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How Medical Marijuana Works · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to you Stuff you Should
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Speaker 1: Know from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome
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Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. This is Charles W.
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Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, who is seated across from me. Hello, and uh,
0:23
Speaker 1: you put the two of us together, you get a
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Speaker 1: podcast called Stuff you Should Know? Like it or not exactly? Um,
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Speaker 1: how are you doing? I'm well, I'm glad. Uh, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: We're going to talk today about why don't think is
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Speaker 1: a pretty important issue. Uh, medical marijuana. We've spoken for
0:45
Speaker 1: about the potential health benefits a plenty of other drugs, ecstasy, LSD, psilocybin, mushrooms.
0:57
Speaker 1: I feel like it's high time. Did you do that
1:01
Speaker 1: on purpose? Sadly not interesting that we did medical marijuana.
1:05
Speaker 1: This article had a couple of those little puns that
1:08
Speaker 1: I thought were one strain of research man that silverman
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Speaker 1: thought he was so funny for getting that in there
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Speaker 1: and just like freaking the man out. So where do
1:18
Speaker 1: we start? Do you have an intro? No? I don't
1:20
Speaker 1: have an intro. I feel like this, uh, this subject
1:22
Speaker 1: itself needs no intro. It's using pot marijuana for medicinal purposes,
1:31
Speaker 1: and apparently there is a pretty extensive body of research
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Speaker 1: showing that it does in fact help, that seven hundred
1:40
Speaker 1: and thirty thousand UH people who have grave diseases and
1:45
Speaker 1: illnesses aren't really just faking so they can smoke pot,
1:50
Speaker 1: that the stuff is helping. UM. There's a lot of
1:53
Speaker 1: diseases that Jacob Silverman lists that this UM that medical
1:58
Speaker 1: marijuana has been shown to howl with. Do you know
2:02
Speaker 1: what they are? You recite them in alphabetical order. Well,
2:05
Speaker 1: I have two lists UM. The list in the article
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Speaker 1: says nausea, especially chemotherapy, nausea, loss of appetite, chronic pain, anxiety, arthritis, cancer, AIDS, glaucoma,
2:17
Speaker 1: MS or multiple sclerosis, insomnia, A d H D epilepsy, inflammation, migraines,
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Speaker 1: Crohn's disease, and if you're terminally ill, to improve your
2:28
Speaker 1: quality of life. This is a list on the sign
2:33
Speaker 1: outside of the Cush Doctor at Venice Beach, California. And
2:39
Speaker 1: there's a lot more things on this list. Do you
2:41
Speaker 1: suffer from? UM? They also include in here sickle cell anemia, UM,
2:49
Speaker 1: psychiatric disorders basically anything autoimmune, sleep, disorders, and it says,
2:56
Speaker 1: I think either sleeplessness or too sleepy? Does it say that? Yeah? Um?
3:04
Speaker 1: Any any well? At list about twenty more things, and
3:08
Speaker 1: then at the bottom it says, or any chronic or
3:11
Speaker 1: persistent medical symptom. Write anything fingernail hurt right now. So
3:16
Speaker 1: that's what the cush doctor will And that is an
3:19
Speaker 1: actual I'm not just making that up at Venice speech.
3:21
Speaker 1: I saw the picture. It says, cush doctor, and um,
3:25
Speaker 1: you can go in there with your little card and
3:28
Speaker 1: get you some pot. So what you've just gotten at
3:31
Speaker 1: is the heart of this problem. Like there is plenty
3:34
Speaker 1: of legitimate, bona fide medical research that shows that marijuana
3:39
Speaker 1: does help ease symptoms. It does a special double weighamy
3:43
Speaker 1: on people who are nauseated and don't have any appetite,
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Speaker 1: which is a terrible symptom of several diseases, cancer AIDS.
3:51
Speaker 1: So you have this part of the medical establishment saying yes,
3:55
Speaker 1: pot helps, and then you have the drug warriors, the
4:01
Speaker 1: d e A, lots of US district attorneys, plenty of
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Speaker 1: the square Americans, um saying now it's a drug, and um,
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Speaker 1: there's gonna be plenty of guys like the cush doctor
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Speaker 1: who are just gonna sell it to anybody they can
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Speaker 1: and use any medical marijuana laws that you enact as
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Speaker 1: a shield to operate criminally from behind, like don't don't
4:27
Speaker 1: take that drug. So um. For a long time, the
4:34
Speaker 1: medical marijuana idea has been taken up by states. It's
4:38
Speaker 1: been a state's rights issue also, um. But the federal
4:42
Speaker 1: government apparently was the first ones to ever legalize um
4:46
Speaker 1: or sell or supply legal medical marijuana from a program
4:51
Speaker 1: that ran from nineteen seventy. UM. It kind of petered
4:55
Speaker 1: out in the states, starting with California really took up
4:58
Speaker 1: the cause. Yeah, for a while, they did not sit
5:02
Speaker 1: very well, especially during the Bush years. That did not
5:04
Speaker 1: sit well with the federal government, and the Feds used
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Speaker 1: to routinely raid uh legitimate uh medical pot dispensaries that
5:15
Speaker 1: were operating within the letter of state law because federal
5:18
Speaker 1: law supersede state law. So the d A can read
5:21
Speaker 1: you anytime they want, because according to the federal government,
5:24
Speaker 1: pots still a drug. It doesn't matter what your state says,
5:26
Speaker 1: right right. UM. With Obama, he came into office saying,
5:31
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not going to waste the resources
5:33
Speaker 1: of the d O j on cracking down on legal
5:38
Speaker 1: pot operations. Yeah, that was in two thousand nine, um
5:43
Speaker 1: and memo. Yeah, and things really launched after that, like
5:47
Speaker 1: more states pass legislation and more dispensaries like in l A.
