Gore’s Backs
"Flexibility" On Medical Marijuana.
In Fact, His Position Is So Flexible That He Is On 3 Sides Of The Issue.
But The Washington Post Cites NORML; Now That Is A Miracle!
(Marijuananews note: Gore is trying to play it
both ways, but that does not matter. The issue really is on the public agenda now, and
that is something that the prohibitionists have rightly feared. Notice that the Post even
cites the NORML website! Again, the impact of the Internet on politics is exploding. The
New York Times basically carried the AP story, so this is an amazing piece of journalism
from a paper that has been among the worst of the prohibitionist rags. Recently, however,
they endorsed medical marijuana in a typical Post way: they called for reopening the IND
program through which the government would give patients medical marijuana.)
See
Washington Post
Defects On Medical Marijuana!
Calls For Reopening Program Making Marijuana "available to terminally ill
patients."
Implicitly Endorsing Medical Marijuana Class Action Suit.
and
McCaffrey Named New
Editor-In-Chief of the Washington Post – Exclusive To Marijuananews
and links
From The Washington Post
www.washingtonpost.com
Gore Backs 'Flexibility' On Medical Marijuana
By Ceci Connolly and Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writers
December 15, 1999
Page A01
DERRY, N.H., Dec. 14—Vice President Gore said tonight that
the government should give doctors greater flexibility to prescribe marijuana to relieve
medical suffering as he broke once again with Clinton administration policy on a
contentious social issue.
Campaigning in advance of the New Hampshire primary in February, Gore
told a town hall audience here of his late sister's struggle with cancer in the mid-1980s
and said suffering patients and their doctors "ought to have the option" of
using marijuana to alleviate the pain.
(Marijuananews note: What this story does not say is that Gore’s statements
were in response to questions which were asked by several members of NORML who were
present at the meeting.
NORML members can and do make a difference. Are you a NORML member? Are you waiting
until after legalization to join? Or just until after you are arrested?)
"Where the alleviation of pain in medical situations is concerned, we have not
given doctors enough flexibility to help patients who are going through acute pain,"
Gore said.
See
New Study
Shows How Marijuana Eases Pain;
Will Someone Do A Study On How The Suppression of Medical Marijuana Causes Pain?
"Many of us have seen that ourselves."
The comments marked the second time in two days that Gore, engulfed in a bitter battle
with Bill Bradley for the Democratic presidential nomination, has taken issue with
administration positions that he has publicly supported in the past. On Monday, the vice
president criticized President Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays
in the military.
Meeting with reporters after tonight's televised forum, Gore
sought to backtrack from his comments and appeared to come closer to the official
administration position, which supports medicinal marijuana only in tightly controlled
research settings. The vice president emphasized that he opposes legalizing marijuana
and believes more research is needed to determine whether medicinal marijuana works.
"If the research shows that there are circumstances in which there is no
alternative for alleviating the pain that doctors believe can be alleviated through the
use of medical marijuana, then under certain limited medical circumstances--if the
research validates that choice--then it should be allowed," Gore said. "We are
not at the point."
See
NIDA Refuses To Sell
400 Grams of Medical Marijuana For FDA Approved Migraine Research.
Giving A Prohibitionist Propaganda Organization A Veto on Medical Research.
Gore made no such qualification when talking before the
audience earlier in the evening, and in fact he acknowledged that White House drug policy
chief Barry R. McCaffrey held a different opinion from the one he was expressing.
As with gays in the military, the marijuana issue has become increasingly politicized
nationwide, as a half-dozen states--as well as the District of Columbia--have approved
referendums allowing the medical use of the drug. The Clinton administration has opposed
such laws on the grounds that the medical use of marijuana should be dictated by science,
not politics, and it has warned doctors of possible sanctions if they invoke such state
referendums. The District law has been overturned by Congress.
See
The Washington
Post Had To Report On The Initiative Results, So They Did…
Earlier this year, a panel of prominent scientists convened by the federal government
concluded that some of the substances in marijuana may be useful in treating such
conditions as pain or nausea, but that smoked marijuana has little future as a medicine.
Administration officials have cited that conclusion in urging a go-slow approach on
medical marijuana.
See
Counterblaste to DEA: Fallacious
Pharmacology.
