HaCKeRz KrOnIcKLeZ 3/HaCKeRz_KrOnIcKLeZ.iso/drugs/truth.and.lies

Internet Message Format | 1996-05-06 | 11KB

Date: Sat, 24 Jun 1995 22:20:53 -0400
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
From: "Bill D'Amico" <[e-mail]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[e-mail]>
Subject: DWI intelligence

Drug Watch International put out at least two position papers in
Atlanta. I have the pamphlet "Medical Marijuana Truth  and Lies" and a
press release "Position Statenent on 'Harm Reduction'". There are about
260 lines to follow. Did you notice the atrocious pun in the organization's
acronym? You may score some  points with it.

 DWI "Medical Marijuana Truth and Lies"

"The illegal or harmful use of psychoactive drugs is a major threat to
all world communities and to future generations. Drug Watch
International is a volunteer drug prevention network of experts from a
wide range of professions whose mission is to help assyre a healthier
and safer world through drug prevention.

February 1995 (End of page one)

Truth and Lies

Lie: Marijuana is an effective medication for neasea associated with
cancer chemotherapy.
Truth: Oncologists overwhelmingly reject the idea of prescribing smoked
marijuana. Crude marijuana contains over 400 different chemicals. THC,
the main active ingredient in crude marijuana, is available as the
prescription drug Marinol, for the treatment of nausea associated with
chemotherapy; however safer and more effective anti-emetic medication
are available and preferred by oncologists.

[Ed: Marijuana is effective in combating nausea from transcribing. What
is the point about the 400 chemicals in crude marijuana, there's 800
chemicals in crude brocolli. Where is the information on ocnologists
preffered medications coming from?]

Lie: Marijuana is a beneficial treatment for glaucoma.
Truth: There is no scientific evidence that marijuana prevents the
progression of visual loss in glaucoma. While marijuana, as well as
alcohol and a host of other substances, and lower intraocular eye
pressure, the medication must be carefully tailored to the individual to
prevent further eye damage. Besides numerous adverse side effects of
smoking marijuana, the dose cannot be controlled.

[Elvy Mussika (sp?) is receiving US government marijuana that she
credits with saving what remains of her sight. This is anecdotal
evidence, not a controlled study of smoked marijuana's efficacy against
glaucoma. This evidence is echoed by numerous people that are not so
fortunate as to receive medical marijuana legally. Why does DWI think
people should be thrown in jail for not wanting to go blind?]

Lie: Crude marijuana is effective in treating the wasting sysndrome
associated with AIDS.
Truth: Smoking mairjuana compromises the imune system and puts AIDS
patients at significant risk for infections and respiratory problems.
Current scientific studies show that Marinol (oral THC),which is
effective in icreasing appetite but is ineffective in increasing weight
gain.

[The effectiveness of crude marijuana in treating AIDS wasting syndrome
is not being studied because of political posturing. This is an outrage,
politics should not stand in the way of scientific research. Once again
their is massive anecdotal evidence in favor of the "lie" in DWI's view]

Lie: The government is withholding important medicine from suffering
patients by not allowing the prescribing of marijuana.
Truth: Crude marijuana does not meet the scientific requirements for
efficacy, quality, purity and safety necessary to be considered
medicine. It is neither compassionate nor medically responsible to
prescribe harmful impure substances to ill people.

[Nausea? Blech! Francis Young, a judge for the DEA stated marijuana is
one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. Purity
is something that could be regulated, just like it is with
brocolli...How do you make the link between not meeting a set of
requirements to being harmful and impure. The government is not
witholding medicine from people. They are locking up people for trying
to stay alive and painfree.]

Lie: Smoking marijuana reduces the spasticity associated with multiple
sclerosis.
Truth: In a recent double-blind scientific study, the latest high-tech
electronic equipment was used to determine if smoked marijuana had any
benefit in treating spasicity in patieints with MS. The study found that
all patients receiving marijuana rather than palacebo perceived their
spascity to be lessoned, when in actuality, it was made worse.

[No citation for this "study with high tech equipment". Perhaps these
results are true - does that justify putting Jimmy Montgomery in
prison for what he perceives helps his problem?]

Lie: Many doctors want crude marijuana available so they can prescribe
it to their patients.
Truth: Most doctors want the best medicine possible for their patients.
Although synthetic marijuana (THC) in a pure and standardized form is
available by prescription, it is often the last choice of doctors,
because better medicines as available. The American Medical Association,
the Federal Drug Administration, the National Multiple Sclerosis
Society, the American Glaucoma Society, the American Academey of
Ophthalmology, and the American Cancer Society have all rejected the use
of smoked marijuana as medicine. Marijuana is not recognized as a
medicine in generally accepted pharmacopeia, medical references or
textbooks.

[Marijuana is not prescribed by many doctors because it is illegal to do
so. Nonetheless doctors have councilled patients to use marijuana if
they want t save their eyesight, stay alive through chemotherapy. These
large bodies of doctors would be prescribing it were it available, and
were the studies to prove it's efficacy allowed to happen. Why did the
government (NIDA) block the AIDS wasting study? Because there could be
scientific evidence found showing it's efficacy? How does throwing
people in jail help the patient, regardless of whether it is effective?]

BY ANY MODERN MEDICAL STANDARD, MARIJUANA IS NO MEDICINE.

[End of page 2. I'm feeling very nauseous. I'll type in the harm
reduction statement in another session.]

