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bookmark_borderAMA Ends 72-Year Policy, Says Marijuana has Medical Benefits

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By Americans for Safe Access, Medical Marijuana Therapeutics/Research

HOUSTON — The American Medical Association (AMA) voted today to reverse its long-held position that marijuana be retained as a Schedule I substance with no medical value. The AMA adopted a report drafted by the AMA Council on Science and Public Health (CSAPH) entitled, “Use of Cannabis for Medicinal Purposes,” which affirmed the therapeutic benefits of marijuana and called for further research. The CSAPH report concluded that, “short term controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis.” Furthermore, the report urges that “the Schedule I status of marijuana be reviewed with the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods.”

The change of position by the largest physician-based group in the country was precipitated in part by a resolution adopted in June of 2008 by the Medical Student Section (MSS) of the AMA in support of the reclassification of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I substance. In the past year, the AMA has considered three resolutions dealing with medical marijuana, which also helped to influence the report and its recommendations. The AMA vote on the report took place in Houston, Texas during the organization’s annual Interim Meeting of the House of Delegates. The last AMA position, adopted 8 years ago, called for maintaining marijuana as a Schedule I substance, with no medical value.

“It’s been 72 years since the AMA has officially recognized that marijuana has both already-demonstrated and future-promising medical utility,” said Sunil Aggarwal, Ph.D., the medical student who spearheaded both the passage of the June 2008 resolution by the MSS and one of the CSAPH report’s designated expert reviewers. “The AMA has written an extensive, well-documented, evidence-based report that they are seeking to publish in a peer-reviewed journal that will help to educate the medical community about the scientific basis of botanical cannabis-based medicines.” Aggarwal is also on the Medical & Scientific Advisory Board of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the largest medical marijuana advocacy organization in the U.S.

The AMA’s about face on medical marijuana follows an announcement by the Obama Administration in October discouraging U.S. Attorneys from taking enforcement actions in medical marijuana states. In February 2008, a resolution was adopted by the American College of Physicians (ACP), the country’s second largest physician group and the largest organization of doctors of internal medicine. The ACP resolution called for an “evidence-based review of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I controlled substance to determine whether it should be reclassified to a different schedule. “The two largest physician groups in the U.S. have established medical marijuana as a health care issue that must be addressed,” said ASA Government Affairs Director Caren Woodson. “Both organizations have underscored the need for change by placing patients above politics.”

Though the CSAPH report has not been officially released to the public, AMA documentation indicates that it: “(1) provides a brief historical perspective on the use of cannabis as medicine; (2) examines the current federal and state-based legal envelope relevant to the medical use of cannabis; (3) provides a brief overview of our current understanding of the pharmacology and physiology of the endocannabinoid system; (4) reviews clinical trials on the relative safety and efficacy of smoked cannabis and botanical-based products; and (5) places this information in perspective with respect to the current drug regulatory framework.”

bookmark_borderHealthcare Reform is Economic Malpractice

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Texas Straight Talk – A Weekly Column
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

As Washington continues debating healthcare reform the rest of the country is primarily concerned about jobs and the economy. It is still uncertain what policies will be implemented, but I am certain about one thing: It will only further devastate our economy and our dollar.

The leadership has come up with a proposal they are confident will be what they consider fiscally responsible, only to have it scored as nearly twice as expensive by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Estimates of past healthcare spending programs have been off by as much as 100 percent so there is no telling what the actual cost will be.

The past century should have taught us one thing: that government intervention is expensive. Government programs lend themselves so easily to waste, fraud and abuse. Combine that with overall inefficiency and it all adds up to a hefty price tag for the taxpayer, with not much leftover for actual services. An outright takeover of an entire sector of the economy, especially one as important as healthcare, is something that we just cannot afford for the government to do right now. Not to mention the fact that it is completely unconstitutional. But Washington insists on torturing the numbers and tinkering around the edges rather than facing this truth.

