Medicinal Marijuana

[valaya]

There is another way to use this herb other than smoking it, which has so many negative aspects. Marihuana butter can be made and consumed like any other medicine. The effects are more gradual, but steady. Smoking gives a quick buzz, possibly a brief `high`, then usually an energy drain.

 

There is also the added benefit with eating the THC of it being much less expensive. Even the lowest grades can be used and nothing is wasted by incineration. I'd be happy to provide directions, if I can find the book, or maybe try to remember...

[JRdd]

I wish to bring up the subject about the medicinal uses of marijuana, as some chronically ill devotees have resorted to it when all else failed. I myself used it many times for pain and chronic nausea, and I feel it helped me tremendously to regain some strength, when I could not eat. This was before I was finally prescribed a homoeopathic remedy, which was the first of many alternative treatments I tried which actually helped me. Now I know that marijuana is an intoxicant, but what about using it medicinally. And I mean this honestly. Not addictively, as in daily, but sincerely as needed. Illness itself can be extremely mind-altering, can also cause severe depression. I really don't think that a devotee who uses marijuana medicinally is necessarily breaking the principles; this can only be known by the devotee using this herb. Conscience is such a personal thing. It is between the devotee and guru and Krsna.

 

And personally, I would take anything natural before I would take drugs, which destroy the body's organs and immune system. I was taking Ibuprofen years ago, against my better judgement, after a car accident, and found, sure enough, that it was the worst thing for my sick liver. Marijuana in such cases is a much better alternative.

 

In California marijuana was voted in by the Compassionate Act for its use in AIDS and HIV patients, as well as sufferers from arthritis, etc. It has also been used in curing and preventing glaucoma, among other things.

 

I would not generally recommend marijuana as a medicine as I know that people who use it are usually attached to it in a habitual way. But I know how I used it.

 

[This message has been edited by JRdd (edited 10-23-2001).]

[premananda]

I know, one tends to forget many things when smoking too much

[valaya]

Originally posted by premananda:

I know, one tends to forget many things when smoking too much

...and it wasn't just smoking, sorry to say! Fortunately that's all in the past for me, thanks to Srimati Radharani and His Divine Grace. Haribol!

 

valaya RR

 

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by valaya (edited 10-31-2001).]

[livingentity]

If possible, I would like to see some serious input on this subject.

 

I was never much of a pot smoker - never liked the idea of inhaling anything in my lungs and also did not like the lethargy of being stoned.

 

My state has recently ok'd medicinal marijuana and I have been mulling over this concept quite a bit lately.

 

I suffer from a disease which one of the symtoms is chronic pain sometimes to the point of not being able to function and also causing much loss of sleep.

 

I am being treated by a doctor and I think the treatments for this are sometimes worse than the disease. And when I complained of not being able to sleep the doctor wanted to prescribe barbs which I turned down.

 

I began wondering the same thing as JRdd - if the marijuana was used as a medicinal herb could it still be considered an intoxicant. My past experience with it was basically smoke it and fall asleep - this would seem a much better alternative than laying awake in pain all night or taking a narcotic even though prescribed by a physician.

 

I don't want to rationalize and twist things to serve my purpose but the idea of medicinal marijuana has been on my mind a lot lately. I really would like to have serious response to this.

[JRdd]

I would just like to add that taking it just before sleep isn't exactly like one is intending to be intoxicated; otherwise one would want to be awake. The side effects from modern drugs are horrendous and many of them permanently damaging to the organs, are especially harmful for the liver, and most are still in guinea pig stage--notice how they are continually eliminating old meds due to unforeseen side effects and coming out with new and "better" ones. Until they eliminate them too--or give them to so called third world countries, or continue fobbing them off on the unwary and uneducated public. My mother would accept anything a doctor told her to take before she'd ever consider the natural things that God so kindly put on this earth for our use.

[valaya]

There are many other natural herbs, remedies and treatments available. Devotees need not rationalize the use of those which are expressly forbidden to them.

 

My previous suggestion of marihuana butter was in hopes of weaning those already addicted to smoking it, or using even worse drugs, onto a more preferable form of ingestion.

 

Eventually, the goal would be to become as drug-free as possible under the individual circumstances. Perhaps if Living Entity could explain her situation better, other solutions might be offered here.

 

valaya RR

 

[This message has been edited by valaya (edited 11-10-2001).]

[Bhaktavasya]

 

In keeping with the subject, medicinal use of marijuana, it seems to me that the 'goal' is to be as pain free as possible, if possible. There are a number of different websites dedicated to the use of medical marijuana. Some people prefer to make a tea with the buds and leaves, others find that by smoking it the effect is quicker and more direct. A word to the wise; with the 'holy herb', less is more. In other words, there is no need to get blasted by smoking excessively, which can and does put one into a stupour. Too much of it can cause depression, whereas just a few tokes can have the opposite effect.

