO HELP DEAL WITH P (meth)
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F20646916
Swiss Prescribe Heroin - Say Pot Should Be Illegal By Clare Nullis
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread17474.shtml

"The media is not into reporting the news, but creating the news........
the media never let the truth get in the way of a good story"
... Jesse Ventura

William Randolph Hearst and Reefer Madness
http://www.reefermadness.org/propaganda/essay.html

The Shafer Commission of 1970
Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency, although some evidence indicates that the heavy, long-term users may develop a psychological dependence on the drug"

"You're enough of a pro," Nixon tells Shafer, "to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what the Congress feels and what the country feels, and what we're planning to do, would make your commission just look bad as hell."

Richard Nixon missing tapes
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread12302.shtml

DdC

"A violently active, intrepid, brutal youth that is what I am after...
I will have no intellectual training. Knowledge is ruin for my young men."
Adolf Hitler quoted by John Gunther "The Nation"

The Assassins of Youth DARE the FRCn PDFA
http://makeashorterlink.com/?W68824DD5
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/po...a/36/36796.gif



"There is a point at which the law becomes immoral and unethical. That point is reached when it becomes a cloak for the cowardice that dares not stand up against blatant violations of justice. A state that supresses all freedom of speech, and which by imposing the most terrible punishments, treats each and every attempt at criticism, however morally justified, and every suggestion for improvement as plotting to high treason, is a state that breaks an unwritten law."
- Kurt Huber [The head of White Rose], killed by the Nazis in 1943.

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. May your chains set lightly upon you. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
- Samuel Adams



Every U.S. commission or federal judge who has studied the evidence has agreed that cannabis is one of the safest drugs known. With all its therapeutic uses, it has only one side effect that has been exaggerated as a concern: the "high." The DEA says this is not acceptable, so cannbis continues to be totally illegal in utter disregard for both doctor and patient. Every day we trust physicians to determine whether the risks associated with therapeutic, yet potentially dangerous drugs are acceptable for their patients. Yet, doctors are not allowed to prescribe the herb that Federal Judge Francis Young in 1988 called "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." We don't put out doctors in charge of stopping violent crimes. The police, prosecutors and prison guards should not be in charge of which herbal therapies people may use to treat their personal health problems.
http://www.jackherer.com/book/ch07.html

RX Marijuana Uses
http://marijuana-uses.com



Seeking Rest From the Terrors, New York Pops PillsBy Jonathan Landreth
New Yorkers are increasingly turning to sedation to help them escape the nightmares created by the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. According to doctors and pharmacists in the city, New York's denizens--many grieving for lost friends and family--are looking to medicine more than ever before to help fall asleep. `The week of the 11th, there were very few calls because patients assumed we were tied up taking care of the disaster and probably thought their problems seemed small,'' said Charles Bardes, associate professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and a New York Hospital doctor.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?B215125F6



SLEEP AND RELAXATION

Cannabis lowers blood pressure, dilates the arteries and reduces body temperature an average of one-half degree, thereby relieving stress. Evening cannabis smokers in general report more restful sleep. Using cannabis allows most people a more complete rest with a higher amount of "alpha time" during sleep as compared with prescription or sleep-inducing patent sedatives. Prescription sleeping pills (the so called "legal, safe and effective" drugs) are often just synthesized analogs of truly dangerous plants like mandrake, henbane and belladonna.

As late as 1991, doctors, pharmacists and drug companies were fighting off new legislation to restrict these often abused compounds. (L.A. Times, April 2, 1991).

Unlike Valium, cannabis does not potentiate the effects of alcohol. It is estimated that cannabis could replace more than 50% of Valium, Librium, Thorazine, Stelazine, other "-zine" drugs and most sleeping pills.

It is unconscionable that, over the past two decades, tens of thousands of parents have committed their own children, aged 11 to 17, to be treated by massive doses of so-called "-zine" drugs in order to get them off pot, at the urging of parent groups, the PDFA, the feds and administrators and doctors from federally approved, private and high-profit drug rehabilitation centers. Often, "-zine" drugs do work to stop these youths from using pot.

They also stop a kid from loving his or her dog, too - and children stand a one-in-four chance of suffering from uncontrollable shaking for the rest of their lives.* But at least they're not high.

* The U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said that 20-40% of "-zine" drug users have or will develop permanent lifetime pasies (shakes), November 1983. These prescription neurotoxins are chemically related to the pesticide and warfare nerve gas Sarin. Hundreds of private drug-rehabilitation centers and their leaders keep this policy alive and in front of the media, often quoting discredited reports from NIDA or DEA (see Chapter 16, debunking) - because they earn fat profits selling their useless or destructive "marijuana treatment" for children. After all, a relapse just means using marijuana against after a number of bouts with an "authority." This is mind control and an attempt to destroy individual free will.
The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer

American Academy of Pediatrics Guidelines
for Treating Behavioral Disorders in Children with Ritalin Ignores Evidence of Cancer Risks

Ritalin --- Pharmaceutical Blackmail (Thread)
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/thread.shtml?1x36222

Prescription for Addiction by Robert W. Lee
http://thenewamerican.com/tna/2001/0...alin_print.htm

CANNABIS LUNG CLEANER AND EXPECTORANT

Cannabis is the best natural expectorant to clear the human lungs of smog, dust and the phlegm associated with tobacco use. Marijuana smoke effectively dilates the airways of the lungs, the bronchi, opening them to allow more oxygen into the lungs. It is also the best natural dilator of the tiny airways of the lungs, the bronchial tubes - making cannabis the best overall bronchial dilator for 80% of the population

(the remaining 20% sometimes show minor negative reactions). (See section on asthma - a disease that closes these passages in spasms - UCLA Tashkin studies, 1969-97; U.S. Costa Rican, 1980-82; Jamaican studies 1969-74, 76.)

Statistical evidence - showing up consistently as anomalies in matched populations - indicates that people who smoke tobacco cigarettes are usually better off and will live longer if they smoke cannabis moderately, too. (Jamaican, Costa Rican studies.)

Millions of Americans have given up or avoided smoking tobacco products in favor of cannabis, which is not good news to the powerful tobacco lobby - Senator Jesse Helms and his cohorts. A turn-of-the-century grandfather clause in U.S. tobacco law allows 400 to 6,000 additional chemicals to be added. Additions since then to the average tobacco cigarette are unknown, and the public in the U.S. has no right to know what they are.

Many joggers and marathon runners feel cannabis use cleans their lungs, allowing better endurance. The evidence indicates that cannabis use will probably increase these outlaw American marijuana-users' lives by about one to two years - yet they may lose their rights, property, children, state licenses, etc., just for using that safest of substances: cannabis.

D.E.A.th Lies: Ganja vs U.S.Tobacco
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/msg7x4385.shtml

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