Majority of Americans think marijuana should be illegal, but are OK with medical stuff
Here's a look at some of the top health news being talked about around the U.S. and the world today:
• Turns out the majority of Americans believe marijuana should be illegal, MSNBC is reporting. But larger majorities say they think marijuana has medical benefits and should be permitted for that purpose, an Associated Press-CNBC poll found.
• Experts are pushing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to force cutbacks in hidden salt content in products from food manufacturers, the Washington Post reported.
• A variety of an obesity gene more than a third of the U.S. population carries also appears to reduce brain volume and raise the risk of Alzheimer's disease, researchers said this week. The gene appears not only to increase weigh but to also make people's brains age faster.
• A particular drug combo to treat Chrohn's disease, an inflammatory disorder of the intestines, is better than simply using one of the most common drugs to treat the disease, say researchers, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Tina Reed covers health and the environment for AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at tinareed@annarbor.com, call her at 734-623-2535 or find her on Twitter @TreedinAA.
Comments
The Picker
Wed, Apr 21, 2010 : 5:58 a.m.
Again MSNBC is out of touch with regular Americans, thats why no one is watching
jcj
Tue, Apr 20, 2010 : 8:29 p.m.
" Turns out the majority of Americans believe marijuana should be illegal" Since when does it matter what the majority of Americans think? Hmm seams strange that this crowd would be questioning the integrity of MSNBC. Everybody questions the polls if they don't agree with their thinking!
Lokalisierung
Tue, Apr 20, 2010 : 4:49 p.m.
Look, I don't really know to be honest. It should certanly be legal medically, no doubt there. But this country is pushing maximum weight capacity as it is. You call in a nation wide munchie strike and we might not live through it.
Top Cat
Tue, Apr 20, 2010 : 3:18 p.m.
The drugs wars going on near our southern border are largely the result of marijuana being illegal. We seem to learn nothing from history.
Leonard Krivitsky, MD, DD
Tue, Apr 20, 2010 : 2:44 p.m.
I regret that the majority of US population believes that marijuana should be legal for medicinal purposes only, even though your own poll shows that most people don't understand why marijuana should be illegal in the first place. I worked with severely drug-addicted patients in Philadelphia, PA for years, and I understand the scientific fallacy of classifying cannabis in the same group with heroin and cocaine. I believe that for the same reasons marijuana is safer than alcohol. Let me be specific: alcohol, as well as most controlled prescription drugs (Morphine, Oxycontin, "nerve" and "sleeping" pills, etc. may create severe dependence, physical withdrawal syndrome and overdose deaths. Marijuana has not been implicated in any one of these effects, particularly relevant being that there has not been one single fatal "marijuana poisoning". I believe people will be interested in the fact that cannabis use suppresses violent crime (Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook, 4-th Edition, page 267) Yet, with all this, thanks God for "small favors", that is that after the decades of government misinformation, most people now see marijuana legalized at least for the medicinal use. Just very recently another medicinal use of marijuana plant was discovered: some compounds of the plant were shown by San Francisco researchers to actually "switch off" the aggressive breast cancer gene, this being in addition to already known medically beneficial effects of cannabis plant. The following quote will summarize the situation: "Cannabis will one day be seen as a wonder drug, as was penicillin in the 1940s. Like penicillin, herbal marijuana is remarkably nontoxic, has a wide range of therapeutic applications and would be quite inexpensive if it were legal". Dr. Lester Grinspoon, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Los Angeles Times, May 5, 2006
ThaKillaBee
Tue, Apr 20, 2010 : 12:42 p.m.
I marked Yes, but I understand perfectly why it's illegal now -- I just don't agree with it. I don't like the wording of that option.
Hmm
Tue, Apr 20, 2010 : 12:34 p.m.
OK I'm gonna have to call shenanigans on that "majority of americans want MJ illegal" poll I don't care what numbers they try and quote you are not going to convince me that the majority of Americans are for arresting and locking up their fellow citizens over a plant. That may be what the MEDIA (and their corporate masters) want to put out there but for the average citizen? I do not think so!
iceman
Tue, Apr 20, 2010 : 12:12 p.m.
Hemp should be legal.It's a renewable resource. And It doesn't hurt the soil or the enviroment. Everthing from clothes to automobiles and be made from hemp. Even fuel. Check out Henry Fords hemp car. It's a true story.