THE MIRACLE DRUG

After some research into the effects of marijuana, you might just
begin to be convinced it is a miracle medicine, perhaps even Ponce de
Leon's fountain of youth.

The beneficial effects among patients with everything from AIDS to
Alzheimer's have been documented by doctors and scientists around the
world. It was a legal medicine from mid 19th century and well into
the 20th century. Tincture of cannabis - marijuana in alcohol - was
available in pharmacies and recommended for a variety of
circumstances - as an analgesic, muscle relaxant, anticonvulsant, for
asthma and rheumatism, to ease labor pains, migraines and
menstruation problems, to name a few of the most popular medical uses.

An influx of Mexican agricultural laborers bringing their marijuana
culture into the United States in the 1920s, along with flappers and
jazzbos getting in on the action, focused government eyes on
recreational marijuana, which led to creation of the country's first
anti-drug agency and designation of the nation's first drug czar,
Harry Anslinger, a former railroad policeman with a hard-on for marijuana.

Anslinger worked his way up the federal bureaucracy through the
Bureau of Prohibition, the federal law enforcement agency created to
enforce the 1919 ban of alcohol in the United States (we all know
what havoc that law wreaked). Because of his apparent
incorruptibility during that very corruptible time, Anslinger was
named commissioner of the Treasury Department's newly created Federal
Bureau of Narcotics in 1930.

Technically, marijuana, not being a narcotic, was not under his
jurisdiction. But Anslinger set his sights on pot and propagated
horror stories about the evils of marijuana that the DEA continues to
parrot to this day, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, such
as marijuana being a gateway drug, that it robs people of their
senses and souls, turning them into cheats, liars, skulkers, thieves,
whores, insane wrecks and other assorted amoral, anti-social decadents.

Anslinger's outrageous claims against marijuana have been debunked
and discredited, yet the tone he helped set beginning in the 1930s
and for the next 30 years continue to dominate how your government
conducts its business against you.

Overlooking states rights in the 12 states where medical marijuana
bills have passed, the DEA continues to conduct raids on medical
marijuana users and continues to claim medical marijuana is bogus.

"Prior to the illegalization of marijuana in general in the '30s and
allocating the most severe drug penalties for its usage, medical
marijuana was around for a hundred years," said. Rep. Frank Boyle,
co-sponsor of the Assembly's Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act.
"There was documented evidence in journals that you use marijuana for
migraine headaches, certain menstrual problems, neurological relief
for things such as glaucoma. It was documented for 150 years, going
back to colonial times.

"Everyone knows someone who has suffered the aftereffects of
chemotherapy," he continued. "There are enough very legitimate
stories out there from people whose symptoms have been relieved and
alleviated by the use of illegal marijuana. They regulate all kinds
of pain killers - opiates, morphine, hard narcotics to relieve pain -
and they deny marijuana?"