5:51
Speaker 1: At the time, after that passed, they say there could
5:55
Speaker 1: have been up to a thousand dispensaries in l A proper,
5:59
Speaker 1: but then they and said no, it was more like six.
6:04
Speaker 1: But what happened recently, well, UM, the the head of
6:08
Speaker 1: the d A, UM, a woman named Michelle Leonhardt was
6:15
Speaker 1: She was appointed by Bush and Obama reappointed her and
6:20
Speaker 1: shortly after her reappointment, she rewrote the d a's position
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Speaker 1: on medical marijuana, saying like no, it's a drug and
6:29
Speaker 1: we're gonna go after it. And her, let's see leon
6:34
Speaker 1: Hart with the help of the district attorney no USA
6:40
Speaker 1: U S attorney UM by less name of Hague. I
6:44
Speaker 1: can't remember first name, Melissa Hague maybe she Um. She
6:48
Speaker 1: started basically prosecuting we're sending sending the d e A
6:53
Speaker 1: to medical dispensaries, and everything just totally changed, like it
6:58
Speaker 1: just went backwards by years when it looked like it
7:02
Speaker 1: was all about to change. Yeah, and um, the media
7:05
Speaker 1: and especially the liberal media have held Obama's feet to
7:08
Speaker 1: the fire, and they're like, dude, what is up with
7:10
Speaker 1: this reversal? And um, isn't this probably just election year
7:16
Speaker 1: campaign strategy And they're like, no, it's not a reversal. Really,
7:20
Speaker 1: it's sort of the same as it always was. Really
7:24
Speaker 1: but not really No, And apparently with so this is um.
7:27
Speaker 1: Chuck and I both thread a really good article called
7:30
Speaker 1: um Obama's Warm Pot in Rolling Stone. It's very thorough. Um.
7:35
Speaker 1: But the the there there has basically been a step
7:39
Speaker 1: up in the way that medical marijuana and the people
7:42
Speaker 1: who use it and prescribe it are being treated by
7:45
Speaker 1: the federal government. Um. With there there's been a hundred
7:49
Speaker 1: raids so far, at least a hundred rates carried out
7:52
Speaker 1: under Obama's watch. So if it keeps if it keeps
7:57
Speaker 1: up with this pace, then um, he will be worse
8:01
Speaker 1: than Bush as far as medical marijuana raids. Uh. And
8:06
Speaker 1: this one guy, Rob Campia, who was executive director of
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Speaker 1: the Marijuana Policy Project, said that Obama is the worst
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Speaker 1: president on medical marijuana. Crazy. It is just totally crazy
8:16
Speaker 1: because that's not what he said during the campaign. And Uh,
8:21
Speaker 1: the I don't know, no what need astorney. I'm one
8:24
Speaker 1: of the residents of Colorado that was campaigning hard to
8:27
Speaker 1: you know, to keep this going against Obama even though
8:30
Speaker 1: he voted for him, said he needs to watch it
8:32
Speaker 1: because quote, medical marijuana is twice as popular as he is.
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Speaker 1: So he says he's already lost that vote no matter
8:40
Speaker 1: what happens. So we'll see how this shakes down, all right. So, uh,
8:48
Speaker 1: California has been studying this since about two thousand. In
8:51
Speaker 1: earnest um, they were given about nine million bucks to
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Speaker 1: do genuine medical research on the effectiveness of marijuana for
9:00
Speaker 1: different usually pain causing and nausea causing diseases. And um.
9:07
Speaker 1: It's always been hard to do these studies though, because
9:10
Speaker 1: the federal government, if they're gonna give you money, they're
9:12
Speaker 1: gonna regulate like where the pot comes from. And this
9:15
Speaker 1: at the time was that you see San Diego. They
9:17
Speaker 1: would only let them get it from one place, one source,
9:20
Speaker 1: and then they would visit them. Federal agents would in
9:24
Speaker 1: uh the Medical Cannabis Research Center to verify that it
9:28
Speaker 1: was kept in a vault that was bolted to the floor,
9:32
Speaker 1: so they would, you know, they want to come by
9:34
Speaker 1: and make sure they were all sitting around smoking joints
9:37
Speaker 1: and like playing ping pong. You guess which I mean.
