Montel Williams Smokes Pot Daily

[barman]

Here's one version of a story which ran earlier this week where Montel Williams came out of the closet publicly and admitted to using marijuana daily to help him survive the symptoms of his multiple sclerosis.

GW Bush and his AG John Ashcroft believe that medical patients like Montel Williams should be prosecuted and caged in a prison for using marijuana.


Oh, if you'd like to help us change the laws, concact me at res0gisj@verizon.net and I'll direct you to people and orgs you can help in your area.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pubdate: Thu, 06 May 2004
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2004 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/montel+williams

MONTEL WILLIAMS SAYS HE WILL CONTINUE TO SMOKE POT DAILY

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Montel Williams threw his support behind legalizing medical
marijuana in New York, saying pot helps him cope with multiple sclerosis.
Williams

Williams, who was diagnosed with the neurological disease in 1999, said he
uses marijuana every night before bed to relieve the pain in his legs and feet.

"I'm breaking the law every day, and I will continue to break the law,"
Williams, host of the syndicated Montel Williams Show, said Tuesday.

Williams recalled during a news conference how prescription painkillers and
even morphine failed to control his tremors and spasms.

Nine states -- Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine,
Nevada, Oregon and Washington state -- allow medical marijuana use.

Williams, 47, said he can legally obtain marijuana in California, where he
owns property, but argued that as a New York state taxpayer, he should have
the same right there.

Opponents of legalizing marijuana for medical purposes fear rogue doctors
or patients may abuse it.

A proposed law in New York to prescribe marijuana to terminally ill
patients to treat pain advanced in the Assembly Health Committee earlier
this year, but the measure has yet to reach the floor of the state
Legislature for a vote.

 

[miked429]

what a shock!!!!!

 

[Journeyman]

M.S. is a very difficult illness to deal with , many levels of symptoms...pains most people wouldn`t have a clue the human body can actually take on....I feel for all M.S. victims...it can be a living hell

 

[D2bets]

And this coming from a conservative military type who I would guess was probably ainst MM before he needed it. How anyone can want to deny someone who has MS, cancer, aids, etc the right to smoke pot to alleviate pain is beyond comprehension.

 

[Mr NJ Sports]

This is nonsense. I bet if you were depressed and smoked pot, or if you were sad and smoked pot, or maybe you lost all of your money and smoked pot it would help you feel better. Are those medical conditions?
Hey Doc I need to gain weight can you prescribe some marijauna for me so I can get really hungry and eat?
Hey doc I just lost to the Nets 82-64 can I smoke some pot to take away the sting of the loss? I am clinically depressed.

All Nonsense. Will medical cocaine be next?
Instead of Paxil for social anxiety they should prescribe beer, this way you can have Blue Cross pay for your next case of suds.

 

[Mr NJ Sports]

In a related story Snoop Dogg smokes pot to relieve pain in his fishizzle and his nizzle.

 

[barman]

NJS, I've swapped ideas with you for over six months now and though we don't see all issues the same, I just know you are so ignorant about medicine as your post suggests.

Marijuana's medicinal efficacy is without dispute everywhere in the world except within the beltway of Washington DC.

I work with patient groups both here in Florida and also by extension from other states.

We have thousands of patients with conditions ranging from cancer to AIDS, to MS, to ALS (Lou Gehrigs) to chronic pain.

Each of them can demonstrate pronounced results from using marijuana that could not be obtained from pharmacueticals without also having serious side effects.

In the states where medical marijuana is legal, we have several thousand MDs who have recommended pot as a legitimate option.

But the Bush administration still insists on raiding MMJ hospices with militarized SWAT teams. They seize the medicine, seize all of the patient records and charge the suppliers with federal trafficking crimes.

Oh, note that this was also done by the CLinton administration under Janet Reno, so it's not just a partisan gripe.

Good news is that a federal court ruling last month impedes the Justice Dept from doing any more raids in states where MMJ is legal. But patients are still at individual risk throughout the country.

NJS: What's next, medical cocaine?

