For chemo effects, Etheridge says marijuana ‘amazing’ medicine
Published: June 16, 2009
Updated 9 months ago
Grammy Award-winning musician Melissa Etheridge told CNN that when she underwent chemotherapy following breast cancer surgery, it was not the cocktail of pharmaceutical drugs that helped her recover, but rather medical marijuana, the effects of which she called “amazing.”
Etheridge was speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday as part of a new “investigation” — introduced with a cloud of smoke, a blue pot leaf and the title “America’s High” — into whether the plant should be legally available as medicine.
She described the pain of cancer therapy as being “like death” and “a general pain” with a complete loss of energy and appetite.
“[Marijuana] instantly — instantly — relieves the nausea … Relieves the pain,” she said, emphasizing that “you don’t take medicinal marijuana to get high.”
“So, it, you weren’t … You weren’t getting high?” asked Cooper.
“No, it’s not a high,” Etheridge said. “It’s a normal. And I could, all the sudden, get out of bed. I could go see my kids. It was … Amazing.”
Though marijuana is commonly associated with being smoked to deliver its active chemical compounds, Etheridge took the drug dissolved in butter and spread on food, or as a vapor inhalant, every four hours while on chemo.
She considered the notion of experiencing a “gateway” effect — becoming addicted and somehow driven to try other, more potent drugs — was “laughable,” but that she does keep up a prescription.
“The effects [of cancer treatment] on my gastrointestinal system, leaves me with … I have a really low tolerance for acid of any kind,” she said. “So, acid reflux is a constant problem. I don’t want to take the little pills that they give you, that have all the side-effects, to help with that.”
She said that medicinal marijuana “totally and completely settles all that.”
This video is from CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, broadcast June 15, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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That’s why Big Pill, Inc doesn’t like marijuana.
Pot will always be “illegal” to some extent. Because right now, as the public sentiment becomes more progressive (after the most regressive govt regime in U.S. history) you can bet your bottom dollar that the Pharmaceutical-Industrial-Complex is positioning itself to OWN THE LICENSING to sell all medical marijuana. So if/when pot becomes “legal”, it will still be “illegal” to obtain it without a prescription — because that cuts into BigPharma’s bottom line. Which is the reason pot is illegal in the first place.
Yes, big pharma is plenty worried about marijuana being decriminalized. People would quickly learn how much better this natural herb is for what ails them than the fistfull of industrial garbage that the pharma plutocrats push through their thoroughly corrupted medical care system.
If it is legalized, then a fight will brew between the medical marijuana dispenceries in operation right now and the pharma plutocrats. But the owners of those dispenceries are well aware of this and are now preparing for the battle. Their entire livelihoods are at stake; they will put up one hell of a closely-coordinated fight.
If this process is watched and supported by us thoroughly, this may be the first defect in the Plute’s armor that we can pierce through.
Pot is illegal because without it the DEA would have collapsed decades ago. It’s the brunt of their work. Anslinger was a smart guy. Read tinyurl.com/1mn which just points you to http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm “The History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States” It’s not a war on (some) drugs it’s a war on minorities, it was declared after the north won the civil war and outlawed slavery, so Uncle Sam is recouping the loss of slave labor by replacing it with prison labor.
If the ignorant masses of America would simply think about addiction as being a product of an addictive personality, there would not be so much arcane wizardy associated with the use of marijuana. If a person has an addictive personality, he/she will be addicted to coffee, tea, cigarettes, aspirin, ibuprofen…you name it. Of course, that person would become addicted to marijuana, cocaine, heroin, etc. Let’s determine the potential addicts among us and treat their inclination.
WOW! You sure did nail that one! I couldn’t agree more.
“She considered the notion of experiencing a “gateway” effect — becoming addicted and somehow driven to try other, more potent drugs — was “laughable,” but that she does keep up a prescription.”
I don’t get the tag on about her keeping up her prescription. Don’t really see why that’s relevant when they’re talking about the “gateway” effect.
Not only is marijuana illegal because of big pharma but also of big beer and alcohol manufactures. John McCain’s wife has $100 MILLION dollars from the sale of Budwiser for the state of Arizona. They are scared to death people will start to throw seeds out their window and get their own form of relaxation or pain relief without having to run to Circle K for a 12 pack of Budwiser.
Phillydrifter is correct. Marijuana was outlawed in the southwest as a way of deporting Mexicans around the turn of the century. Mexicans left the southwest and the white republiKKKons thought they had won the war. San Francisco did the same thing with opium. The Orientals used it as almost a cultural drug so they made that illegal. Cocaine was the “drug of black people” so they made that illegal as a way of controlling black men from raping white women.
haha If they would have known their efforts did nothing to bring whites only to America. This 40 year war on drugs is a dismal failure except for the drug cartels, big pharma, booze makers and the DEA.