If healthcare reform does indeed pass, we should not be under the illusion that it will be free. The money to pay for it will have to come from somewhere. They say they will get the money from cutting waste, fraud and abuse, but all of that is seemingly intrinsic to government programs. Since they want to expand the government’s reach we have to assume we will be trading waste, fraud and abuse for waste, fraud and abuse with a bigger budget. The powers that be have insisted the money won’t come from higher taxes, it won’t come from rationing of care, and it won’t come from higher premiums. This can only then put more pressure on the Fed to print the money out of thin air. We already have a weakening dollar. They are accelerating everything that weakened it in the past. Adding this new, monumental pressure could very well be the straw that will break the dollar’s back.

Foreign creditors are already nervous about continuing to invest in the US because of our skyrocketing debt. The explosion of debt that is certain to accompany the enactment of this national health care bill can only add to that nervousness.

Ironically, enactment of the health care bill could help the cause of liberty by hastening the day when Congress is forced by economic circumstances to stop increasing the welfare-warfare state and return to the Constitution.

There are many problems with our current healthcare system, to be sure. There are many tragic stories to be told. However, we need to look at the root of our problems in order to address them properly. More government intervention and bureaucracy injected into healthcare will take a flawed system and make immeasurably worse.

bookmark_borderFooling Our Bodies, Fooling Ourselves

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America has become the greatest “Pop” culture in the world… as in popping pills to make us feel better. Got a headache? Take an aspirin. Can’t sleep? Take a sleeping pill. Depressed? Take an anti-depressant, and so on. Men over 40 are urged to pop a “love pill” in order to be able to “perform” in bed. The mantras of the pharmaceutical industry are being chanted to us over and over again; each time we turn on the TV we are bombarded with commercials that tout the miraculous effects of such-and-such a drug, followed by a myriad of
possible side effects, including death! But the mantra goes on, chanting us into a dangerous illusion that everything will be alright if we just take that pill…

Wait a minute… Is there not something terribly wrong with this picture? Are our bodies so innately dysfunctional that we have no other choice than to hope the doctor will figure out which drugs or surgery are going to solve our problem? The answer to the last question is NO. I have nothing personal against doctors – in fact, I probably wouldn’t be here today without them. However, the system into which they have been trained – and entrained – more often than not, doesn’t respect the natural healing mechanism of our bodies, assuming instead that when a function goes wrong it must be “fixed” by drugs or surgery. Diet
and nutrition are wholly underestimated in the healing process, as are lifestyle and relationships. Medicine has become so compartmentalized and specialized that we tend to concentrate on the details of a particular ailment and lose the greater picture of what is actually happening for the patient. The myth that the medical industry has all the answers is so prevalent that the bodies that it is supposed to heal have little or no say in their own healing process.

Yes, I did say “bodies”, and not “people”. The point I am trying to make here is that we tend to forget that our bodies are not just machines that could use an oil change from time to time. They have their own “consciousness”, and often try to tell us things that we don’t necessarily want to hear. When our body experiences pain, it is telling us that something is wrong and needs to be attended to. Annoying as it can be, pain serves a vital function and must be respected for the message it conveys. Which is not to say that nothing should be done to alleviate the pain, once the message has been acknowledged.
This is a dilemma that modern medicine has created, since it is based on symptomology, which dictates that we treat symptoms instead of taking a look at the bigger picture and figuring out “the cause of the cause of the cause”, just as Hippocrates once stated. Instead of running around trying to put out the fire wherever it pops up, we need to find the reason behind it, whether it be purely physiological, mental, emotional, or even “energetic”. Some of us believe that disease has an energetic cause, meaning that it originates in the energetic field of the person. Looking at health in this way is called a “holistic” view. This term has been overused and abused, but it still has a meaning that no other word can convey: “whole”. And this is the way that we came into this world, as “whole” beings, not just a digestive tube or a nervous system, or a bunch of limbs, a trunk and a head. We are Whole beings, complete with our own unique energies that enable us to function as physical, mental, emotional and spiritual beings.

