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July 30, 2006

Politically Correct Pot

An interesting aspect of NIDA’s defense of pot prohibition has been a slow shift from reflex denial of any possible therapeutic benefits to claims that other agents can treat the same conditions just as effectively without any need to be ‘smoked’ and without ‘unwanted’ cognitive effects. In other words, the same theme with which Barry McCaffrey greeted the IOM report in 1999: the disadvantages of cannabinoids that limit their medical benefits will also discourage investor interest in developing ‘crude’ or ‘raw’ ‘marijuana’ extracts as  commercial products.

As a recent article in Wired,  and Fred Gardner’s report of the 2006 European IACM meetings in CounterPunch suggest, nuance is all important.  What one quickly understands from a little further reading, is that our real problems with pot policy may have more to do with trying to cover up the mistaken beliefs originally cited  as reasons to ban it.  One dilemma is that it may not be possible to obtain the desired clinical benefits from products in which all cognitive effects have been "successfully" blocked.

I’m betting that won’t be possible; in any event, the politicians responsible should never live down all the human misery their arrogance has already caused.

Posted by tjeffo at July 30, 2006 12:10 AM

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