A main point is that it is very individual; some people need to have some on a daily basis, others only on occasion.

 

A couple of Bhagwatam verses come to mind in relation to this:

 

"A thing is only evil or good according to the purpose for which it is used" and

 

"That which is the cause of bondage, applied theraputically, can be the cause of liberation."

 

Ultimately, as Jayaradhe says, it is a private matter, between the person making the decison about her/his body and God.

[talasiga]

Originally posted by Bhaktavasya:

"That which is the cause of bondage, applied theraputically, can be the cause of liberation."

 

OKAY !

You tie my left hand an I'll tie your right !

 

 

 

[Bhaktavasya]

Originally posted by talasiga:

OKAY !

You tie my left hand an I'll tie your right !

 

 

 

Theraputically considered, an intriguing proposition.

 

 

[talasiga]

Originally posted by Bhaktavasya:

Theraputically considered, an intriguing proposition.

 

 

THERAPU ?

 

Hey what is this ?

Canadian Cow Pat Therapy ?

 

 

[Bhaktavasya]

Originally posted by talasiga:

THERAPU ?

 

Hey what is this ?

Canadian Cow Pat Therapy ?

 

 

No, misinterpeted political references

 

the therapist within can agree to be tied in empathy to the left and understanding to the right, while reserving the right to be free from bondage to either side of the political body. What were YOU talking about when introducing the idea of mutually bound/tied up wrists?

 

 

 

[talasiga]

Bhaktavasya: [T]he therapist within can agree to be tied in empathy to the left and understanding to the right, while reserving the right to be free from bondage to either side of the political body.

Talasiga: This is agreeable except that I think the word "political" is misplaced.

 

Bhaktavasya: What were YOU talking about when introducing the idea of mutually bound/tied up wrists?

Talasiga:I don't recall either raising wrists or tying two <u>together</u>.

[Tarun]

If one of you can manage to pipe your pot smoke in through 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue's vent system...

the resultant reduction of worldwide violence would...

surely help us all to breathe a whole lot easier.

Maybe Colonel North still has some stash left in the basement.

[Tarun]

Court Protects Marijuana Use With Doctors' OK

By Maura Dolan, LA Times Staff Writer

 

Law: A patient who grows or smokes marijuana for personal health reasons, with a doctor's OK, cannot be prosecuted in state court, California justices rule.

 

Friday, 19 July, 2002

Californians who use or grow marijuana for personal medical use are protected from prosecution in state court as long as they have doctors' approval, the California Supreme Court decided unanimously Thursday.

 

In its first review of the medical marijuana initiative, which was approved by voters in 1996, the court said a medical user who is arrested can get the charges dismissed without a trial if the patient has a note on a prescription pad or any other evidence of a doctor's approval.

 

The ruling overturns the felony conviction of a blind man with diabetes who was arrested after police spotted 31 marijuana plants growing in the frontyard of his home in Twain Harte in Tuolumne County.

 

Under the state law, "the possession and cultivation of marijuana is no more criminal--so long as its conditions are satisfied--than the possession and acquisition of any prescription drug with a physician's prescription," Chief Justice Ronald M. George wrote for the court.

 

The decision widens the gap between the treatment of marijuana cases in California's state courts and in federal courts in the state.

 

Until Thursday, all major rulings on Proposition 215, the state's medical marijuana law, have been made by federal courts and based on federal law.

 

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a case on the California initiative, ruled that there is no medical exception for the use of marijuana under federal law. As a result, people can still be prosecuted in federal court, regardless of the state law.

 

But individual users and growers in California are generally prosecuted in state courts, which are required to follow Thursday's ruling.

 

Gerald Uelmen, a University of Santa Clara law professor who argued the case for defendant Myron Carlyle Mower, 40, said the decision would reduce prosecutions throughout the state.

 

Since 56% of voters approved Proposition 215, dozens of Californians have been arrested on marijuana charges despite claims of medical need, he said.

 

"It is a wonderful victory for patients," Uelmen said.

 

He said he hoped the ruling would discourage police from arresting those who grow marijuana and have doctors' notes recommending its use.

 

"I don't think police are interested in arresting people who are not going to be prosecuted," he said.

 

Ann Brick, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which also argued for Mower, praised the court for being "quite protective of the rights of medical marijuana patients."

 

"The court is making very clear that it understands the people of California wanted to confer real protection to the medical users of marijuana, and this decision helps make that possible," Brick said.

 

The state attorney general's office, which represented Tuolumne County prosecutors in the appeal, said it was reviewing the decision.

 

California is one of nine states with medical marijuana laws. The decision was the first by a state high court on such a law, Uelmen said.