Looking at things from a greater perspective, one could make the analogy between how our cells work together to create harmony in our bodies (homeostasis) and how our human societies work. As long as our bodies, and our societies, have the necessary elements (healthy food, clean air and water, shelter and clothing, good relationships with self and with one another), both bodies and societies can live in harmony. In our bodies, our cells work hard to build new cells, create tissues, organs and systems, get rid of waste, etc. However, at this time in history, they are constantly being bombarded with new and strange chemicals that they don’t recognize and have no clue what to do with them. Communicating amongst each other, stressed and overworked, they find solutions to deal with these chemicals, such as creating specific, delineated areas to dump the toxic waste, that we call tumors. But when the toxic waste becomes so abundant that the cells can’t even perform their basic functions, the “toxic waste dumps” become overloaded and run into the rest of the body, which could be what we call metastasis. If enough toxic waste overruns the vital systems, the organism shuts down and dies. This is an oversimplified
representation, its purpose being to demonstrate movement and flow, not to prove a point.

In a similar way, human societies are dealing with an overload of unnatural stimuli (drugs, alcohol, toxic TV, artificially imposed work hours, etc.), which push a certain number of us into erratic, unhealthy behavior, such as addiction and violence. Wanting to stop the damage, the system puts those individuals who cannot cope with the system’s constraints into delineated areas (prisons, mental institutions, special schools) but doesn’t realize that its own obsessive behavior (imposition of rules dictated by a few to control the masses) is the cause of the diseased society in the first place. If the cells of the brain suddenly
decided to dictate to the kidneys what they are supposed to do, the body would disintegrate into chaos. It is actually the cells of the kidneys that inform the brain of the levels of sodium and potassium, as well as the blood volume; the brain cells in turn produce hormones to regulate those levels. But one cannot work without the other, and a brain cell has no more importance than a kidney cell to the life of the organism.

This brings me to the crux of this article, which has to do with vaccinations. Vaccinations are the ultimate example of how we, in this society, have been fooling our bodies, and thus fooling ourselves into believing that we are doing something good for our bodies, and thus for society, by getting vaccinated. According to Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com, there is no hard scientific evidence supporting the idea that vaccines can somehow trick our bodies into protecting us from disease. Most of the diseases that we receive vaccines for have disappeared, not because of the vaccines, but because of improved hygiene. Take a look at some vaccine history, gathered from reputable sources like “The Lancet” and “Journal of the American Medical Association”, appearing here thanks to Natural News:

In the 1970`s a tuberculosis vaccine trial in India involving 260,000 people revealed that more cases of TB occurred in the vaccinated than the unvaccinated. (The Lancet 12/1/80 p73)

In 1977, Dr Jonas Salk, who developed the first polio vaccine, testified along with other scientists that mass inoculation against polio was the cause of most polio cases throughout the USA since 1961. (Science 4/4/77 “Abstracts” )

‐ In 1978, a survey of 30 States in the US revealed that more than half of the children who contracted measles had been adequately vaccinated. (The People`s Doctor, Dr R Mendelsohn)

‐ In 1979, Sweden abandoned the whooping cough vaccine due to its ineffectiveness. Out of 5,140 cases in 1978, it was found that 84% had been vaccinated three times! (BMJ 283:696‐697, 1981)

‐The February 1981 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90% of obstetricians and 66% of pediatricians refused to take the rubella vaccine.

‐ In the USA, the cost of a single DPT shot had risen from 11 cents in 1982 to $11.40 in 1987. The manufacturers of the vaccine were putting aside $8 per shot to cover legal costs and damages they were paying out to parents of brain damaged children and children who
died after vaccination. (The Vine, Issue 7, January 1994, Nambour, Qld)

‐ In Oman between 1988 and 1989, a polio outbreak occurred amongst thousands of fully vaccinated children. The region with the highest attack rate had the highest vaccine coverage. The region with the lowest attack rate had the lowest vaccine coverage. (The Lancet, 21/9/91)

‐ In the USA, from July 1990 to November 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration counted a total of 54,072 adverse reactions following vaccination. The FDA admitted that this number represented only 10% of the real total, because most doctors were refusing to report vaccine injuries. In other words, adverse reactions for this period exceeded half a million! (National Vaccine Information Centre, March 2, 1994)

