76. Cost of Marijuana War

Earlier, I used an older, low-ball figure on what the current marijuana laws cost us. Turns out, 10-12 billion a year is quite low.

According to a newer study by researcher Jon Gettman, Ph.D., our current marijuana laws cost American taxpayers at least 42 Billion Dollars each year, -- $10.7 billion in direct law enforcement costs, and $31.1 billion in lost tax revenues...

And as far as Dr Paul's stance on abortion, I have read that he believes abortion is a medical issue for each state to decide (tough stance, but consistent with his fierce protection of our Constitution).

I would like to hear more from Dr. Paul on his views of abortion. He has been honest about everything else.

I want to give him my vote; but if he does indeed want to make abortion illegal at the fed'l level, then I have to go with Frank Zappa or former President Al Gore (snicker).

Adam Stern at 11:03PM on Nov 26th 2007

77. And here's a partial list of health organizations supporting medical marijuana:

http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3390

Sparky at 11:15PM on Nov 26th 2007

78. ah yeah man f*ckin right man count me in on da ah donut run man like ah ah yeah ah likea ah ah what ah aarrrrrrrrrrr we ah lika ah talking about man like ya know man ah THE PILLSBURY DOUGH BOY FOR PREZ! sh^t dat was ah hard now pass me a freakin donut man ah yeah right on!

Timo at 11:22PM on Nov 26th 2007

79. Lizard, you are such a dumbass...oops, shame on me for forgetting an h in ophthamology...mybe eye shud use spelchek. And as someone else said, you don't listen...I never said your drugs didn't do what you said they did...I said they don't help control pain, decrease nausea, and increase appetite...as you brought them up when trying to say why people didn't need medical marajuana. I do accept medicare and medicaid, and I am well aware I can't charge anything other than the allowable copays/coinsurances...if you knew anything about anything, you would know that the payments vary from state to state. In NC, our medicaid copayments are $3. I never said I charged above and beyond...I said I made them pay. Everyone can afford something... I don't care if you believe I am a physician or not. I admire Ron Paul for sticking to his guns, and practicing what he believes by not accepting assignments on insurance companies that aren't consistent with his philosophies. It has nothing to do with greed. Most practices actually make more money with insurance by accepting insurance assignment, not less, so how this is greed, I have no idea.

backtwohealth at 11:37PM on Nov 26th 2007

80. It's funny to see people complain about crackheads and thieves and associate that with drug legalization. Why is it that these drugs only became a major problem in this country when they were made illegal?

Ron Paul, by the way, is very pro-personal property rights as well, so if someone commits a robbery or violent crime they would be much more likely to serve hard time under the guidance of his administration. Of course on a state and local level, it would be much easier for the cops to find and arrest such offenders, since they wouldn't be bogged down worrying about busting drug users! There's an awful lot of naivete and assumption involved in positing that drug-related crime would experience any sort of long-term rise.

Furthermore, under Ron Paul such drugs could stay illegal in states and localities which choose to keep their anti-drug laws on the book. It's kind of like Nevada and prostitution, for example. Ron Paul merely wants to remove the power from the Federal DEA, a corrupt and bloated bureaucracy.

Garrett Gebhardt at 3:03AM on Nov 27th 2007

81. Knight to lizzzzard @#69.69. That's nice. But it doesn't help you,
since the archives agree with me.

Now then: since you have refused to back your claim, your cowardice
has been noted. Thanks for playing."
__________________________________

lizard, this is a perfect example of what I'm trying to tell you. You
are guilty of "concrete" thinking.

I'm here to testify that Knight is DECIDEDLY NOT a liberal. Knight is
a well known presence on these blogs. If you had been paying attention
all this time instead of relating anecdotes about home car repairs you
would know that. I'd love to see you go to the archives to try to
prove that Knight is a liberal. Go for it, lizard.

Just because someone doesn't agree with every PSYCHOTIC thing you do,
it doesn't mean that they are a liberal.

You make Atilla the Hun look like a liberal.

Captain Negative at 3:40AM on Nov 27th 2007

82. Im 57, married, now on disability due to multiple myeloma.Ican assure you that smoking cannabus is far beter than wolfing down metadone, oxy, and the bevy of the other pain and mood enhancing drugs. I grow my own,sell nothing. and save the tax payers thousands on the drugs I dont need to buy. LIFT THE BAN AND LET US LIVE,If you disagre, dont worry I m not going to last that much longer.

jack barry at 1:01PM on Nov 27th 2007

83. #77. Backtwohealth says: "Lizard, you are such a dumbass....oops, shame on me for forgetting an h in ophthamology."

Good job "Doc" (wink), but you misspelled OphthaLmology once again. Try sending a consult from your practice to an Ophthalmology clinic spelled "opthamology" and see what a "dumbass" they think YOU are.