9:39
Speaker 1: I guess if you are kind of hung up on
9:42
Speaker 1: testing with medical marijuana, that's cool. That's your right to
9:45
Speaker 1: drop by and make sure that everything is here and
9:47
Speaker 1: it's not being Yeah, I'm not liking that. Um. The
9:49
Speaker 1: federal government started, like like the the head of the
9:53
Speaker 1: Bureau of Alcohol to back on firearms. Then a lighter
9:55
Speaker 1: to firearms dealers saying it's um, it's illegal to sell
9:59
Speaker 1: afire are armed to a person addicted to marijuana. So
10:02
Speaker 1: if you are, if you are receiving medical cannabis, you
10:07
Speaker 1: just had your Second Amendment right strip from your banks
10:10
Speaker 1: are worried about getting prosecuted for money laundering by dealing
10:14
Speaker 1: with dispensaries medical marijuana dispensaries. So now it's starting to
10:17
Speaker 1: go to a cash only I eat, more dangerous business
10:21
Speaker 1: for prone to robberies and tax evasion. It's just like
10:25
Speaker 1: definitely going backwards, huge huge steps backwards. It's crazy, and
10:29
Speaker 1: by backwards, I should say, if you're pro medical marijuana, sure,
10:34
Speaker 1: let's talk about why um pot might help. Okay, th
10:39
Speaker 1: HC is in um it's a cannaba cannabinoid in marijuana,
10:44
Speaker 1: and that's what makes you feel high, and it's also
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Speaker 1: where you find your medicinal properties. They're all locked in
10:50
Speaker 1: there together because we produce our own cannabinoids in the
10:54
Speaker 1: form of indo cannabinoids naturally. Yes, so we have endocannabinoid receptors, right,
11:00
Speaker 1: an abinoid, Yeah, cannabinoid. I like the way you said,
11:02
Speaker 1: it's kind of pleasing phenomena UM in our body. And
11:06
Speaker 1: when they are when they receive something, when something is
11:10
Speaker 1: recepted to them, uh, they release things like pain relievers,
11:16
Speaker 1: reduced anxiety. It has a whole just a whole lot
11:20
Speaker 1: of effects on us mood, memory, appetite. Well, it has
11:24
Speaker 1: a negative impact on memory. I think, well, it's it's
11:27
Speaker 1: just to regulates these responses whether or not there makes
11:31
Speaker 1: you sleepy or hungry or not. So with some with
11:35
Speaker 1: some diseases, UM, this combination of UM introducing THHC to
11:40
Speaker 1: the ENDO can now I can't say it correctly. Endocannabinoid
11:45
Speaker 1: receptor UM results in increased appetite, results in UM lesson
11:51
Speaker 1: muscle spasms. If you have multiple sclerosis, UM or if
11:55
Speaker 1: you're quadriplegic, UM results in just a greater outlook a
12:00
Speaker 1: sense of well being if you're dying. All these things
12:03
Speaker 1: that have been studied and document it is actually working.
12:07
Speaker 1: I got one for you. Uh. They did a study
12:09
Speaker 1: in mice that showed that the cannabinoids may protect against
12:15
Speaker 1: development of certain types of tumors, both benign and cancerous.
12:19
Speaker 1: And not only that, listen to this. It appears to
12:22
Speaker 1: kill only the tumor cells and may even protect the
12:25
Speaker 1: healthy cells from cell death. That is some pot That's
12:29
Speaker 1: pretty rad. That's all I'm saying. So on the other hand,
12:33
Speaker 1: you've got people saying, Okay, all right, I'm going to
12:35
Speaker 1: take the medical establishment at face value, and um say, yes,
12:41
Speaker 1: THHD hit your endocannabinoid receptors and produces it alleviates a
12:46
Speaker 1: lot of symptoms of certain diseases. Can we just not
12:49
Speaker 1: come up with something that doesn't get you high? And uh,
12:53
Speaker 1: some drug companies have been like, yes we can, and
12:56
Speaker 1: they introduced um shiny black pills called marian All, which
12:59
Speaker 1: is synthetic THHC. Josh, I have had a Marino pill?
