| Medical Marijuana Musings I
was once given a marijuana cigarette by a cancer patient who
received his stash from the Federal government. It was my first
opportunity to test medical marijuana grown for the government
through their research program at the University of Mississippi.
The cigarette looked innocent enough, except that the ends were
dark green rather than brown. Using a small-bladed knife, I
dissected the cigarette lengthwise, along the seam. The contents
consisted of sunleaf, leaf stems, and a few growing tips, all in
the vegetative state. They were yellow or brownish green. Visually
comparing the marijuana from the cigarette with the pictures in
some standard reference works from my library, I found that the
marijuana looked like early-harvested lower plant parts. This
material is commonly discarded or sold for under $100 per pound. I
gathered a panel of daily smokers who prefer sinsemilla, sometimes
grow their own, but have been known to smoke Colombian. There was
enough marijuana for two joints. After passing the lit sticks
around, I elicited some comments: "This is foul and evil
stuff." "Not good-tasting, but I feel it." "Leafy,
harsh, one-quarter the potency of sinsemilla. The kind of pot you
smoke when you're going cold turkey from nicotine." "Wow.
This is really harsh, hot, and dry-tasting." "Hey,
this stuff tastes a lot better than government pot!" I
found the joint to be very harsh, as harsh a sunleaf as I have
tasted. This is probably because of the small stems which are cut
fine and mixed with the leaf. The pot was relatively strong,
though, especially for leaf from immature plants.
I've noticed, however, that the buzz that I get from an immature
plant has different qualities from the high produced by mature
flowers. Perhaps the plant produces a slightly different analog in
the flowers. The government-sponsored researchers, by the way,
decided not to use flowers because they contain too much resin and
gum up the rolling machine, which was manufactured to be used with
tobacco. The University grows only one variety, a Mexican, for
medical use. This variety was arbitrarily chosen as the sole
source of medical marijuana because the original research team
associated with the program felt that the cannabinoid mix in each
variety would need to be filed as a new investigative drug and
that the plant components were so complex that starting on more
than one variety was unrealistic. Just as with prescription
drugs, slight variations in the formulas of different varieties
may affect patients and symptoms in different ways. One variety of
marijuana may be better to relieve the symptoms of chemotherapy,
another for radiation therapy, and still another for glaucoma.
Also, the University has not investigated other possible medical
uses of marijuana. For instance, the long-term effects of
marijuana on blood pressure have not been looked into.
Patients who rely on the government are getting a raw deal. The
pot they receive is not worth more than $5 to $20 per ounce on the
open market. If they want a better grade, they're not permitted to
purchase it. The government's getting a raw deal too. The
cultivation program costs taxpayers much more per ounce than the
patients would have to pay on the open market for the pot they
receive. The government certainly pays more than $6.25 per ounce,
the cost of pot at $100 per pound. Perhaps the government
should buy pot from independent cultivators. If the government
bought leaf from growers, we could see the first subsidy for
marijuana cultivators. So many farmers would line up to supply the
government with pot that a crash program would have to be created
to find recipients. There might be cancer-glaucoma screening
clinics so that the shake surplus wouldn't have to be stored in
special grass silos. Perhaps the government could distribute the
surplus to underdeveloped countries such as Columbia... Of course,
there would still be the problem of what to do with the buds.
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