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June 08, 2012
A Sample of Reality yet to Come?
Yesterday, quite by accident, I discovered Marihuana and the Cannabinoids, a book edited by Mahmoud A. El Sohly, PhD while searching the web. What caught my interest at first was the author's name; I knew Dr. El Sohly to be the director of the “Marijuana farm" operated by the federal government in Oxford, MS. In fact, it’s the only completely legal “grow” in the nation. To my surprise, I was also able to copy and paste large segments of text directly into a word processor without the need to OCR an image, thus I decided to ignore the publisher’s strict injunctions against copying. I was also motivated by the price of the electronic version: $143.00!Here's the Preface:
"Although primarily used today as one of the most prevalent illicit leisure drugs, the use of Cannabis sativa L., commonly referred to as marijuana, for medicinal purposes has been reported for more than 5000 years. Marijuana use has been shown to create numerous health problems, and, consequently, the expanding use beyond medical purposes into recreational use (abuse) resulted in control of the drug through international treaties.
Much research has been carried out over the past few decades following the identification of the chemical structure of THC in 1964. The purpose of Marijuana and the Cannabinoids is to present in a single volume the comprehensive knowledge and experience of renowned researchers and scientists. Each chapter is written independently by an expert in his/her field of endeavor, ranging from the botany, the constituents, the chemistry and pharmacokinetics, the effects and consequences of illicit use on the human body, to the therapeutic potential of the cannabinoids." (emphasis added) Mahmoud A. ElSohly, PhD
It reads to me like the beginning a ludicrous attempt to put the best possible face on America’s failed “marijuana” policy as it evolved from Anslinger’s 1937 Marijuana Tax Act through the Mitchell-Nixon Controlled Substances Act of 1970, while completely missing the real reason for its popularity (that it was a better anxiolytic that any produced by Big Pharma) and ignoring all the nasty pot-specific extra cruelties tacked on at intervals by a frustrated Congress.
For Josef Goebbels to be magically resurrected and attempt to rewrite the entire WW2 history of Germany under the Nazis, would certainly be more traumatic emotionally, but hardly more audacious or contemptuous of the truth.
Or is there some other explanation I'm not getting?
Yet to be answered are some key questions raised by this book: does the DEA know about it? Congress? The Executive Branch? The Supreme Court? What might this mean in terms of contemporary enforcement of the CSA? or the status of the current enforcement bureaucracy?
Also, where has the nation's press been since this book was published over five years ago?
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at June 8, 2012 10:36 PM