It is widely known that marijuana has medicinal value. That’s why there are so many states that have legalized medical marijuana, and why more states will do so in the near future. Admittedly, there is not as much research as I would like, but that’s largely due to efforts from marijuana opponents trying to prevent such research, and not because there is no merit to pursuing the research. There has been international research conducted, and research conducted by private entities which have found medical marijuana to be quite effective in many cases.
So it was very ridiculous to hear that the new DEA Chief made comments calling medical marijuana a ‘joke.’ Per CBS News:
“What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal — because it’s not,” Rosenberg said in a briefing to reporters. “We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous, but don’t call it medicine — that is a joke.”
As more and more states experiment with loosening marijuana laws, Rosenberg said that people shouldn’t conflate the issue of legalizing recreational marijuana with medicinal marijuana.
“There are pieces of marijuana — extracts or constituents or component parts — that have great promise” medicinally, he said. “But if you talk about smoking the leaf of marijuana — which is what people are talking about when they talk about medicinal marijuana — it has never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine.”
First of all, when people refer to medical marijuana, they refer to ALL forms of medical marijuana. I’m not sure which ‘people’ Mr. Rosenberg is referring to, but making a blanket statement like that without anything backing it up is stupid, to put it lightly. Also, patients don’t smoke the ‘leaf,’ although the leaf can be used to make various other forms of medical marijuana.
If Mr. Rosenberg would check with his employer, the federal government, he would know that the federal government owns patents involving the medical values of marijuana. He would also know that the federal government has a research facility in Mississippi that is working to unlock and understand how medical marijuana works. Finally, Mr. Rosenberg would know that the same federal government that cuts his paychecks also provides medical marijuana to four federal medical marijuana patients every month in the form of, wait for it, smoke-able marijuana joints. The only joke that Mr. Rosenberg should be talking about is the joke that is his agency. It’s beyond time to get rid of the DEA, and with it, Chuck Rosenberg.
