| “Cannabis Addiction“ |
Surprise, surprise. Members of two local “drug-fighting” agencies in Ohio are going public with their opposition to two possible statewide ballot issues in November, either of which would legalize the use of medical marijuana for certain types of illnesses with a doctor’s authorization. Job security, anyone?
“We wanted to take early action to get our position out there,” said Brian Kress, chairman of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services Board of Tuscarawas and Carroll counties.
Joining Kress in opposing the use of medicinal cannabis is the Anti-Drug Coalition of Carroll County, reports Jon Baker of the Dover-New Philadelphia Times Reporter.
The Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment, a medical marijuana ballot issue, was approved by the Ohio Ballot Board in October.
In January, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine certified the petition for the proposed Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment to the Ohio Constitution.
Supporters for both issues are now gathering signatures in an attempt to get them on the 2012 general election ballot.
| ADAMH |
| Brian Kress, Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services: “We don’t approve any drug in America through the ballot process.” Hey Brian: Hide and watch! |
Kress claimed there are two reasons the local drops oppose the use of medicinal cannabis.
“We don’t approve any drug in America through the ballot process,” he claimed, adding that if marijuana should be approved for use, it ought to be subject to the same research, consideration and study by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as are prescription medications.
(Kress didn’t bother to mention that the federal government, through the Drug Enforcement Administration, has stood in the way of any such FDA research.)
The second reason is that the FDA has already approved synthetic forms of THC — one of the principal medically active substances in cannabis — and made them available for the treatment of illnesses, according to Mike Durkin, chief probation officer for Carrollton Municipal Court and chair of the Anti-Drug Coalition of Carroll County.
(Durkin didn’t bother to mention that if you ask any actual medical marijuana patients, most of them will tell you that synthetic substitutes such as Marinol are almost completely ineffective, and besides that, they only contain THC, just one of a vast array of beneficial cannabinoids, and thus doesn’t conver the medicinal benefits of organic cannabis flowers.)
| Jim Cummings/Times Reporter |
| Orvis Campbell, chief detective, Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office: “The truth is that the smoking of marijuana for medicinal use is a fallacy” |
”The truth is that the smoking of marijuana for medicinal use is a fallacy,” lied Orvis Campbell, chief detective at the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office and a member of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services board. “The FDA has concluded that there is sound evidence that smoked marijuana is harmful,” he claimed.
(Campbell didn’t bother to mention that the largest study of its kind ever conducted concluded that smoking marijuana — even regularly and heavily — does not lead to lung cancer. Nor did he mention another 20-year study which concluded that not only does smoking marijuana not harm the lungs, but in fact it increases lung capacity.)
“In my law enforcement career, many addicts of different types of illegal drugs have expressed great remise over their use of marijuana, stating that it was the use of marijuana that led them to the use of even more harmful, illegal drugs and left them resorting to theft and other crimes to support their addictions,” Campbell lied. “The real evidence appears clear to me and it is that smoked marijuana has not withstood the rigors of science — it is not medicine, and it is not safe.”
(Detective Campbell didn’t bother to explain how a small-town law enforcement official suddenly obtained the medical knowledge to offer an opinion which apparently supersedes those of thousands of physicians and scientists and hundreds of studies, or even to offer an opinion which is meaningful in any way or deserving of any attention other than pity and scorn.)
Kress admitted that America’s War On Drugs, which has been going on for decades, “has not yet succeeded” in eliminating the use of illegal substances
(Kress didn’t bother to mention that although illegal drugs of all kinds are still easily available, the War On Drugs has managed to eviscerate and nullify large parts of the United States Constitution.)
“I don’t think we can stop the fight, because we’re not winning,” Kress said. “If everything were legalized, there would be chaos. When individuals are on certain drugs, violence goes up. If we don’t continue the fight, society will continue to deteriorate.”
(Kress didn’t bother to mention the fact that he’s one silly son of a bitch if he believes that marijuana, of all things, causes violence to go up. Guess we should all be on the lookout for those dangerously violent medical marijuana patients, eh?)