13:04
Speaker 1: Really did it? Did it alleviate your symptoms? Uh? It
13:09
Speaker 1: was a very mild thing, to be honest. And this
13:13
Speaker 1: was this was many years ago when I was living
13:14
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. But um, yes, I've had a marinal pill,
13:17
Speaker 1: and it's did you get it from Dr Couch? Now
13:19
Speaker 1: I didn't. But it is funny how you just pointed
13:22
Speaker 1: out because that kind of debated off air. I was like,
13:24
Speaker 1: should I say that I've had a marinal pill. We're like, well, yeah,
13:27
Speaker 1: it's an FDA proved drug, Like you can say that,
13:30
Speaker 1: but you can't say, yeah, I smoked pot and not
13:33
Speaker 1: get you know, the cross side stairs. Sure, it's just interesting,
13:36
Speaker 1: Yeah it is. That's I guess that's at the heart
13:39
Speaker 1: of all this. It's kind of like this this drug,
13:45
Speaker 1: the synthetic drug, yeah, uh, that you can get through
13:49
Speaker 1: a prescription right and go to your pharmacy and they'll
13:51
Speaker 1: give it to you. Um, you can have that, but
13:55
Speaker 1: this this drug gros in the ground, right, Yeah, that
14:00
Speaker 1: actually works better than this other drug, the synthetic version
14:03
Speaker 1: of it, supposedly. That's the big um complaint against marian
14:08
Speaker 1: all is that it's like it's a synthetic teaching, but
14:11
Speaker 1: it's lacking some really important parts. Yeah, well, and it
14:13
Speaker 1: absolutely is lacking. I mean chemically it's it's lacking. But um,
14:17
Speaker 1: but you can't have that and I'm really reminded of this,
14:20
Speaker 1: Like this is where like witches and doctors came from
14:24
Speaker 1: from the struggle of like the I guess some Middle Ages,
14:29
Speaker 1: so where science was really starting to kind of come
14:33
Speaker 1: about and um, to basically maintain a foothold or create
14:41
Speaker 1: a foothold for itself over Western society, it had to
14:44
Speaker 1: get rid of its rivals, which were um traditional healers
14:49
Speaker 1: who very quickly became witches and outcasts and were ostracized
14:53
Speaker 1: as backward and possibly even evil. So don't go to them,
14:58
Speaker 1: come to me, because I'm the guy with the beat on.
15:01
Speaker 1: We can protect you from the plague. Look at you,
15:04
Speaker 1: Arthur Miller. But isn't that Isn't that kind of analogous? Yeah?
15:08
Speaker 1: I think so. Um. There's also, uh, that's very astute, Josh,
15:13
Speaker 1: thank you. Um. There's also a tv X which is
15:16
Speaker 1: um a pain reliever, and it is actually an extract
15:22
Speaker 1: of real marijuana administered by spray and I think they
15:26
Speaker 1: have that's in England, Spain, and Canada, and it's in
15:29
Speaker 1: trials here in the US. Yeah, so that's not synthetic,
15:32
Speaker 1: that's actually an extract. Yeah. I'll bet everybody who uses
15:35
Speaker 1: it goes oh, I can't. I don't feel any pain,
15:38
Speaker 1: but you might as well just use this. Uh what's
15:42
Speaker 1: the stuff you spray when you have tonsillitis? Oh? Yeah,
15:46
Speaker 1: might as well just use superl That's not the one
15:48
Speaker 1: I was thinking of, though, is the uh so, Like
15:53
Speaker 1: you said, most experts agree that mare and all um
15:58
Speaker 1: and it's at vax actually in clinical riles show to
16:00
Speaker 1: have less of an effect than actual the marijuana plant itself.
16:06
Speaker 1: But the d e A points out t S this
16:09
Speaker 1: is what this is legal that and they make a
16:12
Speaker 1: pretty good point here that um may and all is
16:16
Speaker 1: the THHC what morphine is to opium. Like, yeah, you
16:19
Speaker 1: might need morphine. We're not gonna tell you it's okay
16:22
Speaker 1: to go smoke opium for your pain. There's morphine. Go
16:25
Speaker 1: use the morphine. It's legal, it's regulated, it's taxed, and
16:29
Speaker 1: it's not gonna get you landed in jail unless you
16:31
Speaker 1: get your hands on it illegally. So the Feds are
16:35
Speaker 1: the ones who are definitely blocking this right now. UM
16:39
Speaker 1: this I should say in in a lot of states,
16:42
Speaker 1: there's eighteen states, including d C that have UM laws
16:47
Speaker 1: on the books that say, yeah, man, you you we've
16:50
Speaker 1: got legalized medical marijuana to some degree. Yeah, and Oregon
16:55
Speaker 1: is the king Daddy of medical marijuana. California was Yeah,
17:01
Speaker 1: I mean there's probably more dispensaries and things like that.
17:04
Speaker 1: But in Oregon you are allowed to possess up to
17:06
Speaker 1: twenty four ounces of you what they call usable marijuana,
17:14
Speaker 1: or twenty four plants um, six of which can be mature,
17:17
Speaker 1: eighteen of which can be immature, which means they're like flowering,
17:21
Speaker 1: budding plants. They were Jeane jackets. So Washington's right behind them.