"I never said your drugs didn't do what you said they did....I said they don't help control pain, DECREASE NAUSEA, and increase appetite..."

"Doc," The drugs I mentioned:"Tigan," "Phenergan,"
ARE anti-medics, (that means anti-NAUSEA), which are used to "DECREASE NAUSEA." Perhaps, I confused you with those big technical terms mumbo-jumbo, that "physicians," such as yourself, aren't expected to know.

"It has nothing to do with greed. Most practices actually make more money with insurance by accepting insurance assignment, not less, so how is this greed, I have no idea."

I thought we were talking about Medicaid/Medicare, not private "insurance."

Here's an example, "Doc" : If a physician charges $100.00 to suture (that means "stitch",Doc)
a wound closed, if he accepts Medicare assignment, Medicare may only approve $60.00 for the procedure, and then only pay 80% of what they approve = $48.00. By not accepting Medicare/Medicaid, you can collect the full $100.00. Of course, you'd be foolhearty to implement this if the majority of your patients are low income or elderly. But Ron Paul had this luxury by being only in the Obstetrics business: there aren't too many elderly patients giving birth to babies, and if a poor Medicaid patient sees that Paul doesn't accept Medicaid, they're not going to plunk down $10,000 for obstetrics/delivery care; they're going to seek out another physician who will accept assignment. This is essentially saying: "Come to me if you have good insurance, the rest of you can go to HE-double hockey sticks." Discrimination/greed at it's finest!

"I don't care if you believe I am a physician or not."

Judging by your incredible lack of basic medical/pharmacology knowledge, I'm going to go with....You're right, I don't believe that you're a physician, just another lying liberal which these blogs are saturated with.

lizard at 6:46PM on Nov 27th 2007

84. Ferarris are very high priced.

Yet somehow I don't think lizard says they're high priced because of discrimination and greed.

Knight_of_BAAWA at 7:13PM on Nov 27th 2007

85. #84. {{{ "Ferarris are very high priced. Yet somehow I don't think lizard says they're high priced because of discrimination and greed"}}}

Actually, I think they're high priced because of the technology and exotic materials used to build them.
I don't know much about Ferrari, though. You'd have to ask the ultra-rich Hollywood liberals about that.
However, I am a Porsche enthusiast, and own a 20y/o Porsche "bucket-o-bolts"(shhhhh) that keeps me busy turning wrenches. Unfortunately, not much time for it in between work and volunteering in "after-hours" eye surgery on kids flown in from third world countries (Haiti, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, etc.), by local physicians and missionaries. Mainly muscle imbalance surgery (strabismus) , but we occasionally get to see some rare parasitic infections. I'm also sidelined by doing a lot of gratis work on cars for people who can't afford to pay (and I can't stand seeing a person getting ripped off), $300.00 for a simple brake job.
But thanks for bringing up one of my favorite hobbies, other than keeping liberals truthful..a contradiction in terms, if you will.

lizard at 8:41PM on Nov 27th 2007

86. Lizard continues to be a dumbass...if a doctor doesn't take medicaid and/or medicare, he won't see nearly as many of those patients, so there is less income, even if he technically makes more per patient seen, overall there is less income.

Don't you mean they are antiemetic drugs? Anti-medic (this is more of a spelling problem...it's almost like you heard someone say this word once, and didn't understand it??? (laugh my ass off) And they don't increase appetite or control pain. Just nausea and vomitting. Noone is suggesting a pregnant woman smoke pot. Keep trying to be cute and quoting "Doc". You are only making yourself look like more of an asshole.

backtwohealth at 10:11PM on Nov 27th 2007

87. #74 DING DING!! Adam gets the internet's "Most Absurd Statistic Award," for perhaps the rest of this century.

{{ "According to a newer study by researcher Jon Gettman, Ph.D., our current marijuana laws cost American taxpayers 42 Billion Dollars each year,--
10.7 billion in direct law enforcement costs, and 31.1 billion in lost tax revenues....."}}

Ok, when can I stop laughing? Taxed at a simple 10% rate, you'd have to sell over $310 Billion worth of pot per year. Do you really think there are that many "stoners" out there? I always trust those "Ph.D."---sitting yoga-style puffing on a bong with a little Sitar music in the background,--- "statistics" to get me motivated into seeing most of the population walking/driving around in zombie land...lol.
When was there ever a society that taxed themselves into prosperity by hocking recreational drugs? You libbies remind me of taking your kids shopping, and how they're just going to "die" if you don't buy them every bag of candy in the store that they're whining for.

lizard at 10:32PM on Nov 27th 2007

88. Guliania, McBought, and Romneya* (and most of the Dems) are sleeping all over the place, especially with the pharmaceutical industry.

And they would rather have you "juiced up" or "healed up" on some sort of synthetic poppy or NSAID (meds that kill and injure daily, even when used correctly)than use an Ancient Herbal that has never killed.

