Marijuana and Stem Cells in Michigan

[marmar]

from the Detroit Free Press:



PROPOSAL 1 VOTE YES
Medical marijuana relieves suffering
BY BARBARA DAVIS, RN • October 30, 2008


As nurses, we are on the front lines of providing care and comfort to patients suffering from terrible illnesses. Michigan nurses strongly support Proposal 1, the medical marijuana initiative.

And, frankly, we are appalled at the misinformation being spread by opponents.

There is simply no doubt that medical marijuana can relieve suffering. In a White House-commissioned study released in 1999, the Institute of Medicine reported, "Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting, and all can be mitigated by marijuana."

Since then, the evidence that marijuana is a safe, effective medicine has continued to mount. In just the past two years, three separate randomized, controlled clinical trials -- the "gold standard" of medical research -- have shown that marijuana can effectively relieve neuropathic pain, a particularly hard-to-treat type that inflicts misery on millions of people suffering from multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, diabetes and other conditions. What was most impressive about these studies was not just the relief that marijuana provided, but the lack of serious side effects. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20081030/OPINION02/810300446/1215/NEWS15


........................................


IN OUR OPINION
Anti-Prop 2 campaign full of shameful distortions
October 29, 2008


Shame is often a casualty of a political attack campaign.

But opponents to Proposal 2, the Nov. 4 ballot initiative that would legalize embryonic stem cell research in Michigan, may have set new standards for shameless fear-mongering.

And they're doing it with the blessing of the Michigan Catholic Conference, which has poured more than $4 million into the anti-Prop 2 campaign.

The anti-Prop 2 ads, running in heavy rotation on television in the Detroit area, have mostly invoked hyperbolic absurdities designed to make stem cell research look like some sort of Frankenstein-inspired quackery.

The opponents went even further last week, though, and embraced a horribly offensive, racially tinged comparison.

An ad titled "In the Name of Good," (See it at www.2goes2far.com/in-the-name-of-good.html), compares the research that Prop 2 would allow to the human experimentation horrors at Tuskegee University. The commercial says, falsely, that stem cell research won't be regulated, and implies that it could therefore lead to abuses similar to the Tuskegee experiments, in which researchers denied treatment and information about their disease to hundreds of African-American who were infected with syphillis. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20081029/OPINION01/810290315/1215/NEWS15

[BeatleBoot]

1. Yes and Yes

x 2 in this household.

Me and Mrs BeatleBoot.

Then, of course, a straight Dem ticket.

Also, just say NO to the "sleeping judge" Cliff Taylor.

[marmar]

2. Oh yeah, that is the sleeping dude.....

Forgot about that.