Medical marijuana has helped me tremendously with my neuropathic pain from an injection of dental anesthetic (articaine) that damaged my lingual nerve. I’ve suffered for two years with hellish burning raw pain in my tongue. After a month on weed the pain has reduced by 50%. It’s like a miracle for me as I was suicidal from it. Pot is illegal because it can replace many poisonous, dangerous, and ineffective drugs for problems ranging from cancer to headaches and the pharma industry is dead set against this. They stand to lose billions. Also the paper and logging industry is against hemp as it is a much more cost effective way of producing paper and textiles. As a biofuel it is unequalled.. so many reasons for hemp and marijuana to be legalized but big industrial interestes are against it. It seems as though the tide is turning though…. I hope it continues.
When the average american adult becomes a “real life” thinking, mature human being, marijuana will be legal and a host of the world’s ills will begin to decline. That has been the gist of revolution against the Bush cabal for at least fifty years. Dawn is coming.
Actually, it’s been used as a medicine since the year 2737 BC when the Chinese emperor first prescribed it for things like depression, insomnia and stomach upset. In the following 4700 years, it’s still never killed anyone.
The silliest, most inhumane thing that doctors will do is to take people with extreme nausea and prescribe pills for it. When you can’t keep down water, it’s damn near impossible to take pills.
Another thing is how your congressional republicans will say that you can’t have single payer because that will put a gov’t bureaucrat in between you and your doctor. What the hell do you think a senator or congress person who tells you that you can’t have cannabis for nausea, pain or anything else a doctor thinks you should have it for is doing? Where are THEY standing RIGHT NOW?
BTW, the paper industry would LOVE to have hemp paper. I’ve read editorials in paper making trade mags that are calling for legalization so they can have paper made from hemp. They are very well aware of it’s benefits, both to the paper and to the environment.
Also, there are those in the lumber industry who WANT hemp based building materials. Granted, the loggers don’t, but the builders and their suppliers DO. Lots of them are very hip to the advantages of beams made from help.
It’s time to start taking our country back from those who think they have bought it. We need to let them know that it’s not for sale, and neither are our freedoms and the better good of the public. And if that means that all the old people in congress have to go home and stay there, then so be it.
It’s rare that i run across someone who doesn’t like pot but the other day on the bus I had the misfortune of sitting next to this guy with Dodge Ram face, obviously broken down and he became all upset because some angsty youths on the back of the bus were smoking weed, that smelled delicious. He was demanding the bus driver do something and then he jumped of the bus and yelled how he wasn’t going to pay or ride with a bunch of degenerates, even though it was a bus full of downtown worker types and 5 youths smoking weed. The driver jumped off and yelled ’stop you thief!’, then he jumped back on and took off and announced to the youths over the intercom that Dodge Ram face was going to call the police so they better get off before they show up, so they didn’t get in trouble. He dropped them at a doughnt shop and they dashed in, they looked harmless enough. Nobody else on the bus cared and anti-weed man had to totally ruin the ride with his tantrum. He looked like a complete alcoholic as well. The cops would not have even bothered with it where I live.
That’s how anti-weed people are, fucking jerks and that’s the real reason they want it illegal, because they want a nation of Dodge Ram driving assholes.
As for it’s legal status, I think it should be something more akin to how we treat possession of dandelions. Not regulated, not bothered over, not taxed, certainly not criminal.
I’m a 56-year-old female and have only smoked pot once. (My head almost fell off from choking, and I figured the “high” I was supposed to feel was the feeling of almost passing out as I watched stars go by.)
I have chronic pancreatitis and cystic fibrosis, as well as major depression and PTSD.
Both my daughter and son-in-law have prescriptions for medical marijuana (not sure why — none of my business really).
I wear a 75-mcg Duragesic patch 24/7 for pain (80 to 100 times stronger than morphine). I have Vicodin Extra Strength to use up to three times a day for breakthrough pain. I’m on a multitude of other medicines and have finally become the old lady counting out her pills into a “pill box” (to keep the meds straight) that I never thought I’d grow into.
I think the thing that irritates me the most was the question about whether or not using marijuana is just the gateway to using stronger, more dangerous drugs.
I’ve never ONCE heard the question, “Is drinking beer the gateway to using hard liquor?”
This whole marijuana issue is ridiculous. It comes from the earth. It has healing capacities. Instead of trying to kill weeds, maybe we should start trying to kill “Big Pharma.”
I’m sick and tired of corporations getting rich from someone’s illness. It’s the sickest, most depraved and most embarrassing part of being an American.