Position Statement on Marijuana for Medical Use.

Leaf marijuan is not medicine. It is a harmful psychoactive drug.
composed of over 400 different chemical, whcih should not be used by
anyone, especially people who are ill.

Background:
In the last several years, the public has seen the issue of the
therapeutic applications of leaf marijuana reach the level of
discussions of public policy. This movement has been fueled by the
forces seeking to legalize marijuan. Br having marijuana listed as
medicine, they hope to "legitimize" marijuana.

Ratinoale:

Smoked marijuana is neither an acceptable medical treatment nor an
alternative medical treatment for any illness.

Marijuana use has serious health consequences. Concentration, motor
coordination, memory, lungs, reproductive and immune systems are all
adversely impacted by marijuana use; marijuana is addictive.

Physicians who treat people for cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other
diseases do not favor the use of marijuana.

Not one American health organization accepts marijuana as medicine.
These include the American Medical Association, National Multiple
Sclerosis Society, American Glaucoma Society, American Academy of
Ophthalmology and American Cancer Society.

FDA/DEA have repeatedly rejected marijuana for medicinal use. Marijuana
fails to meet any of the Drug Enforcement Administrations or Federal
Drug Administration's eight criteria for approving drugs for medical
use.

Even Marinol, a synthetic form of THC (tetrahydracannibinol), available
by prescription for treating nausea, has far more negative health
effects than other available agents.

There are numerous and more effective anti nausea agents. These include
Prochlorperazine (Compazine), metaclopramide (Reglan), lorazepam,
corticosteroids, thiethylperazine (Torecan), ondansetron (Zofran),
promethazine (Phenagran), perphenazine (Trilafon), and chlorpromazine
(Thorazine)

The pro-drug lobby exlits the suffering of patients with chronic illness
with false promises about marijuana as medicine. They have stated that
they are pushing marijuana as medicine and are using it as a "red
herring" as part of a strategy to legalize marijuana for general use.

[End of page 3. This whle page is just an abomination. Marijuana does
get used by some people as medicine. Whether there are more effective
drugs for the various illnesses it is used for is irrelevent. Why should
people be thrown in jail for attempting to treat themselve? Ethical
doctors will apprise them selves of research results before prescribing
medicines, why won't the government let such research be conducted? What
possible good does it do to put Jimmy Montogomery in jail?]

[Page 4 is a who's who in DWI land (you may want to skip the rest -
theres few surprises - Voth, Bennett, Nahas, ...]
DWI Board of Directors
Stephanie Haynes - TX President
David Noffs - IL Past President
Sandra Bennety - OR Vice President
Carol Wortman - PA Sec/Treas
Joan Belim - IL
Karin Kyles - CT
John Lamp, Esq - WA
Connie Moulton - MA
Alex Romero - AZ
Joyce Tobias - VA
Jose Carranza, MD - TX
Susan Dalterio, PhD - TX
Yessee Ben Yehudah - IL
 Ex-Officio Board
Susie Dugan - NE
  Dir US Delegates
David Evans, Esq - NJ
  Legal Advisor
John F Gilligan, PhD - IL
  Dir International Delegates.
Ann Harsen - MI
  Dir Liason Board
Ariene Seal PhD - PA
  Education Advisor
Maggie Petito - DC
  Public Policy Advisor
Eric Voth, MD, FACP, KS
  Institute Chairman

DWI International Advisors
Pat Barton - FL
Chief Rubin Greenburg - SC
Dick Herndobier - OR
Datuk Haji Idris Ibrahim, DMSM, JSM - Malaysia
Cliff Kincaid - VA
Jerry Johansen - TX
Bernad Lail, PhD - MI
Bill Oliver - GA
Torgny Peterson, Sweden
Col David {erlman - IL
Rep. Gerald Solomon - DC
Padma Talcherkar, MD - IL

International Straegy Institute
Eric Voth, MD, FACP - KS Chairman
Bob Peterson, Esq - MI Vice-Chairman
Wm Bennett, MD, FACP - OR Co-Chair, Scientific
Gabriel Nahas, MD, PhD, - NY Co-Chair Scientific
Beverly Barron - TX
Joan Belim - IL
Peter Bensinger - IL
Dan Brookoff, MD, PhD - TN
Guy Cabral, PhD - VA
Beverly Cox - TX
Lee Dogoloff, LCSW - MD
Robert DuPont, MD - MD
David Evans, Esq - NJ
Ron Gaetano, R.Ph - NJ
John F. Gilligan, PhD - IL
Mark Gold, MD - FL
Charles Graham, MD - KS
Franziska Haller, PhD - Switzerland
Ed Jacobs, MD, FAAP - WA
John Lamp, Esq - WA
Janet LApey, MD - MA
Ian MacDonald, MD - MD
Otto Moulton - MA
Adm Paul Mulloy (Ret) - RI
Percival Pascua, MD - KS
Jill Peralman - England
Louise Perkins - Canada
Edwin Petrik, MD - KS
Tom Pool WA
David Resley, Esq. - IL
Wayne Roques - FL
Richard Scwartz, MD - VA
Alvera Stern, EdD - VA
David Spencer, MD - MN
Donald Tashkin, MD - CA
Forest Tennant, MD, PhD - CA
Harold Voth, MD - KS
E. Joe Wiese - TX

DWI
PO Box 1454
Elmhurst, Illinois 60126-2127