Morphine and cocaine-based drugs, are ABSOLUTE MEDICAL MIRACLES for so many patients and so many medical situations, like surgery and post surgery, for instance.

BUT, for many people and for many medical situations, MARIJUANA IS MORE EFFECTIVE AND MUCH SAFER.

Politicians, like the three Repugs I mentioned above, are true bottom-dwellers: keeping safe medication from sick people to further their warped agenda. Sick sh*t.

Conventional medications kill approx. 100,000 people a year -- from properly prescribed and properly taken meds -- (this figure doesn't even begin to touch on the deaths caused by improperly taken, improperly prescribed, illegally taken, etc...)

Approx. 100,000 people die each year from FOLLOWING DOCTORS' RECOMMENDATIONS!!! (JAMA study that looked at all the hospital deaths sometime in the early 90s.).

Death by medication or by prescription is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. (JAMA info).

According to DEA Judge Francis Young, in his conclusion to years and years of court battles about rescheduling marijuana -- to allow it to be prescribed, like morphine and cocaine:

"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis cannabis can be safely used with a supervised routine of medical care...There are simply no credible medical reports to suggest that consuming cannabis has caused a single death."

No frickin' deaths from marijuana toxicity in 5,000 years; but for some reason, Docs are shoveling potentially deadly meds down patients' gullets by the tonnage (hmm?).

Even the DEA Judges are asking their attack dogs to stop torturing medical marijuana patients; but $ makes the world go around...

Patients suffer and die daily, because of this illogical and irrational war on patients; and despite the FACTS, people perpetuate the kakati/Reefer Madness a million times a day (frickin' zombies).

It is interesting. Most nurses and med techs that I've met know the real story on medical marijuana -- usually they know more than the docs here -- though most of them did have to do a little additional homework (in addition to their "pot is bad" curriculum), to uncover the truth.

Can't stop learning, just cuz ya got the piece of paper.

*Interesting tidbit for the conspiracy theorists: romneya (noun) is a shrub akin to the poppy. (Plastic-Poppy-Pushers from Pluto?).

Adam Stern at 11:41PM on Nov 27th 2007

89. #86 {{"Lizard continues to be a dumbass....if a doctor doesn't take medicaid and/or medicare, he won't see nearly as many of those patients, so there is less income, even if he technically makes more per patient seen, overall there is less income"}}

Let me see if I can slow this down since you are having comprehension problems, "Doc."

Paul was in OBSTETRICS. They don't see a lot of elderly Medicare patients who are PREGNANT. And he refused Medicaid which is essentially saying that he didn't see ANY poor patients, because who could afford thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses without having private medical insurance?
And what does Medicaid pay for one thousand dollars worth of services? Maybe fifty dollars, if you're lucky, and Medicaid actually pays your office without having to jump through hoops, red tape, and rebilling hassles. This gives Paul the ability to "select" his patients and EXPAND his schedule to accomodate patients with private insurance which will pay significantly more than Medicaid/Medicare.
We, on the other hand, in Ophthalmology, would be sunk if we didn't accept Medicare because most of our patients have age-related eye disorders, i.e., cataracts, macular degeneration, etc. Medicare is our bread-and-butter, we don't have the option of eliminating those patients. We see Medicaid patients on a referral basis from other physicians but take a huge loss in reimbursements, yet we do it out of humanitarian purposes and community service. So no matter what way you want to twist, spin, bake, slice, or dice it, or buy into Paul's philosophical BS about disliking government programs, the ONLY reason to be selective about which patients you see, is GREED GREED GREED.
Why bother seeing 500 Medicare/Medicaid patients, if you can see 100 patients with private insurance and be paid the same amount? This is Paul's dirty little secret. Sorry to tell you.

lizard at 11:32PM on Nov 27th 2007

90. hey lizard.
i see your on the weed kick still...
sighs,
and the "liberal liar" rants,
but did someone here really post that regulation and taxation would eleviate our current deficit problem?
well,i agree with you,thats just dumb.
of course i cant help but point out that there WAS a surplus when G.W took office,
now i know your a conservative,
and being a true conservative,
there would be no way you would ever become an apologist for G.W.
because conservative is the last thing that man is.
and you really should stop drinking that bud light,
it destroys your kidneys,
and unlike the liver..
can never repair itself.
ah well..
maybe thats why god gave ya two.
those camels are real bad for ya too man,
over a 120 chemicals in those things..bad ju-ju.
i know!
you should smoke some weed,
chill out some,
less long term side effects,and cheaper in the long run than beer.
and the war on drugs has been such a stellar success you can now get weed cheaper AND ten times more potent!
oh yeah..you cant,
you dont DO drugs,
you just drink booze and smoke cigs..got ya.
hmmm,
think the irony is lost?
till next time..peace.
Enoch D.D.S

enoch at 12:13AM on Nov 28th 2007