Today is the feast day of Anthony of Padua. He was a
Portuguese Franciscan who was called “the Hammer of
Heretics.” He was also known for his excessive and compelling dancing style.
When no-one listened to him, he went out and preached the gospel to fishes. One commentator wrote: "This was not, as the liberals and naturalists are trying tosay, for the instruction of the fishes, but rather for the glory of God."
Also - given the recent supreme court ruling on medical marijuana, note that tomorrow congress will be voting to allow doctors to prescribe drugs - with Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment. Most Americans do support the alleviation of pain, although there are a few who associate any kind of medicalization akin to supporting communism, homosexuality or Californians.
The leader of the opposition, Rep. Mark Souder, "dismisses the effort as a political, not scientific, effort to to gradually legalize marijuana," arguing that "if scientific data supports marijuana as a pain medication, it should be studied and vetted through the regular FDA process." Which I would agree with if the administration wouldn't play politics and let the FDA study medical marijuana trials. In this climate the FDA won't even touch such a study with a 10 food pole because, well, marijuana is illegal. A neat little catch-22 we've got here.
There is a difference between legalization; decriminalization and medicalization. I think that some drugs should only be administered by doctors, and doctors should be prosecuted for prescribing drugs incorrectly. But Marijuana - and other drugs - are drugs. Doctors - not politicians, government, or drug lords - should be administering them.
It's the easiest way to put the drug lords out of business. And what's wrong with the risk? What we have now hasn't been working. Why not give the market a try?
Whether or not what we have now is "working" depends on your goals, no? If your goal is to put a bunch of dirty hippies in jail, the system is working pretty well ;)
(However, that generally not being my goal, I do agree with you.)
Posted by: Erin | Jun 13, 2005 at 03:48 PM
The best way to deal with hippies is to restore the estate tax.
Posted by: John Wilkins | Jun 13, 2005 at 04:06 PM