17:26
Speaker 1: You can possess twenty four ounces or fifteen plants, and
17:30
Speaker 1: uh not surprisingly, there are no states in the Southeast,
17:36
Speaker 1: and Michigan is the only state in the Midwest. Uh
17:41
Speaker 1: So yeah, in these in these Bible Belt areas, you're
17:44
Speaker 1: not finding any pro marijuana medical marijuana states going on
17:48
Speaker 1: and insert your own Detroit joke here. Uh we should. Yeah,
17:53
Speaker 1: we don't have to read through just all those other
17:55
Speaker 1: hippie states plus Iowa in New Jersey. Yeah, that's so
17:59
Speaker 1: surprised thing have them Maryland. The thing is, though, is
18:04
Speaker 1: a lot of these, like you said, a lot of
18:06
Speaker 1: them rushed to um get laws on the books. Delaware.
18:10
Speaker 1: I think Delaware just wanted to be like he remember us,
18:15
Speaker 1: we're really a state. UM, but a lot of them
18:18
Speaker 1: have backed off, like Rhode Islands UM Governor Lincoln Chaffee
18:23
Speaker 1: is a vocal supporter of medical marijuana and a big
18:27
Speaker 1: critic of the federal government for using like goon squad
18:32
Speaker 1: tactics to like fight it and basically over rule state law. UM.
18:39
Speaker 1: But even he's back down because federal prosecutors have been like, hey,
18:43
Speaker 1: don't make us come after your your state employees who
18:46
Speaker 1: are running these these dispensaries, because we'll put him in
18:49
Speaker 1: jail and they can do it. Thirty four states, Josh,
18:53
Speaker 1: have UM laws passed that recognized marijuana as having medical value,
18:58
Speaker 1: and I think New Mexico was the first one actually
19:00
Speaker 1: in the oh yeah, yeah, even before California and UM. However,
19:08
Speaker 1: you know, you know how these laws go. It's like
19:10
Speaker 1: the gay marriage laws. It's like it's legal and then
19:13
Speaker 1: it's repealed, and then it's legal, and then it's repealed
19:16
Speaker 1: and you can do it here, and now you can't.
19:18
Speaker 1: So there's been a lot of back and forth over
19:20
Speaker 1: the years with the states. UH, sort of on a
19:23
Speaker 1: roller coaster that duke in it out with the federal government. Interesting. So, um,
19:30
Speaker 1: let's talk about California. Let's take California as a state. Yeah,
19:34
Speaker 1: I love that place. I love California. So California is
19:37
Speaker 1: I think they were the first state with legal medical marijuana, right,
19:41
Speaker 1: I think so. I think it's properly to fifteen. Uh.
19:45
Speaker 1: And they said, hey, if you have a doctor's recommendation,
19:48
Speaker 1: because we should point out there's no doctor that can
19:50
Speaker 1: legally prescribe marijuana, because exactly if you walk into your
19:56
Speaker 1: local drug store, they'll be like, get out of here.
19:59
Speaker 1: We got marrin all. You want some of that, but
20:01
Speaker 1: we don't have any pot. Um. So a doctor can
20:04
Speaker 1: recommend it in a state where you have legal medical marijuana,
20:08
Speaker 1: that it can say, I doctor feel good, UH, say
20:14
Speaker 1: that Chuck Bryant uh suffers from glaucoma and to relieve
20:19
Speaker 1: the interocular eye pressure associated with his condition, I recommend
20:24
Speaker 1: that he um use medicinal marijuana. And then that's that
20:29
Speaker 1: signed Dr Kush right, and you, being a medical pot recipient,
20:36
Speaker 1: would keep that letter on you at all times, depending
20:39
Speaker 1: on if you were in California, which also passed the
20:41
Speaker 1: supplemental um law, saying you know what this is, you
20:45
Speaker 1: can lose your doctor's note or whatever. So let's just
20:48
Speaker 1: issue I D cards to people who have a doctor's recommendation. Uh,
20:53
Speaker 1: if you have an ID card or doctor's recommendation, you
20:56
Speaker 1: can grow and you can um buy pot and possess yeah,
21:02
Speaker 1: and ostensibly use it. You know what Senate bill that was, yes,
21:06
Speaker 1: I do. Can you believe it? I could not believe it.
21:11
Speaker 1: Two thousand three. Um, they passed Senate Bill four twenty
21:14
Speaker 1: in California which um stipulated the cards and um that
21:19
Speaker 1: you could have eight ounces of usable marijuana, six mature plants,
21:23
Speaker 1: or twelve imager plants. Senate bill. That's crazy is that
21:28
Speaker 1: the two thous three bill? Okay? Um, apparently even more
21:33
Speaker 1: than that. The state said, by the way, uh, let's
21:37
Speaker 1: take this down to the county level. You counties, if
21:39
Speaker 1: you feel like you want to expand upon this, go ahead.
