One could argue that the impact on those industries would be minimal at least in the immediate future. If the Federal legislation were repealed it would still be a State issue and most of them still have it on their books. All this would really do is put a stop to the neverending cases of sick and dying legally-authorized patients being thrown in prison to suffer without treatment. Give people the medicine they need!

5843 is probably DOA but 5842 might stand a chance since it's an election year. The Republicans won't care too much about the medical aspects but point out the wasted tax dollars and they might perk up. However given their continued arrogance in spite of national trends they may finally realize they need to take some serious steps if they hope not to lose even more seats to the Democrats.

Yes Big Pharma definitely has a dog in the fight on this one. However one of the primary medical applications of this treatment is to counter the side effects produced by those expensive drugs. Nausea in particular. The minimizing of these side effects encourages continued use of the drugs which is in the best interest of the pharmaceutical manufacturer. If a box of brownie mix were provided by the company with every bottle of HIV cocktail, patients are less likely to stop taking the medicine.

Ultimately their patents expire after 20 years and the drug is available as a generic. Once that happens there's no longer a significant profit motive in the prevention of alternative beneficial treatment. They could continue to sell confections and with their market power they could easily price below local dispensaries and still make a profit.

Man... if only I worked for Big Pharma.

Big Pharma does not want pot legalized because legalizing marijuanna will undercut their customer base. Big pharma makes a hefty sum of money on drugs like Vicodin and Oxycotin. While some of the people that use these drugs use them for a true legitimate medical purpose, many of the people that use thse drugs use them to get high. Many people prefer prescription drugs to get high because they lack the stigma that illegal drugs have.

If pot is legalized, Big Pharma's drugs will no longer have the market advantage of being a "stigma free" alternative. Soccer moms, trust fund brats, NASCAR dads, and their ilk would get high on the cheap by buying pot rather than buying vicodin or some other prescription drug.

Originally posted by apc
I have sterilized this submission in hopes of maintaining its presence in the open forums and prevent its transfer to RATS.

Please posters, if you can't share something other than your personal use, don't share anything at all. Keep your posts clean of compromising keywords.

hotpinkurinalmint, please edit your post to take out some of the keywords that will lead to this thread being deleted. They do not like us discussing such things at all, but I think if we can keep it free of most of the words you used then there will be no reason to remove it.

As for my opinion on this, I really hope it passes. Not for me, but for all the people who do need it. I'm sick of big pharma trying to control us and tell us what we can and cant medicate with, when some of the alternatives are much more effective, as well as not carrying any physical dependence like other medications on the market. The decriminalization bill I dont think has much of a chance, although it would be nice to free up jail cells for ACTUAL criminals.

The beauty of Big Pharma is that they have a prescription for everything. They make a lot of money selling anti nausea drugs to chemo patients. My wife was prescribed a coctail of them when she went through chemo. So, it would cut into their profits in those areas as well as many others, like other posters have mentioned (pain killers, sleep aids....etc).

Well, one would have to work out the math to see what the ratio of patients stopping treatment AMA even with anti-nausea medication is vs. those who stop treatment using the plant for nausea. Then there's cancer patients who have no other treatment... it's either smoke or die. And chronic pain sufferers who are already on the verge of liver failure from all the opioid boosted acetaminophen. Patients can't pay if they're dead. So there is a market there.

But regardless, I'd rather not try to figure out all the different reasons why legislation like this will never work. I have very little faith in the Federal Government, and I too highly doubt it is possible to bring it back to some form of true representation. But you know... it only takes five minutes to write a letter. They read them, especially during election season. There's no guarantee they'll listen, but there's nothing to lose in writing. Can't hurt to try.

I have a friend in Las Vegas who happens to be a cop. One day he wrote in his blog about how stupid it seemed that arresting people for something like pot(for medical or any other reason) is a waste of money and time, and jail space for some real criminals.

Metro has always been pretty hard line about drugs in general. But I hear this is mostly just policy. Most of them know that there are bigger fish to fry. And state taxes on marijuana would certainly give a boost to Nevada. Our economy is based on only a 3 things. But this would be another form of state revenue generated that we could certainly put to good use on top of gaming, tourism, and service.

I've posted some comments on a thread in RATS that would be applicable to this topic, so I'll copy those comments in this thread--For the convenience of those who don't have RATS access:

Another medical use for which I've heard that it's prescribed is to treat glaucoma...Such patients are even given a card to carry that indicates their medical need for it & the medical industry checks it for purity, rolls it up & packages it to send to the patient.

I've even heard of a group of researchers (I've forgotten some details like who they were & where they were conducting research because it must be at least a decade since I saw it) who were experimenting with hemp as a material for construction! They first engineered the hemp to contain such a low level of THC that anyone who would have tried to "alter their minds" with it would have to inhale enough smoke to kill an elephant & still never even catch a buzz.

During their research & experimentation, they found that hemp grows much faster than trees, could be more easily molded or shaped in any way desired & was even stronger than most common wood already in use; It also would have been much cheaper to form & use than what the lumber industries could have accomplished. They were shut down by the US government simply for growing & possessing the stuff, regardless of nearly non-existent THC content & the fact that it was for research for practical applications.

I think it may even be possible that the lumber industry may have something to do with opposing such a Bill...After all, the research conducted on hemp for use as building materials would have an impact on the lumber industry too.

An article I believe in the Harvard law Journal reported that as much as 2-5 billion has been spent just on lawyers in cases of minor infractions of the drug laws on the books Thats just since 1965. Thinking on the incremental price of court costs it won't be long before that number is in the trillions. Thats way to much money stolen from the people by our judicial system. Time for a change!
Zindo

Originally posted by MidnightDStroyer
I've even heard of a group of researchers (I've forgotten some details like who they were & where they were conducting research because it must be at least a decade since I saw it) who were experimenting with hemp as a material for construction! They first engineered the hemp to contain such a low level of THC that anyone who would have tried to "alter their minds" with it would have to inhale enough smoke to kill an elephant & still never even catch a buzz.

During their research & experimentation, they found that hemp grows much faster than trees, could be more easily molded or shaped in any way desired & was even stronger than most common wood already in use; It also would have been much cheaper to form & use than what the lumber industries could have accomplished. They were shut down by the US government simply for growing & possessing the stuff, regardless of nearly non-existent THC content & the fact that it was for research for practical applications.

I think it may even be possible that the lumber industry may have something to do with opposing such a Bill...After all, the research conducted on hemp for use as building materials would have an impact on the lumber industry too.

The industrial uses alone make this truly a "miracle plant" and thus a threat to any number of industries. I highly recommend Jack Herer's book The Emperor Wears No Clothes, which I believe you can read for free on his web site. The guy is quite evangelical about the wonders of cannabis, but if you can see beyond him being a bit 'out there,' he definitely has some good insights about how hemp could change the world.