F.D.A. Dismisses Medical Benefit From Marijuana
I’m sorry if far-right Republicans can’t handle the fact that people with cancer and AIDS actually do benefit from smoking medicinal marijuana. But Jesus, people, do you have to just outright lie about the science because it doesn’t fit neatly into your puritan plan for America? It’s called science, you freaks. It doesn’t change, it doesn’t go away, simply because it makes you uncomfortable. It’s not about you. It’s about objective facts. Is this what you people teach your children? Lie your way to heaven?
So, what’s a good, God-fearing Right-wing zealot to do when the available facts don’t fit the desired preconceived notions? Well, you simply suck it up and issue a statement declaring that there is no scientific evidence to fit the assertion that you want to discredit. That doing this may involved the will ful ignorance of actual scientific studies and the 1999 conclusion of a board of respect scientists is merely so much chatter, background noise to be dealt with as you would anything else that detracts from your propaganda talking points- you ignore them as irrelevant and not germane to the discussion at hand.
Thank God for those godly white-coated dispensers of truth who recognize that scientific fact isn’t to be found in the pages of some dry old study, but in the pages of the Gospel. Truth is whatever you need it to be when you’re trying to create a constitutional theocracy in this country, and Lord knows we need those willing to bend and massage the “truth” in order to do the Lord’s work. Scientific studies that do not conform to predetermined ideological and theological norms can simply be ignored- because, after all, there’s somthing bigger in play here, isn’t there? That’s right; you’re doing the Lord’s work.
WASHINGTON, April 20 ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that “no sound scientific studies” supported the medical use of marijuana, contradicting a 1999 review by a panel of highly regarded scientists.
The announcement inserts the health agency into yet another fierce political fight.
Susan Bro, an agency spokeswoman, said Thursday’s statement resulted from a past combined review by federal drug enforcement, regulatory and research agencies that concluded “smoked marijuana has no currently accepted or proven medical use in the United States and is not an approved medical treatment.”
Well, of course, silly. Since the leadership of God’s Own Party has determined that marijuana in any shape, manner, or former is Evil Incarnate, what course does any God-fearing righteous Republican have to follow but to advocate for the complete and total criminalization of the sick, the infirm, and the dying? After all, what do they know? Clearly, God is punishing them for being weak and irresolute, so they absolutely deserve their fate, their pain, and their suffering. If they were stronger, if they only knew God, their miserable, wretched existences would be so much better.
Eleven states have legalized medicinal use of marijuana, but the Drug Enforcement Administration and the director of national drug control policy, John P. Walters, have opposed those laws.
A Supreme Court decision last year allowed the federal government to arrest anyone using marijuana, even for medical purposes and even in states that have legalized its use.
Congressional opponents and supporters of medical marijuana use have each tried to enlist the F.D.A. to support their views. Representative Mark Souder, Republican of Indiana and a fierce opponent of medical marijuana initiatives, proposed legislation two years ago that would have required the food and drug agency to issue an opinion on the medicinal properties of marijuana.
Mr. Souder believes that efforts to legalize medicinal uses of marijuana are a front for efforts to legalize all uses of it, said Martin Green, a spokesman for Mr. Souder.
Yes, as Mr. Souder is well aware, one day you’re using marijuana to ease the pain and nausea caused by cancer or glaucoma, and the next you’re talking like Jeff Spicoli, scarfing Doritos by the bagful, and copulating like bunny rabbits in heat. Oh, the humanity of it all….
Taken at face value, this argument really is all about Republicans demonstrating beyond the shadow of a doubt that they are NOT the party of compassion (Compassionate Conservatism? An oxymoron if ever there was one). Medical marijuana is not for the Jeff Spicolis of the world…unless they have cancer, glaucoma, so some other acute and/or chronic condition that hasn’t responded to more conventional treatments. Republicans, it seems, would much rather see people suffer needlessly if it enforces their cherished ideological purity. Everyone knows that if you’re smoking marijuana today, you’re likely to be mainling smack tomorrow and cooking up some black tar heroin on a hot plate in your bathroom. Then, it’s on to methamphetamines and OxyContin.
Some scientists and legislators said the agency’s statement about marijuana demonstrated that politics had trumped science.
“Unfortunately, this is yet another example of the F.D.A. making pronouncements that seem to be driven more by ideology than by science,” said Dr. Jerry Avorn, a medical professor at Harvard Medical School.
Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, a New York Democrat who has sponsored legislation to allow medicinal uses of marijuana, said the statement reflected the influence of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which he said had long pressured the F.D.A. to help in its fight against marijuana….
The Food and Drug Administration’s statement said state initiatives that legalize marijuana use were “inconsistent with efforts to ensure that medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the F.D.A. approval process.”
Hmm…how about we edit that last statement to reduce the propaganda value and more accurately reflect the polciy goals of Our Glorious Leader:
The Food and Drug Administration’s
statement[propaganda/talking points] said state initiatives that legalize marijuana use were “inconsistent with efforts[unauthorized by GOP mullahs] to ensure that medications undergo the rigorousscientific[ideological, political and theological] scrutiny of the F.D.A.approval[prayer and ritual sacrificing of a virgin] process [which always gives us the result the Party deems most advantageous to its policy goals].”
There. I think that just about does it, don’t you? Science, schmience…. Besides, how much money do you think the sick and infirm have donated to the GOP? How can they expect consideration and compassion when they’re not willing to pay for it? And don’t be telling me because they’re too busy paying for medications. Now that Our Glorious Leader’s Medicare prescription drug plan is in force, Americans should no longer be having ANY problems obtaining ANY medication they need, WHENEVER they need.
PRAISE GOD…being a Republican’s a wonderful and wondrous thing, isn’t it? No, they’re not perfect, just forgiven…and that’s why they’re not laying on their deathbeds whining about medical marijuana….
