Question of Marijuana's ability - different angle?

[Jack Wilborn]

I sent this and it was suggested I place it here, so here goes.

Since I received so much feedback from my first comment I thought I'd add another one with a different question. Although we discussed the possibility of legalization, and medical use of Marijuana, I know many of you felt that our governments position was the correct one.

I would like to ask many of you whom opposed the medicinal use of Marijuana about a strain of Marijuana that contains very low THC and high CBD. If you don't know, THC is the 'high' causing part of marijuana, although most of the cannabinoids have some form of effect.

Many of the breeders have strains that have very low THC and very high CBD and you can smoke it for ever and not get high, would this be acceptable? Or how about this, read the following link, although pro-marijuana, it does state a fact relating to a patent by the US Government Health and Welfare Department. It's patent #663050 and here is a quick link http://uspatent6630507.com/ or you can look it via Google.

Although many of you think Dr. Gupta is a left winger, I find most doctors in the news industry do take their medicines seriously and the reports reflect that. He has created another documentary that outlines some of the problems with Medical Marijuana laws in a state and the conflict with the Federal Government. You can find both of his documentaries on youtube, the latest is "Weeds 2" I believe and seems very accurate.

Many doctors believe that the best medicine with Marijuana contains all the parts without removing any component as it seems to take the balance to work properly. Even the low THC, high CBD has some THC present. Some of the cancer drugs that are used have some kinds of cannabinoids but not THC and they don't work on a majority.  One such drug is Marinol, approved in 1985 to help cancer patients develop an appetite, commonly known as the "munchies".

I didn't bring this up before, as most have no belief that Marijuana has any acceptable medicinal use, but seeing some of these kids that have died, because they could not get the proper CBD to curb their seizers. There are some laws named after these poor kids, that have died while waiting for an approval of state for access. There is also a great influx of people to Colorado and Washington because they can't get their kids the proper drugs.

A realized problem in the Marijuana area is the driving while intoxicated part that all of us, especially officers have the problem. Washington uses a blood draw and has an amount of THC per liter of blood as an indication of DUI with Marijuana, we should also accept that type of system, not the one we have now that puniness anyone who has even been around it for a month with a guaranteed DUI if caught behind the wheel.

OK I've said my piece, go ahead and shoot!

Jack

[American Pride]

I'm just going to shoot you a 'thank you' for another great post on this subject. It's so good to see someone who has been doing their homework on marijuana and especially the distinction between high THC and hight CBD. That is a very important thing to understand to have an intelligent discussion about marijuana and especially its medical use.

I agree 100% with getting the blood draw system here to test for DUI with marijuana. There is a big difference between the way that the body processes (and stores) marijuana and the way that it processes alcohol. We can't use a breathalyzer to get accurate reads for marijuana users.

[Jack Wilborn]

American Pride...  I don't think it's really different how they process, it's really the chemistry that occurs when tested.  Marijuana tests use the metabolized chemicals, where alcohol use an actual amount of alcohol per liter (or micro liter) of blood. I'm sure you can test for metabolites for alcohol, but nobody cares.  I believe that it was cheap and easy to test for the metabolites in urine than to test for the THC itself.  A plus is that it identifies anyone being around Marijuana, which as been illegal since the inception of the political Schedule system of drug categorizing since the early 70's.  It also requires a blood draw whereas with alcohol they needed something that could be portable and with the large 'intoxilyzers', the technology was there, just had to make it smaller as with all things technical.  I'm hoping they will come up with the same type of test for Marijuana.

The DUI problem with Marijuana has been reported on TV and the paper, but noone seems to care that they are guilty for doing something that is legal.  We need to get our representatives to come into the 21st century.

Surprisingly, I've virtually no feedback about this post and it's been a couple of days.  I find it hard to believe that everyone agrees!

Thanks for the note, hope all is well at your end.

Jack