21:43
Speaker 1: So some counties have been like sure, Like the Humboldt
21:47
Speaker 1: is one that definitely expanded the amounts that you can
21:51
Speaker 1: have in the situations in which it's not. Okay, boy,
21:54
Speaker 1: I had some Humboldt fog two days ago. What cheeze,
22:00
Speaker 1: it's cheese. But it sounds like marijuana doesn't it does.
22:04
Speaker 1: And now that you mentioned that, I think I've had
22:06
Speaker 1: that before too. Is really like yummy blue cheese. Um.
22:10
Speaker 1: And we got some of the store down the street.
22:12
Speaker 1: But I laughed, Emily, I was like, it always cracks
22:14
Speaker 1: me up because some both Fox sounds like one of
22:16
Speaker 1: those marijuana streams. It definitely does. Yeah, you got me
22:20
Speaker 1: with that one. You're like, you can't say that, chuck.
22:25
Speaker 1: Uh so if you so. California also has um what's
22:29
Speaker 1: called a caregiver law. Yeah. A caregiver is somebody who
22:34
Speaker 1: basically takes care of you if you're sick, right. Uh.
22:38
Speaker 1: In California, a caregiver can also refer to a person
22:42
Speaker 1: who supplies medical marijuana to people who have docutors recommendations. Right. Um,
22:50
Speaker 1: It's like your grandmother has glaucoma, she didn't know where
22:53
Speaker 1: to score, right, So you could be her caregiver and
22:55
Speaker 1: get this for her, or you can be the guy
22:58
Speaker 1: who's growing it for her. Right. Did you ever see
23:02
Speaker 1: the Curb your Enthusiasm where Larry got pot for his dad.
23:07
Speaker 1: He got medical marijuanta for his dad because he had
23:09
Speaker 1: I think it was glaucoma, And he smoked with him
23:13
Speaker 1: and showed him how to do it and everything, and
23:16
Speaker 1: like went in the bathroom and freaked out. It was
23:18
Speaker 1: pretty funny. Yeah, and the whole buying process. So it
23:20
Speaker 1: was the guy from Lost. Hurley from Lost was the
23:24
Speaker 1: pot dealer. It was really really funny. It was good.
23:28
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, did you ever see the Mr. Show sketch
23:31
Speaker 1: about medical marijuana. The pharmacist who has the brownies? Yeah, yeah,
23:37
Speaker 1: and he always wants to play like the music he
23:40
Speaker 1: recorded on his four track Yeah for everybody. Well, it's
23:44
Speaker 1: it's funny. You mentioned that though, because at some of
23:46
Speaker 1: these dispensaries, um, you can buy things like brownies and
23:50
Speaker 1: butter and cookies and smoothies and yeah, because not everybody
23:54
Speaker 1: wants to smoke pot. Who has a medical cannabis exactly? Okay,
23:58
Speaker 1: so you have a recommended and you have a caregiver
24:01
Speaker 1: that you go to, and the caregiver, um, so this
24:03
Speaker 1: is where it gets really cloudy. They the Feds don't
24:07
Speaker 1: go after patients, even during the Bush years um and
24:13
Speaker 1: now which is worse than the Bush years. Um. They
24:16
Speaker 1: they have never gone after patients. It's basically, don't go
24:20
Speaker 1: after patients. Caregivers used to be protected, but because caregiver
24:25
Speaker 1: is also basically synonymous for pot dealer in medical marijuana
24:29
Speaker 1: states that that's no longer you're if you are one
24:33
Speaker 1: of those caregivers who's really like spending your You live
24:36
Speaker 1: with your elderly grandmother and you're taking care of her,
24:40
Speaker 1: and she has medical marijuana that she takes and you
24:42
Speaker 1: go get it for you're in jeopardy now too, because
24:45
Speaker 1: a lot of these operations have gotten very, very big,
24:47
Speaker 1: and though they may be bona fide and legitimate, they
24:50
Speaker 1: may not be making any profit, which is part of
24:52
Speaker 1: the law. Um, they are considered caregivers rather than like
24:57
Speaker 1: dispensaries or anything like that. So that's what's clouded the issue.
