Cancer Treatment Role Downgraded
As the caregiver of a cancer patient, my husband has Multiple Myeloma, and also to my mother who died from a tumor type cancer in 2001, I found this article at The Washington Times, "Fed's Praise for Pot Goes Up in Smoke", most disturbing and upsetting.
My husband's initial oral chemotherapy drug was Thalidomide. Thalidomide was the drug used in the 50's to treat morning sickness, clearly willy, nilly, and as a result caused an entire generation across the US, Canada, and Europe to have children with severe birth defects. You may see them around still, with foreshortened arms and deformed hands. They were grossly referred to as "flipper babies" for many years.
A worldwide ban went in on this drug. In the last couple of decades it was found to be valuable, immensely valuable, in the treatment of blood cancers, such as the one my husband has. Can you imagine what this was like for us to be told he would be on this drug? He is currently on a spin-off derivative of this drug known as Revlimid.
Every month he has to answer a survey about his sexual activity to make sure he isn't getting anyone pregnant while on the drug. I bring this all up, because I'm SHOCKED that the Federal Government is so blindsided by Marijuana's bad rap over the last 50 or so years, to not give researchers the freedom to actually research whether it has any value in the treatment of cancer and to freely say so.
"But the federal government has classified cannabis as a so-called Schedule 1 drug, meaning there is no recognized medical use."
This is pure politics through and through, and as one who lives with cancer everyday and not knowing what the future will bring, I am highly offended. Just do the research, without bias, and report the findings, without bias. And Feds... stay out of it. That's what we have FDA for, flaws and all.
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