Jane Kelley wrote in a message to Alex Vasauskas:
AV> JK> It is very easy to tell that you haven't the faintest clue as to
AV> JK> what A.A. or N.A. are all about.  And with the attitude you present
AV> JK> here, you are not likely to do so.
AV>No.  It is you who apparently does not understand psychology,
AV>notwithstanding you claims to the contrary.  But then, you are
AV>the one who criticizes everyone, including the apparent majority of
AV>doctors and nurses, who don't agree with you.
 JK> We have a long way to go, according to posts such as yours, posts
 JK> that can understand the benefit of some herbal remedies here and
 JK> there, and completely negate those that have preserved this sort of
 JK> knowledge down through the ages along with the knowledge of the
 JK> human brain and nervous system that our Western medicine has long
 JK> since lost.
Not surprisingly, you didn't relate any of your literature citations
to the issue we are discussing -- the addictiveness of marijuana.
What you have demonstrated is that mental health is in a sorry state
if there are mental health workers who have blind-spots like yours.
The familiar literary character who comes to mind in this regard is
nurse Ratched from Ken Kesey's _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_.
Unfortunately, these purported professionals refuse to leave their
own problems at home, but go to work inflicting them on others.
Considering what you have claimed above to be the breadth of what you
are willing to consider in evaluating herbs and treatments, I am
surprised at your conclusions regarding cannabis, which are
contrary to the knowledge and evidence of "the ages" and of
contemporary research.  The record on marijuana encompasses 5,000
years of human experience.  It is used daily by enormous numbers of
people throughout the world.  Estimates suggest that from twenty
million to fifty million Americans routinely, albeit illegally,
use marijuana without the benefit of direct medical supervision
and without any problems.  Contrary to your representations, the
"age old" and contemporary evidence is that marijuana is not
addictive and debilitating for everyone, or most, or many.
The government's addiction experts have determined that nicotine
through cigarette smoking is addictive to 90% of those who smoke,
alcohol is addictive to 15% of drinkers, and cocaine is addictive to
8% of those who use it.  Without saying that it was addictive at all,
they determined that it was less addictive than caffeine is to coffee
drinkers, and the least addictive and problematical substance of the
six substances they compared.  Consequently, it is likely no more
addictive than rice or sweet corn, and in any event not as addictive
as coffee.
If there is a problem for a few related to marijuana, it is in the
person who seeks continuous escape due to severe emotional problems.
All that your approach does is try to demonize an herb (which is
beneficial to many and whose demonization has caused severe social
problems) to avoid the hard work of dealing with and treating the
real underlying problems, of which intoxication-seeking and escape
is only a symptom.
And, if there are some who actually have a problem with marijuana
due to some unique makeup of their physiology, then that should be
something to be treated and dealt with by those individuals.  It is
absurd to run society and deny medical benefits to the many according
to the makeup of the very few.  We learned this lesson from alcohol
prohibition.  Unfortunately, what we have learned from history is that
people do not learn from history.
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