From the New York Times:
Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried, a Manhattan Democrat, has written a bill that would effectively legalize marijuana for the sick. He said the federal government has approved the use of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, in pill form.

”The idea that the drug laws are focused on whether you take your THC in a pill form from a major drug company or by inhaling makes no sense,” he said. ”Doctors are allowed to prescribe controlled substances for medical purposes, like morphine, codeine and Valium. Nobody thinks that undermines our antidrug message to young people.”

You stated that marijuana was “a very addictive drug” and now it seems you are backing off that statement with your latest statement. So which is it? Biologically speaking, marijuana is not addicting. You should know that if you work in the medical field as a person who actually had to study science and physiology in order to perform your job. I do agree that it is possible for people to be psychologically dependent to smoke marijuana because they want to take themselves out of their reality. Marijuana as well as other drugs and alcohol can do that.

However, it is exactly your type of misleading statements that end of shaping the debates and distracting the alarmist populations from dealing with the issues based in reality. I am not a pot smoker because I am not sick and my job would be in jeopardy if I considered it, but I experimented with it when I was younger. I have never known anyone that I could honestly say was addicted to it. Please stop making outrageous statements that have no scientific support. And I hope your loved ones get the psychological help they need, and do not waste their money on medical treatments for addiction.

Making marijuana illegal is what made it dangerous. When something is illegal, the only people willing to supply it are criminals. By forcing people / patients to deal with criminals in order to purchase a product puts them at risk. Why? Buying alcohol during prohibition vs. buying alcohol now should answer that question.

Almost anything can be misused and abused (Elmer’s Glue), but it is a shame to deny people / patients access to something that can help alleviate their suffering. Not to mention, the cost of paying federal agents to look around to find and confiscate plants growing in the middle of no where. Would that money be better spent on healthcare itself?

The reason why most drugs cost a lot is not solely due to patents. The ever increasing amount of testing required to manufacture, test, label, warehouse and distribute a persciption drug to meet FDA regulations and CE Requirements is phenomenal. The FDA is pushed more by the consumers that stand up and organize to remove drugs from the market than consumers that praise the FDA.
Just my two cents.

Sign me,

Quality Engineer who works in the regulated Medical Device field.

To Chris, while it can be psychologically addicting, particularly to teenagers it is not physically addicting and is defiantly not highly addictive and there are few to no accounts of violent behavior to obtain it or while on it, check the literature out there. I agree that young people should avoid it but it undermines it legitimate uses to characterize it as addictive as some patients would greatly benefit from its use will avoid it.

I support medical marijuana use, and if there are people obtaining it this way that do not need it for medical use, so be it. These individuals would buy it regardless, and patients that need it mostly do not have access to a dealer or wouldn’t know how to get it otherwise are able to. It takes the seediness out of it and removing barriers for those who could greatly benefit but are hesitant because of perception is necessary.