"The contention that smoking cannot possibly be an acceptable route for the
administration
of a therapeutic substance is morality dressed up as science." by Peter Webster
"The administration is adamantly opposed to the use of marijuana outside of
authorized research," Donald R. Vereen Jr., deputy director of the White House Office
of National Drug Control Policy, said before Congress in September.
See
Drug Czar’s Office Endorses Arresting,
Jailing Medical Marijuana Smokers;
Canada’s Parliament Resumes Historic Medical Marijuana Debate -- NORML Press Release
The issue has cropped up at other points in the campaign.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, has said states should
have the right to allow medical use of marijuana, although he personally does not support
the practice.
See
Bushlet Supports States’
Rights On Medical Marijuana;
At Odds With Party Leaders, The Anointed One Continues To Move To The Center.
At a New Hampshire forum two weeks ago, Bradley said, "I don't support medical
marijuana now. I think it's something we have to study more before we decide to do
it," the Associated Press reported.
In the past, Gore has been sharply critical of the legalization of marijuana for any
purpose, including medical. In a letter dated Aug. 13, 1997, that
the pro-legalization group NORML posted on its Web site, Gore wrote: "This
administration is absolutely opposed to the legalization of any illicit drugs, including
marijuana. . . . Marijuana is not harmless or beneficial, in fact, it is more carcinogenic
than tobacco; it impairs short-term memory, concentration, and coordination; and it
damages brain functions, the immune system, and the lungs."
Gore took a different tack at the town hall meeting tonight, noting that his sister,
Nancy Gore Hunger, tried marijuana when she was suffering from cancer. "[She] decided
against it because she didn't like it; it didn't produce the desired result," Gore
said. "If it had worked for her, I think she should have had the ability to get her
pain relieved that way."
Gore, who has acknowledged smoking marijuana as a soldier in Vietnam and later when he
returned to Tennessee, said today he believes "it is not good to open up more access
to marijuana."
"It would be a terrible mistake to legalize marijuana," Gore said.
"The marijuana commonly available today, I'm told, is
many times stronger typically than the kind of marijuana commonly available several
decades ago, which my generation thinks about when debating this issue." (Marijuananews note: Gore’s statement is both untrue and irrelevant,
but it is the perfect utilization of this part of the party line.)
See
Marijuana Prohibition
And Potency, Price, And Safety --
"Is Marijuana Stronger Than It Was Back In the '60s, When Everyone Thought It Was
Harmless?"
Analysis By Richard Cowan
At the news conference, Gore said he did not know how his sister's doctor procured
marijuana for her. "It came in a prescription container with a label on it," he
recalled.
"I don't know what the status of the law was in 1984 in
Tennessee," he said. "She was treated at Vanderbilt Hospital and it's my
understanding it has not been unknown for some patients undergoing chemotherapy to be
prescribed, in the past, marijuana as a means of dealing with the side effects of
chemotherapy. Have none of you ever heard of that?"
(Marijuananews note: Whatever the container may have been, medical marijuana was not a
"prescription" item. Is gore really that ignorant of the facts?)
Spokesman Chris Lehane said former Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander, a Republican who
endorsed Bush, signed a law making medical marijuana legal in Tennessee.
(Marijuananews note: That would not have made it legally
available, as a member of the Clinton Administration certainly should know!)
Despite expressing reservations about current scientific research, Gore seemed to
indicate great faith in his sister's physician at the time of her treatment, noting that
he was the former head of the American Lung Association. "Her doctor was one of the
very best in the entire world and his view of the prevailing science then was that it
might be efficacious," the vice president said at the news conference. "The
prevailing opinion of the majority of physicians today, as I understand it and I'm no
expert, is that it is not ever preferable to have a smoke-carried agent for relief of
nausea or pain."
Dan Viets, chair of the NORML board, said he was delighted to
hear news of Gore's comments. "Gore is staking out some independent ground here, but
I hope it motivates Bill Bradley to do likewise, and I hope the Republicans consider
it."
Viets said public opinion polls and recent state referendums have show strong support
for the medical use of marijuana.
See
Gallup Poll Shows 73% Favor
Medical Marijuana;
29% Favor Outright "Legalization"!
So What Are The Politicians Really Afraid Of?
Edsall reported from Washington. Staff writer Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.
© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
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