Marijuana Hysteria in Fresno

MARIJUANA HYSTERIA IN FRESNO
by Diane Corbin

City Councilperson Jerry Duncan thinks it isn’t necessary for the City of Fresno to obey the laws of the State of California. Police Chief Dyer has visions of fleets of Ice Cream trucks stuffed to capacity with marijuana crisscrossing the town tossing out bagfuls left and right to any and all waiting residents. If, in the last eight years since medical marijuana became legal in California, there have been inundations of Marijuana into the streets, it hasn’t been reported in The Fresno Bee.

The Marijuana Compassionate Act Use was an initiative passed by Californians that has been on the books since 1996. The purposes of the Compassionate Use Act are:

1. To ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes when that use is appropriate and has been recommended by a physician. Uses listed in the act are: to treat nausea following chemotherapy for cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine and any other medical problems that marijuana could help.

2. To ensure that patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes are free from criminal prosecution or sanction.

3. To encourage federal and state governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of it. The Compassionate Use Act defines clearly the exact number of ounces of dried marijuana per qualified patient the caregiver may cultivate, possess, and dispense to each patient. It also specifies where and under what circumstances the smoking of marijuana may or may not take place.

Medicinal use of Marijuana has been practiced by humans for at least 10,000 years. In all these years there have been no recorded fatalities occurring specifically from the use of this herb. Members of the Jamestown Colony in America in 1619 were ordered to grow Indian hemp seed because of a need there for strong ropes made from hemp. And the first two drafts of The Declaration of Independence were written on Dutch hemp paper. Marijuana was listed in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia from 1850 to 1942 and in 1890 Queen Victoria’s physician prescribed cannabis for her for menstrual cramps and possibly gave it to her for pain during childbirth. Pharmacopeias from China and India, dating back some 2000 years and based on oral traditions dating back centuries more cite marijuana’s value for reducing the pain of rheumatism and for treating digestive disorders including constipation and diarrhea and it was also recommended for use as an anesthetic before surgical operations and to ease the symptoms of patients with malaria and beriberi. Literature from ancient India describes similar medical conditions for which various marijuana preparations were used and these various medical uses were investigated for The British Commission in India which realized that these Indian uses matched many of the uses by European doctors. The Commission wrote "Cannabis indica (marijuana) must be looked upon as one of the most important drugs of Indian Materia Medica (Indian pharmacopoeia).

Marijuana products were in widespread use in the United States during the nineteenth century, recommended by doctors and sold over the counter by pharmacists as an ingredient in numerous remedies. Marijuana usage only began to lessen when aspirin was developed for use as a painkiller. And in the period of prohibition of Alcohol (1920-1933) marijuana became subject to the same criticism as that offered by the moralistic and religious forces that criticized the use of alcohol. These forces prevailed in 1937 when Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act which made using Marijuana a criminal offense. At that time a representative of the AMA stated "There is positively no evidence to indicate the abuse of cannabis (marijuana) as a medicinal agent or to show that its medicinal use is leading to the development of cannabis addiction." He also held out the opinion that re-study might show other advantages from its medical use.

Over AMA objections further government decisions removed Marijuana from the American pharmacopoeia in 1942 and in 1970 Congress restructured federal drug laws with the Controlled Substances Act which classified marijuana as a schedule I drug and banned it from medicinal use. Shortly after this a UCLA researcher stumbled upon information which showed the ability of marijuana to reduce the intra-ocular pressure of patients with glaucoma thereby helping to preserve their sight. In the 1970's the medical use of marijuana to reduce the nausea suffered by those undergoing cancer chemotherapy began and VietNam veterans suffering from spinal cord injury discovered that marijuana controlled painful muscle spasms associated with this injury.

During this period scientists discovered the principal psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC, )the part responsible for the "high" associated with marijuana use. This was synthesized and put on the market under the name "Marinol." in 1985. Marinol, however, has many side effects such as making users too "high" or causing intense anxiety. Also, the price of this drug makes it unobtainable for many since a year’s supply sells for $15,000 while it can be grown for nothing in a person’s yard. Some patients can’t swallow a pill and, Marinol takes over an hour to begin to relieve a person’s symptoms while a marijuana smoke works immediately.

Research on marijuana in it’s medicinal and recreational forms has gone on for years and years and to date there is no record of independent research in any country in the world that has proved marijuana to be addictive, to be a gateway drug, or to cause long term physical or psychological detriment to the brain.

Cannibis use has been legislated in some other countries besides the United States. In 1994 Australia Legislative Options for Cannibis, it was stated: "Cannibis use is commonplace and little evidence exists that cannibis itself causes significant harm when used in small quantities".

