[misc.handicap] NO medication for the disABLED!

34AEJ7D@CMUVM.BITNET (Bill Gorman) (06/28/91)

Index Number: 16496

The following portion of a discussion thread is forwarded from another list
because it has some relevance to disABLED concerns. If the people mentioned
can be denied medication for essentially political reasons, there is
nothing to stop Big Brother from doing the same with any or all of the
medications most of us depend on, in one form or another. That is, in
my book, a simple, silent way to implement the forced euthanasia that has
been discussed here; a way that is more likely to be used, since it
can be done, for the most part, in the total absence of publicity.

More than that, I question whether or not there may be an actual violation
of applicable Civil Rights and ADA legislation involved here, at least
potentially.

Please note that I am NOT advocating, and I do NOT engage in,
the recreational or illegal use of
any substance. I merely express a certain paranoia corcerning the direction
our government seems to be taking and the ramifications of certain precedents
that are now being established.

Sez me,

W. K. (Bill) Gorman
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|
|
|from: phz@cadence.com (Pete Zakel)
|subject: No more medicinal marijuana
|Date: 25 Jun 91 00:38:52 GMT
|
|The following article appeared on page 5F of the San Jose Mercury News on
|Saturday, June 22, 1991:
|
|
|        U.S.: No marijuana for new AIDS patients
|
|        Mercury News Washington Bureau
|
|        WASHINGTON -- Government health agencies will no longer provide
|        marijuana cigarettes to new patients with AIDS, cancer or glaucoma,
|        despite claims that smoking the drug eases chronic symptoms of
|        those diseases.
|
|        For a decade, the government has distributed marijuana to a small
|        number of seriously ill patients nationwide.  But fearing that the
|        program sends mixed signals about drug use -- and worried about a
|        "rapid increase" in demand because of AIDS -- officials said Friday
|        they are virtually halting new approvals.
|
|        "It was felt that this might get out of hand, both in terms of the
|        supply we might have and the government saying, rather successfully,
|        that marijuana is not good for you," said Bill Grigg, a spokesman
|        for the U.S. Public Health Service.  "It might be (perceived as)
|        saying that it's safe and effective, which is the standard for a
|        new drug."
|
|        The new policy was angrily criticized by some activists, who believe
|        that smoking marijuana eases pain and restores appetite in people
|        ravaged by AIDS.
|
|        "They're really saying to terminally ill people, 'Go die in agony,'"
|        said Arnold Trebach, president of the Drug Policy Foundation, a drug
|        think tank.  "With AIDS, many of the medications cause terrible
|        problems, and this eases some of the discomfort, eases some of the
|        nausea."
|
|        Under the new policy, the 34 Americans now approved to receive
|        government-grown marijuana cigarettes will continue to get them.
|
|
|What an incredible advance in the sorry state of government doublethink!
|
|- -Pete Zakel
| (phz@cadence.com or ..!uunet!cadence!phz)
|
|
|-------------------------------------------------------
|
|from: phz@cadence.com (Pete Zakel)
|subject: Re: No more medicinal marijuana
|Date: 25 Jun 91 01:34:17 GMT
|Lines: 53
|
|>[extraneous material deleted]
|
|I just heard an interview on NPR with Bill Grigg and decided to followup my
|own posting with new information.
|
|Mr. Grigg said that one of the goals is to try to get doctors to prescribe
|Marinol (synthetic THC) instead of marijuana.  And that if Marinol didn't
|work, than applications for government marijuana would be entertained.
|
|Unfortunately, Marinol given in pill form may not be suitable at all for
|someone with extreme nausea.  It can be very difficult to swallow and
|hold down a pill -- especially since the pill will take some time to have
|the anti-nausea effect.
|
|According to Grigg, Marinol pills should have the beneficial effects of
|marijuana without the side effect of making a person high (allowing them
|to hold down a job, etc.).  This may me true.  He also said that Marinol
|has the benefit of not having the "contaminants" (I can't remember if this
|was the exact word he used, but it had a similar connotation).  In this
|case, some researchers postulate that various of the cannabinols and
|cannabinoids may actually enhance the beneficial effect of the THC.
|
|The other drawback to Marinol is that since it is synthetic, I imagine it
|costs far more to produce per dose than marijuana cigarettes.  This is the
|same problem with synthetic opiates w/r/t opium, morphine and heroin.  With
|marijuana, one could conceivably grow one's own for very little cost,
|thus helping to relieve the cost burden on the medical establishment, the
|insurance industry and the government.
|
|[...]
|
|And of course, the drug manufacturers also would have a lot to lose if
|certain synthetic drugs were replaced by the cheap, natural substances that
|many of them were created to replace (please note that I am *not* saying that
|all natural drugs are better than their synthetic counterparts).
|
|- -Pete Zakel
| (phz@cadence.com or ..!uunet!cadence!phz)
|
|-------------------------------------------------------
|
|from: velte@wam.umd.edu (jack velte)
|subject: Re: No more medicinal marijuana
|Date: 25 Jun 91 04:18:29 GMT
|Organization: University of Maryland at College Park
|Xref: netnews.upenn.edu talk.politics.drugs:2505 alt.drugs:17356 sci.med:26636
|
|if 34 people currently recieve mj for medicinal use from the federal
|government, why is mj a schedule 1 drug?  "A substance may be classified as
|Schedule 1 if it is found to have: a high potential for abuse; no accepted
|medical use; no way to safely supervise its medical use.  Marijuana and
|heroin are currently classified as Schedule 1 substances, for which the CSA
|mandates the most severe controls and penalties."
|
|jack velte     velte@wam.umd.edu
|
|-------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|from: den0@quads.uchicago.edu (funky chicken)
|subject: Re: No more medicinal marijuana
|Date: 25 Jun 91 20:42:52 GMT
|Organization: University of Chicago
|
|>[...]
|Mark Kleiman, who does work in drug policy at Harvard, recently gave a
|talk here.  He mentioned a survey he did of the attitudes of members of the
|American Society of Clinical Oncology towards the use of marijuana in cancer
|chemotherapy patients.  Out of the 1000 or so respondants, almost half
|said they would prescribe mj if it were legal.  About 40% said they had
|recommended the illegal use of mj to at least one patient.  Generally,
|the oncologists considered smoked mj to be more effective and about as
|safe as Marinol, although I don't know why.
|
|-------------------------------------------------------
|
|from: session@seq.uncwil.edu (Zack C. Sessions)
|subject: Re: No more medicinal marijuana
|Date: 26 Jun 91 00:46:11 GMT
|Organization: Univ. of North Carolina @ Wilmington
|
|>[...]
|
|It was available only under a special research program. Your doctor
|simply couldn't prescribe it for you, you and your doctor had to
|apply for the program. Cocaine, on the other hand, IS a prescribable
|drug, but all prescriptions for it are closely monitored.
|
|
|Zack C. Sessions
|session@seq.uncwil.edu