The yearly influenza vaccines are prepared using guesswork, not knowing at all which strains of the virus will be predominant. Many people receiving the flu shot do actually get the flu, and often experience flu symptoms more severely than those who are not vaccinated. There have been thousands, if not millions, of vaccination-related accidents, resulting in death or serious impairment of mental and/or physical capacities. These accidents are not always documented, as we saw in the statement released by the National Vaccine Information Center, and never publicized by the drug companies, whose financial interest comes before public welfare. Again, I have nothing against the individuals working for these companies, who are just trying to do a good job and make a
living in a system that caters to the rich and tricks the rest of us into believing we somehow have a chance to “make it rich”. However, the people at the heads of these pharmaceutical giants need to take responsibility for their actions, and instead of asking the Secretary of Health for blanket legal immunity in case of adverse reactions from the H1N1 vaccine, should be taking every precaution to make darned sure that no one will ever have an adverse reaction of any kind to their flu shots. Cut to 25 year-old Desiree Jennings, victim of a flu shot that
robbed her of her ability to walk forward, or to speak coherently. She can walk backwards and run forward, and incidentally when she runs forward her speech becomes normal. Even a one-in-a-million chance of this happening should never be tolerated!

There are many ways of helping our bodies improve their natural immunity, without having to inject toxic waste into them. Eliminating artificial molecules found in our diets and medicine is a good start – drinking clean water is essential, and of course breathing fresh, clean air. Even if we don’t necessarily have access to a totally natural, organic diet and clean water and air, we can still help our bodies to build their own immunities by making sure that we deal with our stress, by getting enough exercise and sunshine, and by learning to breathe in a slow and rhythmic way. Consciousness is the key to living a
healthy, happy life. Becoming conscious of our movements, our bodies, our thoughts and feelings, will help us to go within and listen to our bodies, listen to ourselves. For we have the answers to all of our questions, if only we allow ourselves to go to that place where they are found, in the center of our being where all exists, and all is one.

I realize that this may be difficult for many of us, but I must insist on the fact that most of the difficulty resides in the mind. Our minds are fabulous instruments, but only when they serve our greater purpose, and not the other way around. The analogy I evoked earlier applies here as well: one group of people in power does not serve the greater good very well. In our society, the intellect has been propelled into an all-important role, leaving intuition and emotional intelligence in the dust. By putting the intellect back in its place and giving our other mental and emotional functions their due respect, we increase our chances of becoming happy, healthy individuals, and thus helping to create a more just, healthy and happy society.

So popping pills is not the answer. Nor is getting a vaccination. The only real answer to questions about our health lies within ourselves, and within Nature, who has provided us for millions of years with all the remedies we could ever dream of. We walk upon the Earth, who has supported our lives and our societies for generations, and has never asked for a thing in return. Perhaps we owe her some respect, recognition for all that has been offered to us, instead of
pillaging and raping all that can be exploited from her. In native societies, rape does not exist. Women are treated with the respect that the Mother Earth deserves, and gets. We would do well to learn from these native societies, and treat our bodies, and ourselves, with the respect that we deserve.

Sarah Dickinson Murray,
Medical Intuitive and Natural Health Consultant
Wilmington, Delaware
October 28th, 2009

bookmark_borderRepublican calls for patient-centered wellness

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By Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-Mich.)

Washington, DC — Throughout the health care debate, the majority of Americans have expressed their opposition and frustration with the president and his Democratic Congress’ radical proposals. The public is opposed to the scheme’s practical harm; frustrated by the Democrats’ arrogant refusal to listen; and justified in its concern that willful Washington politicians will impose these unhelpful proposals despite the American people’s objections.

This is not how the sovereign citizens’ servant government is supposed to enact laws in our free republic. Especially when there is a far more sensible, affordable and contemporary path: patient-centered wellness for our people powered world.