In 1995, the World Health Organization stated: "On existing patterns of use, cannibis poses a much less serious public health problem than is currently posed by alcohol and tobacco in Western societies".

And in 1999 the Report of the Swiss Federal Commission for Drug issues said "Scientific studies carried out to date provide no evidence that cannibis products are toxic to any alarming degree. The risks associated with using cannibis are lower than those of most other illegal drugs".

So why it is that the United States, in spite of world evidence to the contrary, continues to classify marijuana as a Schedule I drug, the definition of which is: "(A) The drug...has a high potential for abuse; (B) The drug...has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States; and (C) there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug under medical supervision."

There is very little independent, responsible, unbiased research on marijuana done in the United States because what there is has been done by government bodies such as the National Institute of Health (NIH), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), The National Academy of Sciences, etc.and because government entities also fund and oversee research done by universities, medical institutions, pharmaceutical companies, etc. Many of these studies are written up in an unprofessional, unscholarly manner, containing no specific references, and using data from ill conceived studies and studies begun from pre-existing conclusions. When the conclusion, ie "Marijuana Abuse" is the title of the work to be done, it is only logical to assume the research will show exactly what the conclusion said it would show. Nowhere but in America does research conclude that marijuana is a dangerous, addictive drug whose use can lead to specific types of criminal behavior.

Why does our government continue to try to convince the American people that marijuana is a terrible, frightening, scourge that must be wiped out and that we must be protected from?

Marijuana has been grown and used from the beginnings of this country but little notice was made of it due to the fact that it was used primarily among the indigenous peoples, the immigrants from Mexico who brought it with them, and the blacks who were confined in segregated areas of cities. The marijuana problem suddenly became much more pronounced only when its use in the 1960's and 1970's began to spread to white teenagers, war protesters, and others deemed troublemakers.

The War on Drugs, especially marijuana has gone on since the 60's and 70's and continues unabated. Perhaps this war is not supposed to be won. What if it is a coverup both for continual increases in military spending and in setting up a climate of fear in this country. According to Noam Chomsky, "Well, one of the traditional and obvious ways of controlling people in every society, whether it’s a military dictatorship or a democracy, is to frighten them..... So the fear of drugs and the fear of crime is very much stimulated by state and business propaganda." He goes on to say "The National Justice Commission repeatedly points out that crime in the United States, while sort of high, is not off the spectrum for industrialized societies. On the other hand, fear of crime is far beyond other societies, and mostly stimulated by various propaganda."

Another point Noam Chomsky makes is "Now, when some client state complains that the US government isn’t sending enough money, they no longer say, ‘we need it to stop the Russians’— rather, ‘we need it to stop drug trafficking.’ "Like the Soviet threat, this enemy provides a good excuse for a US military presence where there’s rebel activity or other unrest." He adds "So internationally, ‘the war on drugs’ provides a cover for intervention," and continues with "The Administration also targeted marijuana, which hasn’t caused any provable deaths among some 60 million users." But the war gives an incentive for arms producers and military spending.

How does this affect Fresno’s war on Marijuana? Escalation of the war on marijuana not only has become a good source of income for the weapons manufacturers but also an excuse for expanded budgets and personnel for law enforcement here at home. In 1978 Fresno Police Department personnel amounted to 117 persons with a budget of $371,550. For 2005 the projection calls for over 1204 personnel and a budget of $114,083,200. State statistics for 1997 through 2002 indicate a decrease in marijuana arrests. The statistics have gone down in Fresno also. The number of drug arrests has been decreasing from year to year. Fresno only keeps track of major drug arrests which includes cocaine, meth, and marijuana. In 2002 there were 216 arrests in that category. 2003 saw 176 and 2004 156. The drug problem lessening so why is our police force and its budget growing? Is it fear of losing control as legal growth, possession, sale and use of legal medical marijuana expands? Is it rational to fear something that is legal and helps the sick? Or is it fear of not having enough future prison inmates to keep corporate incomes growing?

Corporations that buy prisons expect to make money and for prisons to make money, they have to stay full of inmates. Who are the people least able to fight back when they’re arrested, tried and sentenced to prison? Sure enough, the poor who mainly are blacks, Hispanics and southeast Asians and now the prisons are stuffed with people who can’t fight back.

Yet another recently recognized gain for those in power is that persons convicted of crimes, serving prison sentences, or on parole, are not permitted to vote, a phenomena we have seen exploited especially in 2000 and 2004. A legal way to purge voting rolls.

Maybe this war on drugs is not to protect our young people but just as an excuse to enrich the wealthy and gain military power over the world.

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