25:00
Speaker 1: You that's where a lot of the protections for regular
25:03
Speaker 1: people who are caregivers are being stripped away. It got
25:06
Speaker 1: out of hand and it was people like Dr Cush
25:09
Speaker 1: sprung up and all of a sudden there were dispensaries
25:13
Speaker 1: that weren't co ops where you have actually members growing
25:17
Speaker 1: the weed for the co op. That's just say weed
25:22
Speaker 1: stead of marijuana, medical weed, medical weed. Um. They supposedly
25:27
Speaker 1: a lot of them were buying it illegally, making profit
25:30
Speaker 1: off of it and kind of screwed it up. For
25:33
Speaker 1: the legitimate ones. It is a cloudy issue. That's where
25:37
Speaker 1: we're at right now. Basically, it sounds like some there
25:40
Speaker 1: were either um, some groups who just want pro or
25:46
Speaker 1: decriminalization of marijuana altogether, who were using this issue to
25:49
Speaker 1: just force it through, hammer it through, or probably more realistically,
25:54
Speaker 1: there were just a bunch of hoot dealers who found
25:57
Speaker 1: like a lot a very easy cuss immers by supplying
26:02
Speaker 1: these co ops. Americans, by and large, if you believe poles,
26:08
Speaker 1: are in favor of medical marijuana for people who really
26:10
Speaker 1: need it. Um CBS News did a poll last year
26:13
Speaker 1: UM seventy seven percent of Americans thought doctors should be
26:17
Speaker 1: allowed to prescribe it for serious illness. And there was
26:20
Speaker 1: a gallop pole in two thousand and ten UM that said,
26:23
Speaker 1: do you favor or oppose to reduce to allow medical
26:27
Speaker 1: marijuana just to reduce pain and suffering for people with disease,
26:31
Speaker 1: and seventy were proc said oh, and three percent said no,
26:38
Speaker 1: absolutely not. So it's pretty pretty low percentage. And again
26:41
Speaker 1: we're pointing out this is for people who need it
26:43
Speaker 1: for their disease. It's not to be confused with pot
26:47
Speaker 1: legalization for recreation. Two different things did you know that
26:50
Speaker 1: the v A in two thousand and ten, I believe
26:53
Speaker 1: UM said that recommended cannabis, medical cannabis for soldiers returning
26:59
Speaker 1: home them. What for PTSD, I believe PTSD. I'm sure
27:04
Speaker 1: all sorts of other things. It's a legitimate course of
27:07
Speaker 1: treatment for soldiers returning from the front lines. Wow, isn't
27:10
Speaker 1: that crazy? It's interesting? Uh. And speaking of l A,
27:14
Speaker 1: you know they hit their peak in uh two thousand
27:17
Speaker 1: nine ish with you know what, they said, anywhere from
27:20
Speaker 1: six hundred to a thousand dispensaries, and they said, you
27:24
Speaker 1: know what, the city said, this is getting way out
27:26
Speaker 1: of hand, Like you've got a strip mall over there
27:30
Speaker 1: with like three medical marijuana dispensaries in it. That's kind
27:33
Speaker 1: of ridiculous. So they ordered, um, four hundred and thirty
27:38
Speaker 1: nine of them to be closed. Uh. And I think
27:42
Speaker 1: what was the It was only dispensaries that registered with
27:47
Speaker 1: the city after the council adopted the moratorium in two
27:51
Speaker 1: thousand seven were allowed to operate. So about a hundred
27:54
Speaker 1: and thirty of the six hundred roughly were allowed to
27:57
Speaker 1: stay open that were registered after the moratorium or for
28:00
Speaker 1: it says, after which that doesn't make any sense. Yeah,
28:03
Speaker 1: it doesn't make any The most unfair law This is
28:07
Speaker 1: from the LA Times too. But now people are, you know,
28:10
Speaker 1: filing lawsuits and and such on on patients rights lawsuits
28:14
Speaker 1: and uh, stuff like that. It's a it's a wild ride, man.
28:19
Speaker 1: It's interesting to watch. You need to see anybody who
28:22
Speaker 1: can use the help of something like medical marijuana being
28:25
Speaker 1: denied it and suffer well. And that's the point of
28:27
Speaker 1: one of the attorney says, He's like, why should we
28:29
Speaker 1: treat them any different than the vicat and patient or
28:32
Speaker 1: the OxyContin patient. Um. They did do a study to
28:36
Speaker 1: when they closed down all those hundreds of dispensaries about crime,
28:40
Speaker 1: and it was a Rand Corp study and they found
28:44
Speaker 1: that crime went down, um with the dispensaries, and crime
28:49
Speaker 1: went up when they closed him. But it was a
28:51
Speaker 1: pretty hinky study. Admittedly, Yeah, they only looked at ten
28:55
Speaker 1: days before and ten days after, and um, it was
29:00
Speaker 1: within three tenths of a mile of the closed facility
29:02
Speaker 1: there was a increase in crime. H within six tenths
29:09
Speaker 1: It was just it was a pretty hinky study. Basically,
29:12
Speaker 1: Even the people that are for it were like, come on,
29:14
Speaker 1: you need to do a better job than this. If
29:15
Speaker 1: you're going to study crime, well, I will tell you this. UM.
29:19
Speaker 1: In that Rolling Stone article, the United Food and Commercial
29:22
Speaker 1: Workers Union estimates that umred jobs have been lost since
29:28
Speaker 1: the federal crackdown starting in the beginning of two thousand
29:31
Speaker 1: and eleven. Jobs in this economy. That's unconscionable us. All right,
29:39
Speaker 1: do you have anything else? No? I don't. Let's do
29:42
Speaker 1: a follow up on this in five years. Good idea. Yeah,
29:47
Speaker 1: you got anything else? I got nothing else. I don't either.
