Wednesday, December 03, 2008

National Geographic Does Pot


I got the video from National Geographic Explorer - Marijuana Nation - a review.
Cultivation of Marijuana (hemp) stretches back from George Washington’s farm when Pot was the leading cash crop in the United States, to today, with annual profits surpassing $65 billion.

The documentary reveals more than 200 million people around the world smoke the natural herb. Producers claim two million Americans alone will try it this year.

Users represent a cross section of our society, conservatives to liberals, teens to the elderly, from top-earning medical and legal professionals to housewives, laborers
and truck drivers.

It is the single most valuable cash crop in the country, spawning a shadowy multibillion-dollar industry that thrives in communities throughout America.

Correspondent Lisa Ling goes undercover to private fields and indoor state of the art hydroponic farms talking to the very reasonable and resolute people who will not buckle under possible legal ramifications. The movement to end the draconian punishments for possession and growing increase every day, as the population is getting older and sicker, insurance is harder to obtain and pay for and who refuse to be held hostage by Big pharmaceutical companies gouging consumers for legal alternatives.
So far 19 states have either medical marijuana laws and/or have decriminalized marijuana. Michigan and Massachusetts were added to the list this past election season.

This article discusses the legal alternatives: Class War. The thesis is: those who can afford the costs of the medical cartel use cartel approved medicines. Those who can't go to the black market. In Round Pegs In Round Holes I look at the nature of the chemicals - legal and illegal. The short version - the chemicals all fill the same receptors in the brain. If you get your receptor fillers through a doctor from a pharmacy - you are jake. If you get them from the black market or grow your own you are a drug fiend. Same receptors - similar chemicals. Different status under the law.

Self defense is enshrined in our Constitution explicitly. For self medication you have to rely on the vague IXth Amendment. The so called penumbras.

National Geographic www site - an overview of the program. You can watch another preview video here.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

all drugs are not equally effective.

before my wife died 4 years ago from cancer at the age of 36, we had gone thru every drug they had to ease the pain and give her an apetite. near the end I found a friend at work who gave me a quantity of pot and I cooked it down and made it into brownies.

I was able to get her to try some and for a short few weeks she was able to eat some food and manage the pain.