BAR: No, actually that was first. Cocaine is routinely used in anaesthesia for hospitals across the country.

NJS: What about booze?

BAR: Alcohol has medicinal qualities of course, both as an anaesthetic and a depressant. But it's been found to be quite inferior to a variety of pharmacueticals, and carries a lot of side effects.

THAT being said, if a person wants to use alcohol as medicine, there is no law to prevent them from doing so. In fact they can have a garage full of booze with no legal penalty.

But if they elect to use pot, they are subject to arrest, prosecution and a prison cage.

Surely you don't endorse that policy, or do you?

 

[xpanda]

What would be the impact on the Pharmaceutical industry if medical marijuana were legalised? What would be the impact on the prison industry if it were legalised?

The fact that pot is still illegal at all, never mind for medicinal purposes, is beyond ludicrous. Here, we had a bill sitting on the table to de-criminalise pot, and it's not going to be heard until after our election, now. Which means, likely, it will never be heard at all. And all because the Bushites threatened to make border crossings hell on earth if we allowed a rampant supply of traffickers to flourish. Pure ignorance and corporate greed are what drive stupid laws such as these.

 

[Mr NJ Sports]

I disagree Bartman

 

[Mr NJ Sports]

If it is administered in a hospital like say morphine or something like that then fine. But to have everyone with a "condition" sitting on a stoop rollin blunts is a bit much.

Just curious how does it help AIDS patients? Does it cure the AIDS? If not, then what is its purpose?

 

[D2bets]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mr NJ Sports:
If it is administered in a hospital like say morphine or something like that then fine. But to have everyone with a "condition" sitting on a stoop rollin blunts is a bit much.

Just curious how does it help AIDS patients? Does it cure the AIDS? If not, then what is its purpose?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

NJ< wow are you ignorant on this issue. So you want to confine the ms, cancer, aids, etc patients unnecessarily to a hopsital so they can receive the medicine they need? Nobody can administer medicine in their own homes anymore? WTF.

It helps aids patients in relation to what's called "aids wasting disease". Many patients have a hard time keeping down any nutrition and marijuana helps their appetite and helps them actually keep the food down. Of course it doesn't cure aids, but if you can't keep food down at all then you can't live. Marijuana can help them survive. The whacko anti-marijuana people want to tell them to take pills that have THC in it...problem is, they have a hard time keeping down pills so it doesn't work well. But they are admitting that THC helps people with aids wasting...and yet still are so criminally stupid that they want to prevent them from smoking it to get the benefits. These ****ing people have aids, who the **** are they going to hurt by smoking pot enabling them to eat some damn food. Damn this shit really irritates me to no end.

barman, I applaud your humanitarian efforts. Keep up the good fight and thank you.

 

[xpanda]

NJ: the principle benefit of MM is pain reduction and diminishing nausea. It's especially helpful for cancer patients undergoing chemo ... my father went through chemo last year and I brought him a 'no questions, please' bag of help ... my father is definitely not a regular user, and he couldn't thank me enough.

There are umpteen drugs on the market that do not cure what ails you, just makes the suffering less severe. Why are these drugs legal but pot, with arguably fewer harmful side effects, is not? I can't help but think it's some kind of biotech/patent issue.

 

[barman]

HEY, I think that BARTman is another poster here....not sure if I can vouch for him..

D2 and XP both nicely summarized some of the benefits pot provides patients.

I am not aware of any drug on the market which 'cures' any ailment or disease. All drugs are designed to help the patient respond to the SYMPTOMS of a disease or ailment.

Many times, that drug is sold by a pharmacuetical company.

In the case of marijuana of course, it is not.

Ashcroft and Drug Czar John Walters insist that since marijuana has not been approved by the FDA then they (the government) can't 'guarantee it's safety'. Thus it must remain illegal and anyone who uses it or produces it for patients should be put in federal prison for decades or more.

**If anyone would like specific cites of people I know personally that are serving 10+ year federal sentences due to medical marijuana charges, contact me at above address**

First, their posture is absurd, since marijuana is safer than virtually every drug sold in a pharmacy, including over the counter aspirin and tylenol etc.