29:50
Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about medical marijuana, you
29:52
Speaker 1: can type those words into the search bar how stuff
29:55
Speaker 1: works dot com. UM. That's m A R I JU
30:00
Speaker 1: A n A. I believe uh. And since I said
30:04
Speaker 1: handy search parts the time for listener mail. Actually I
30:08
Speaker 1: did have one more thing. Brownie Mary. You ever heard
30:10
Speaker 1: of her? She was a famous uh medical marijuana activists
30:15
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, This elderly woman who would make brownies
30:18
Speaker 1: for people, UM and you know, really went to the
30:21
Speaker 1: mat for for people in need. Her name was Mary Jane.
30:26
Speaker 1: That was her real name, Mary Jane. I can't think
30:28
Speaker 1: of her last name. Let's call her that. I don't
30:31
Speaker 1: know Brownie Mary because she delivered the brownies. I guess
30:33
Speaker 1: Brownie Mary or Brownie Mary Jane. That's much better. She
30:37
Speaker 1: always laughed about her name. Supposedly she was like, Hey,
30:39
Speaker 1: I guess I was destined to do this, but those
30:42
Speaker 1: of you don't know, Mary Jane is a street term
30:45
Speaker 1: for marijuana. If it's okay, Josh, I'm gonna call this. Uh.
30:51
Speaker 1: It was just sort of a weird email from a
30:54
Speaker 1: dude in Minneapolis. Hey, guys, I was just listening to
30:58
Speaker 1: the Mexican Wrestling podcast and you called for something to
31:02
Speaker 1: knock your socks off. I thought i'd shared this with you.
31:06
Speaker 1: Please take a moment to aim your feet away from
31:08
Speaker 1: anyone's face unless they want a knocked off sock up
31:12
Speaker 1: in their grill. Are you ready for this? I was
31:15
Speaker 1: an anthropological expedition. I was on one into the heart
31:19
Speaker 1: of the darkest Iowa, researching archaeological and cultural leads regarding
31:24
Speaker 1: a Mayan prince who fell out of favor and may
31:27
Speaker 1: or may not have traveled up the Mississippi in twelve
31:30
Speaker 1: seventy BC, setting up a kingdom in exile somewhere around
31:33
Speaker 1: the current town of Farmersburg. Ancient text also hint that
31:38
Speaker 1: he appointed a monkey as his head of agriculture, which
31:41
Speaker 1: was particularly interesting to me because I think monkeys are hilarious. Anyway,
31:47
Speaker 1: I was excavating near Farmersburg, uh their single stop sign,
31:51
Speaker 1: when I was suddenly surrounded by a street gang. They
31:55
Speaker 1: all had switchblades, so you knew they meant business. Their
31:59
Speaker 1: leader threatened me by saying, I only need to touch
32:01
Speaker 1: you once, like touching the wings of a butterfly, then
32:04
Speaker 1: you're dead, to which I replied, actually that's a myth.
32:08
Speaker 1: You can touch their wings without killing them as long
32:10
Speaker 1: as you know break the veins. Clearly a reference to
32:13
Speaker 1: our show on your dethence right, uh? Or no? Was
32:18
Speaker 1: that part of your Desthence in this manner, I opened
32:21
Speaker 1: up a dialogue and we discussed briefly butterfly anatomy, the
32:25
Speaker 1: difference between cumulus and Sirrhus clouds, and the way the
32:28
Speaker 1: sun works. They were so impressed by my knowledge they
32:31
Speaker 1: not only let me live, but they gave me a
32:33
Speaker 1: gift certificate to Applebee's made an honorary member of their gang,
32:38
Speaker 1: the Lords of Lepidoperative lepidoptery. This is the study of flies. Anyway,
32:46
Speaker 1: I just wanted to thank you and share a first
32:47
Speaker 1: day knowledge. Uh is truly power yours innertitude Matt from
32:52
Speaker 1: Innneapolis that I don't think it's true at all, but
32:55
Speaker 1: I think it's hysterical. And Matt took great time and
32:57
Speaker 1: crafting a very clever email. So yeah, of course not
33:03
Speaker 1: a monkey head of agriculture. I don't know, man, maybe
33:06
Speaker 1: that parts true. The minds were awfully rich, true, and
33:09
Speaker 1: they were I guess in Iowa. Yes, Um, well, let's see.
33:14
Speaker 1: If you want to take the time to craft a
33:16
Speaker 1: very clever email that captures our attention, we are always
33:20
Speaker 1: happy to read it. Um you can, well, you can
33:23
Speaker 1: tweet it to us if it's really short, tweet to
33:26
Speaker 1: s y s K podcast, hit us up on Facebook
33:29
Speaker 1: at Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know, and
33:31
Speaker 1: you can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
33:34
Speaker 1: Discovery dot com. Be sure to check out our new
33:42
Speaker 1: video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join How Stuff Work
33:46
Speaker 1: staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities
33:49
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