Emulating the failure of their trillion dollar stimulus bill’s “wealth redistribution” that they assured Americans would stop unemployment from rising over 8.5%, the Democrats’ radical, nearly trillion dollar “health redistribution” will not work. For months, the case has been made and the public has concurred: government-run medicine’s cost, higher taxes, surcharges on employer provided benefits, Medicare cuts, rationing boards (such as the stimulus bill’s already appointed Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research) and personal mandates, will only increase the costs, decrease the quality and reduce the choices of Americans’ health care. Given such overwhelming and intense public opposition, why do the Democrats insist on imposing this scheme on the American people?

Ideologically, the Democrats are bent on governmentally reducing the supply of health care to “control” costs. This is patently absurd. According to the time-tested law of supply and demand, if the government reduces the supply of health care while the demand for it increases from demographic pressures and medical advances, the costs will spiral upward; and the government will increasingly intrude into your personal decisions and savings.

Believing their complete control of Washington provides a “once in a generational chance” to pass their radical health care scheme, Democrats bull ahead regardless of Americans’ opposition. Cynically, the Democrats feel the law, once passed, will prove immune to repeal. Accordingly, affronted Americans understand the Democrats’ health redistribution scheme is a threat to their wellness, prosperity and liberty.

Consequently, Americans have tirelessly sought to be heard and heeded by the president and his Congress. The response has been worse than silence. Confronted with public dissent, the administration and Democrats have sought to silence opposition by establishing a taxpayer-funded White House cyber “snitch site”; attacks on the messengers of unwelcome facts and statistics; smears against citizens peaceably assembling to petition this government for the redress of grievances; demonizing and investigating private sector entities; and assaults against a cable television network (and, thereby, the First Amendment). No wonder the American people’s disapproval of the president, his Democratic Congress and their health redistribution scheme is plummeting.

We live in a people-powered world, one which is finally catching up to America’s revolutionary experiment in human freedom and self-government. Therefore, in opposing the Democrats’ fossilized model of government-run health care that usurps self-government, the public and Republicans embrace the communications revolution and a globalized marketplace that disdains and decentralizes massive, bureaucratic entities and empowers people as citizens and consumers. Consequently, we understand health care reform must match – not resist – these economic and communications advances by decentralizing government to provide the sensible, affordable reforms that foster patient-centered wellness, which empowers American citizens to be consumers of health care through transparency and free market forces.

The heart of patient-centered wellness for our people-powered world is prudent, targeted, multi-track reforms that reduces costs by leveraging the communications revolution and market forces to increase the supply of health care amid rising demand. Immediate, obvious measures include reforming medical liability laws; ending exclusions for pre-existing conditions; expanding health savings accounts; providing tax credits for purchasing private health insurance; allowing association health plans; permitting health insurance purchases across state lines; encouraging individuals to insure against changes in health status; incentivizing preventative health care; and applying information technology to enhance transparency and increase efficiencies. All this can be achieved without trillions in new spending, taxes and government-dictated, radical changes to Americans’ current health care.

For the less fortunate and most vulnerable amongst us, there must be an expansion of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which will provide patients with preventive and routine treatment; and end underserved people’s use of emergency rooms for primary health-care treatments. Doctors and other health care professionals can be incentivized to provide their services at these clinics for either immediate or future considerations; and a “Patient Navigator” program attached to each FQHC can assist the underserved in accessing the health care system. This approach will build true, community-based health care and increase the power of economically disadvantaged patients to control their own health care. Finally, people suffering from “orphan diseases” – rare afflictions requiring a lifetime of special care – should be compassionately assisted through our nation’s social safety net.

Unfortunately, trapped in the past of a big government ideology and purblind to the people-empowering wonders of our globalized world, the president and his Democratic majority cavalierly dismiss such sensible, affordable approaches and determinedly toil behind closed doors to impose their radical health redistribution scheme on unwilling Americans. If they prevail, their health redistribution will impel higher costs, lower quality, fewer choices and – yes – lost jobs during this painful recession. There is a better way – patient-centered wellness for our people powered world.