Pharmacueticals and OTC drugs kill over 40,000 Americans annually.

OTOH, marijuana has no lethal dosage that can be consumed by humans, thus no one has ever died from using it.

Every pharm and OTC drug comes with a host of side effects with many debilitating and several fatal (see above).

Dig this scene: Four years ago, a good friend in Miami was in the last stages of spinal cancer down in the V.A. Hospital in Miami.

We were told by the same hospital officials who were administering massive doses of morphine during his final couple months that if we gave him marijuana, both he and we would be arrested.

Montel Williams is one of many people who have learned the value of medical pot. And they realize firsthand the risk of being arrested and put into a cage just for using a remedy not sanctioned by Washington DC.

Let's face it. The fundamental premise that the government can cage you simply for what you choose to put in your body is flawed beyond most all rational discourse. But the suggestion that we cage human beings who elect to use a specific remedy recommended by an MD but not approved by our Drug Czar - himself a non-medical person - is obscene.

Try this imagery if you don't mind.

Picture in your mind your dearest loved one - a spouse, parent, grandparent, child - whoever you wish.

Picture them with a serious medical condition that was not being relieved by pharmacueticals. Or perhaps pharms help, but they can't afford them (wow, not so hard to imagine that, eh?). Or perhaps pharms help, but the compounding effect of using so many pharms is destroying their liver and kidneys. Or perhaps the pharms are addictive, such as heavy duty Oxycodone, morphine etc.

Now they decide to try marijuana to help relieve their malady. And it HELPS!

So far so good.

Now add this picture:

A squadron of 20 DEA agents in SWAT team gear kicking in your loved one's front door, holding automatic rifles to their head...seizing all their medicine and then arresting them and their provider, with a conviction bringing a 10+ year federal sentence.

Still on board with federal marijuana policy now? Or does Montel's position seem like one you could rally behind?

If the former, I hope my imaginary scenario never happens to you and yours...because it's already happened to people I know and barring a change in federal policy could happen again at any moment.

 

[Massmilwaukee]

Why prohibit any substance?

 

[Mr NJ Sports]

D2...to call me ignorant on this issue is fine , but I was asking an honest question. I am not an expert on everything despite the brilliance of nearly every one of my posts.

 

[miked429]

"i smoke more shit than a little bit"BIGGIE SMALLS

 

[Meanstreak]

Anyone paying even the slightest attention to my posts knows exactly where I stand on this issue.

The key concept at play here is "ignorance", those in opposition of the use of marijuana are completely "ignorant" of its benefits to society, or are simply part of the so-called moral majority (aka. societies' greatest hypocrites) that like to tread on others freedom.

Don't step on the grass, Sam !
Peace.

 

[xpanda]

NJ: We have also failed to inform you that pot increases the female's sex drive. Or so they tell me.

 

[Illini]

So if you legalize pot, how do you prevent people from driving while high? It's not something you can test for at roadside, is it? That would be a concern for me. Other than that, it seems pretty much like alcohol.

 

[Meanstreak]

Illini, you may not like the reply I am about to give you but it is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth from my perspective.

YOU CAN'T prevent people from getting high and driving, in fact, I am about to hit the bowl now and hop on my scoot and go for a nice long ride in the country ... on the way I will not travel faster than the posted speed limits (except a couple of the twisty ones), I will maintain constant care and control of my bike and I will arrive safely home to greet my 10 month old daughter as she awakes from an afternoon slumber.

Driving under the influence of marijuana cannot and should not be confused with driving under the influence of alcohol. Although one can argue reaction times are compromised by the spiritual smoke, I would counter the arguement by trying to convey that it is a completely different ethos and state of mind involved with smoking the sweet leaf ... one more akin to responsible and safe operation of the vehicle.

The main point here being that "people are getting and high and driving" ... ALL THE TIME ! ... so legalizing grass would have negligble ramifications on your perceived problem of driving while under the influence of reefer.

Sorry, just the facts. They are what they are. Deal with em'.

Peace.