The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that Obama’s drug czar, ONDCP Director R. Gil Kerlikowske’s speech delivered at the California Police Chiefs Association Conference, “…help[s] clear up confusion over White House drug policy, and can serve as talking points for parents and officials.” Further stating that it is “…his most thorough [argument] yet against marijuana legalization.” In his speech, titled Why Marijuana Legalization Would Compromise Public Health and Public Safety, March 4, 2010, Kerlikowske explains why “…marijuana legalization – for any purpose – is a non-starter in the Obama Administration.”
Kerlikowske first issues a disclosure regarding medical marijuana, stating “…science should determine what a medicine is, not popular vote.” Clearly, he is unaware of US Patent 6630507– Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants, based on research done by the National Institutes of Health and assigned to the US Department of Health and Human Services, awarded in 2003, which states that, “[C]annabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia.”
As a matter of fact, at the same time Kerlikowske was delivering his speech to the police chiefs of California, the USDA was issuing a federal contract to Subsidi-Farm, one of the nation’s largest agricultural companies, to produce a seedless, yellowish, irradiated pot. It will be the only federally recognized legal marijuana that will be controlled and regulated by the government, provided to dispensaries, and enforced by USDA marijuana industry watchdogs that will be trained to recognize marijuana that was not grown by the government, which will then be confiscated. But yet and still, Kerlikowske makes no mention of these developments in his speech. Instead he claims that marijuana “…is associated with dependence, respiratory and mental illness, poor motor performance and cognitive impairment, among other negative effects.” Now, although we are all aware of the health risks associated with inhaling any smoke into our lungs, especially on a consistent basis, Kerlikowske provides no “scientific” data to justify any claims that marijuana is associated with dependence, poor motor performance, cognitive impairment or any other negative effects. In fact, you can’t help but question the credibility of his argument when the government in fact is attempting to produce marijuana and holds patents on cannibinoids.
In his many arguments against legalization, Kerlikowske consistently points to prescription drugs, alcohol and tobacco related statistics to indicate that marijuana legalization will have the same associated costs from health care, lost productivity, and criminal justice, but again, provides no “scientific” evidence from which he draws his conclusions. He fails to acknowledge the many scientific based research claims that clearly indicate marijuana, in all of its forms and uses, provides medical benefits. And although he tries to discredit the California Board of Equalization estimates of $1.4 billion of potential revenue that could arise from legalization in California, for the past several years there has been a push for big pharmaceutical companies to develop and gain patents for cannabis based medicines.
Clearly, an obvious problem to legalization and regulation is the federal; state and local government’s ability to regulate something that we can all grow at home rather easily. I am sure that is why they intend to produce a specific looking plant, produced and distributed by the government. I am not quite sure how that makes me feel though. Is it okay or is it not? I get it…do as I say, not as I do. I used to hate when my parents told me that!
(1) Paul Armentano, Director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML. Published by Alternet. July 5, 2008. Big Pharma Is in a Frenzy to Bring Cannabis-Based Medicines to Market. Retrieved from http://www.alternet.org/drugs/90469/ March 24, 2010.
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