What the hell are they going to do with all the nasty cops, and the DEA, and all the drug testing labs owned by governors retarded nephews, drug counselors, drug testing techs, prosecutors, judges, prison corporations, drug warriors, etc. etc. if they quit arresting pot smokers? Think about all of the people elegible to go to college, get jobs, security clearances, join the military. A very large part of the control of who gets to participate in our economy is based on the repression of pot smokers. The Christians will never allow it as it would put them on a level playing field that, being delusional, they can’t compete on. They’ll revolt first….Great! Maybe they’ll go to Texass and seceed. I won’t complain about that. Just build a fence around it and call it a prison for the criminally insane.
Marmann: You don’t have to smoke it. That is just the quickest way to get it into your system. And for those who can’t eat it, that is the best way to do it. You can get a nebulizer and that takes the actual smoke out of it.
You can cook it into cookies, brownies, Cajun food, Italian food, whatever you want, and it is just as effective. You can cook it into all kinds of food, and not only does it taste good, it does wonders for all kinds of conditions.
Your list of symptoms are exactly what it should be used for. It’s very effective for pain, for depression (I used it for that for over 20 years, until I was busted in a medicinal law state (CO) nearly 2 years ago. Been dealing with depression daily since then, as I am on probation and will end up in jail if I am found to be using it again), for nausea, and even for things like allergies. The amount of damage that pills do to the body are FAR worse than cannabis will EVER do to you. You might even be able to quit doing lots of those pills if you find that cannabis helps those conditions for you.
What really infuriates me is that the pharma industry has come out publicly and said that they aren’t in business to help anyone, but to make money. Why do you think they keep shoving one pill after another down your throat, knowing that it’s all just pure profit for them? It’s not about making your life better or pain free, it’s about getting as much of YOUR money as they can and putting it in THEIR pockets. And as long as they keep taking your money and buying our politicians with it, that is how it will be.
Time to recognize just how WRONG those people are, and to take away their power to enslave so many people. Granted, there are those people who need some of those drugs, but they should never be allowed to advertise on TV, they should never be allowed to buy doctors who will shove pills on people, and they should not be allowed to kill people with those pills (the current death rate from prescriptions is 200,000 Americans every year).
And it’s time for the politicians to have to admit that they have been lying to us about cannabis for at least 80 years, more like nearly 100 (Cannabis was first made illegal in 1913 in CA so they could kick out the Mexicans). Time to stop the for profit prison system, and it’s time for them to stop seeing us all as nothing but a bottomless pocket.
Seriously, though, see if you cant find some cannabis and try cooking it. It might be better for your conditions than all those pills put together. My last lady friend was rushed to an early death by those pills, and I miss her greatly. Those who know and love you will miss you as well if you allow the “medical community” to kill you off early as well.
For cookies and other baked goods, I recomend taking a big pile of herb mixing it with a few pounds melted butter at low heat and letting it stew for 2-4 hours. Add a bit of Almond extract to remove the bite from the taste. Then strain the butter out and pop it in the fridge, make green cubes or whatever. You don’t need buds to do this, you can use scraps (not water leaves) and it works great.
Cooking with herb can be problematic in that if you’re not use to it it can knock you down. For non-regular smokers, I’d take a bit of caution, it can be quite a bit stronger than smoking and it can sneak up on you as it takes up to an hour to hit you. It’s easy to overdue it.
That’s why I prefer a bong, the effects are a bit lighter. I can smoke pot 24/7 and not be incapacitated ever, but I can’t say the same for eating it.
For those that have trouble smoking it and can afford it, I’d suggest getting a vaporizer, they’re expensive but there’s no ’smoke’ and they work great.
Looks like I’m preaching to the choir but Support all things Hemp! I want to know where I can get organic Hemp Paint. I believe if you consume hemp powder protein mix in your orange juice (you won’t get high but you’ll get protein Omega3s and other vitamins) you may “fail” a drug piss test… even if you don’t consume THC… Legit Excuse? I’ll have to look into that… Yeah, a friend of mine fell to the horrible vice of crystal meth, got busted ‘cuz he was totally out of his mind, they put him on probation, they drug tested him occasionally, he wouldn’t smoke weed because it would stay in his system for too long and would be detected so instead he would do acid, cocaine, E and beer because they pass through the body faster… another friend got busted after a driving accident due to drugs in the system (Ambien caused her to pass out while driving, she also had THC and alcohol in her system). At rehab class she met crack dealers and went through a crack phase that almost killed her. THC never made me want to try crack, crystal meth, Ambien… and I hate hangovers from crappy beer so I stay away from that. Psycho mass consumption (and its interest rates) is a dangerous OCD I like to stay away from as well… posting here is one of my vices though… it only costs time but I often do learn great things from you other posters. I’d say I have a bigger OCD with posting here than vapourizing THC - it’s been a week w/out it, big deal blahblahblahblahblah!