 

After Mower's conviction, a state appeals court said the voter initiative had merely given defendants the right to present a medical defense during a trial.

 

That ruling, by a Court of Appeal in Fresno, also said that users or growers must show, by a preponderance of the evidence, that they had the marijuana solely for medical purposes.

 

Under Thursday's ruling, by contrast, a grower or user can ask a judge to dismiss the charges without trial.

 

If the amount of marijuana involved is considered large or the doctor's approval questionable, the defendant might still face a trial to determine whether the marijuana was purely for the defendant's medical use.

 

But the ruling also made it easier for such defendants to win if a case goes to court. Under the court's ruling, the defendant does not have to prove that the marijuana is solely for medical use. If there is any reasonable doubt about the marijuana's use, the defendant wins. "Most similar is the defense of possession of a dangerous or restricted drug with a physician's prescription, against a charge of unlawful possession of such a drug," George wrote.

 

"For that defense, a defendant need raise only a reasonable doubt as to his or her possession of the drug in question with a physician's prescription."

 

The court cited a provision in the initiative that says criminal penalties "shall not apply to a patient, or to a patient's primary caregiver, who possesses or cultivates marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician."

 

"The provision," the court said in People v. Mower, S094490, "renders possession and cultivation of marijuana noncriminal" when it is done for medical purposes.

 

Mower, who has had diabetes since he was 8 years old, testified that the 31 plants would supply him with 5 pounds of marijuana in a year and estimated his consumption at eight grams a day.

 

An expert witness for the defense testified that the plants would yield 4.35 pounds a year, but an expert for the prosecution countered that the plants would produce 31 to 62 pounds.

 

"Had the jury properly been instructed that defendant was required merely to raise a reasonable doubt about his purposes ... it might have found him not guilty," George wrote for the court. "We come to this conclusion because the jury might have found that defendant raised a reasonable doubt--to wit, whether the 31 plants would yield a harvest of only about 5 pounds for a year's supply."

 

Mower, who said he cannot maintain his weight without using marijuana, had been sentenced to five years' probation for growing the plants.

 

"I have a doctor who completely agrees with me that I need to have this," Mower said. "I have nausea all the time and wasting syndrome. And if I smoke a little, I am in the kitchen looking for something to eat and drink."

 

He said marijuana also puts him in a good mood and gives him stamina.

 

The issue in Mower's case was the number of plants he was growing. A Tuolumne County police policy says medical users may have three plants.

 

"They pulled out all but three of the worst plants and two weeks later took us to jail, booked me and kept my wife overnight," Mower said.

 

He said he now hopes to return to court and ask a judge to permit him to grow more than three plants, which are "not anywhere near enough." He said he needs to smoke about six or seven marijuana cigarettes a day and has been forced to buy from an illicit dealer.

 

"Those drug houses are dangerous places to be," he said.

 

Counties around the state have different policies about how many plants a medical user may grow. The permitted amounts range from three plants to 99. The ruling did not address the variance in policies.

 

"That's a bit of a disappointment," said Uelmen, Mower's lawyer, "because it is an issue of a grave statewide concern and a cause of a lot of confusion....We need a statewide standard, but that will have to wait for another day."

 

For users who are not advised to smoke marijuana for medical reasons, possession of less than an ounce in California is a misdemeanor punishable by a $100 fine. Cultivation is a felony.

 

Lael Rubin, special counsel to the Los Angeles County district attorney, said the district attorney's office does not prosecute growers unless they have at least 25 plants and there is evidence of a commercial purpose, such as scales and plastic bags. Other cases are treated as misdemeanors and referred to the city attorney, she said.

[Guest guest]

there are many many more way's to use marijuana than just smokeing it. there is (honey oil) wich is tile oil but with a honey flavor and con be put on anything such as a cigeret. you can put it in any type of food that you may like, there are pills, there is hashish wich is in a powder form.

[Bhakta Don Muntean]

...poison is also used for human benefit [medical use] if one knows... [Lecture, May 24, 1969]

 

Dr. Patel: What is medicine? Any herb is a medicine, even food is a medicine.

 

Prabhupada: Whatever it may be, I don’t decry medicine. That is not my business. [Morning walk, August 14, 1976]

 

I am of the understanding that Prabhupada used 'snuff' on occasion to I think - regulate his heart....

 

However he replied to someone once on the topic:

 

Regarding taking snuff, I myself take it sometimes at night because I am working at night on my books, and sometimes I become dizzy. But it is not for you to take. You should not imitate this, neither you work like me at night. [Letter January 09, 1974]

 

So I guess it's something that one can see a for and an against - I myself say that if you need grass - take it.

 

I think when faced with chemical drugs and natural ones - well the choice is obvious.

 

I know there is a quote where Prabhupada says there is a medical application for grass.

 

BDM