From: "Mark M." <markm@voicenet.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 13:10:34 -0800 (PST)
To: "'Cypherpunks'" <blake@bcdev.com>
Subject: Re: Democracy, yeah right.
In-Reply-To: <01BBF1A9.AF9D0190@bcdev.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.961224155442.320A-100000@localhost>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

On Tue, 24 Dec 1996, Blake Coverett wrote:

> The War on Some Drugs stikes again
> 
> Challenging it it court would be too much work and not
> likely to succeed so why not just throw some doctors
> in jail and scare the rest off.
> 
> >From AP via MSNBC:
> 
>        NEW YORK - The federal government has acknowledged 
>   plans to prosecute doctors who prescribe marijuana and other 
>   illegal drugs to seriously ill people under new laws approved by 
>   voters in California and Arizona, The New York Times reported 
>   Monday.
>         Authorities plan to prosecute some doctors who help 
>   supply such drugs to patients and strip their prescription 
>   licenses, officials told the paper. Voters in Arizona and 
>   California last month approved measures that relax restrictions 
>   on the medical use of some illegal drugs. 
>         The plan to move against doctors follows the Justice 
>   Department's decision not to challenge the new state laws 
>   in court. Federal officials also plan to launch a public-relations 
>   campaign to remind Americans of the dangers of illegal drugs.
> 
> So remind me again, what exactly is the moral difference 
> between Prozac and THC?

Marijuana isn't the only drug that doctors are reluctant to prescribe for fear
of losing their medical licenses.  There is a list of legal drugs that most
doctors would never prescribe.  The DEA wasn't able to put a ban on those
drugs, so they just send a bunch of armed thugs to harass any doctor who
prescribes them.  As for the difference between Prozac and THC, I really don't
know.  Marijuana is a Schedule I drug, meaning that it is dangerous and has
no medical value.  Methamphetamine is a Schedule II drug, meaning that it has
medical value and can be prescribed.  It doesn't make any sense to me either.

As for the public-relations campaign, the government is just going to drag a
bunch of old, flawed medical experiments that supposedly prove that marijauna
is dangerous.  Most of these experiments were conducted by Gabriel Nahas.
Meanwhile, the experiment done at the University of Virginia that shows that
marijuana has tumor-preventing properties will never be mentioned.  The FDA
immediately pulled the funding for this study when they discovered the results
and has banned all further medical experiments involving marijuana.  Nor will
any mention be made of The LaGuardia Report.

Crypto relevance is very minimal, other than the fact that pseudonymous
signatures would solve the problem of doctors being persecuted.  This does
show how the government might go about banning crypto.  Launch a "public
relations campaign" and start seizing FTP servers that make crypto available a
la Sundevil.  Finding loopholes to harass people without having togo through
due process is a very good tactic for undermining democracy.

Mark
- -- 
finger -l for PGP key
PGP encrypted mail prefered.
0xf9b22ba5 now revoked

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.3
Charset: noconv

iQEVAwUBMsBHRSzIPc7jvyFpAQEL6AgAyLH8nPo15oJji4SLgI0jDB/4bHcw23nz
Hfy8tOCdP2eg7YPKdyVPMM/+Xo0UbBYZLPtTcw8vKs0RNNNKEotGi82MrR9SeSyw
3U2NFe/Ghz8Cdg+Wr1xC5kw7tgrjoK237piHeAMQCH54McrAQuWFX0N29Iu94DXQ
tDdvnquEMV0wyUpbnfQPFgue5PqsJeXSyvvoyUTbEb8Az7UBI+LgkWOG6tq/zjDz
oWcDrCAXLZgqkG/Bj8lwaZb/Zp/IRvqESAt/ssich39+9c6MqS7wIB9JfaQrMu77
TM0v5uc+294h/pqqCy8mwVkptP7Ms6CaGweP5kdUUgcvlAIhVbXMiA==
=MchN
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----