The Culture War Is Over

[paperburn1]

I disagree.
Dealers occur when there is a demand for the product, legal or otherwise.
Amway Dealers?

[mvanwink5]

[GIThruster]

. . .nearly all medicines have issues and usually it is a matter of trade offs as to what is selected.

I agree, but I'm fully aware of the tradeoffs with cannabis and people who want to see it decriminalized and used for medical reasons are almost all dopers. The drug has so many severe effects that it certainly would never make it through the FDA if it were discovered today. It would not even make it to the FDA as no drug company would take responsibility for a drug that makes people psychotic.

Just reminding, psych wards all over this country are full, almost EVERY person in those wards uses cannabis, and you cannot have cannabis induced psychosis without smoking grass. We did not have this trouble before Vietnam but we do have it now.

[mvanwink5]

people who want to see it decriminalized and used for medical reasons are almost all dopers.

What is a 'doper'?

The drug has so many severe effects that it certainly would never make it through the FDA if it were discovered today.

That would include aspirin. I lament the failure to put medical treatment in the original Bill of Rights. The FDA is an abomination, stuck in the 1800's. It is the reason for the medical care disaster we have today with impossible treatment costs.

psych wards all over this country are full,

the number of adults with at least one chronic disease is reported at 75%, and with 2 or more at 25%. Chronic disease is at epidemic levels. How about a different hypothesis, how about the cause is the human Microbiome and successive infection, with the 'psychological' diagnoses being just another symptom of that epidemic? Palliative care is all that is offered by the FDA / Medical / Pharma crony industry. Illegal drugs would just be a side show.

The point is that there are more plausible interpretations of the issue, but if all someone has is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and in this case, I ask you if you might consider other approaches other than criminal prosecution for what is likely a medical problem compounded by Gubermant shackles on every aspect of the issue from research, treatment alternatives, treatment costs, and even the very communication of treatment alternatives.

[Diogenes]

D,
I don't understand. How is what you posted an argument against medical MJ?

Usage of the term "medical marijuana" is merely battlespace preparation for the larger issue.



As with Every AIDS case wearing the face of Ryan White, or every Abortion argument wearing the face of rape victims, so too do people who push the concept of legalized drugs resort to this same sort of tactic when they hype the "medical marijuana" claim. It's just trolling for emotional response, and that is all it is. (Note Simon's "500,000 a year is Mass Murder" histrionics in another thread. I haven't even looked at it, but i'm pretty sure it's about drugs. )


We see just how medical it is when California allowed it. The "medical" test was pretty much " Do you have stress? " And if you said "Yes, the response was "Let me prescribe you some Marijuana for your medical condition."



The larger issue is should narcotic drugs be legalized, and the answer is no. "Medical Marijuana" is just an effort to get a foot in the door for the larger argument. It is an effort to use incrementalism to reach an eventual goal of full legalization of all drugs.


You are trying to separate the two things by wanting to restrict discussion of this topic to the "Hood Ornament" of the legalize drugs crowd. I insist it belongs with the rest of the vehicle.

'Dealers' occur only because of the prohibition laws.

In China they had no prohibition laws, yet they still had dealers. They have "Dealers" in California, Colorado, and Washington.


If you think someone will not come along to deal a lucrative product then you don't have a good grasp of economics and human nature.


You know very well that "Dealers" are going to be axiomatic if a product is available.

The massive number of poor are a result of socialism and associated corruption. State charity gives 10 cents on the dollar (at best) into the hands of the poor. All these dismal pictures I have seen are the result of the poor, but you full well know that. Separate issues if you want to see cause and effect.

You know full well that if someone has built their life around getting high, they won't be able to hold a job, and especially if the state is willing to come in and provide for them, they won't have any interest in trying to get and keep a job.


The availability of drugs will make people poor. Once again, I point to the rats wired to feel pleasure when they push a button. They pushed that button until they died.


It is the same phenomena with humans, we just use drugs instead of buttons.

[Diogenes]

The FDA is an abomination, stuck in the 1800's. It is the reason for the medical care disaster we have today with impossible treatment costs.

The FDA is by no means the main driver of health care costs. That would be Health "Insurance."


As an engineer you are familiar with negative feedback. When the recipients of medical care are not directly connected to the costs, you have cut the negative feedback loop. Insurance companies will routinely pay costs that would send the recipients looking for cheaper alternatives if they were presented with the prospect of having to pay them.


Because recipients do not directly pay their own bills, they have no qualms about getting excessive and expensive tests, or insisting on the most expensive treatment. By empowering this health "insurance" system, we have disconnected the negative feedback system necessary to keep the market stable. Hence costs have been continuously rising far more than they should in an actual market based system.


As an example of medical care in which the negative feedback system is intact and is therefore market based, I give you eye surgery. Specifically keratotomy. Costs have continuously come down, and now the surgery is reasonably priced. It is generally *NOT* covered by insurance. It is generally elective, and this is the reason costs are not skyrocketing as they are with the rest of the medical industry.