60 minutes sells out medical marijuana
This evening 60 minutes featured a ‘debate’ on California’s ‘pot shops’ showing how this wildly unregulated system leads to profits funneling into the black market and unknown masses of healthy Californians getting baked after corrupt doctors dispensed notes for them.
I tuned to the station a little bit early and got to catch all of the commercials immediately before and following the program. After studying media in various forms over the last few years, I understand the incalculable impact that advertisers have on a program’s content. It is logical that a business is not going to give their advertising dollars to programs that show antipathy towards the aforementioned business’ interests. Shows like 60 minutes are intelligent and make sure that this is not evident in the programming.
The segment on 60 minutes appeared to have a debate on the benefits and problems of the California system of medical marijuana dispensaries. This was completely disingenuous and heavily favored the critics talking about all of the problems caused by said dispensaries. Advocates talked about positives and why the dispensaries were necessary despite some problems but CBS discredited one by repeatedly showing him smoking marijuana (one clip, repeated 2 or 3 times before or after he talked). CBS gave far more time to critics and advocates alike repeating the need for regulation and not discussing how necessary marijuana availability is to many ill people.
People doctor shop and rob pharmacies for seriously addicting pills (marijuana of course is as addicting as chocolate, maybe less) and we don’t see soccer mom’s demanding that pharmacies close to schools be removed. Why is this? People need medication and the argument that SOME people abuse the system is not justification for robbing the rest of relief.
The same principle applies when it comes to medical marijuana, yet that is ignored because some people use it to get high. Why didn’t we hear a fair discussion of this topic? Let’s take a look at the advertisers:
- Flomax
- Plavix
- Lowes
- Aleve
- Pacific Life
- Zantac
- Campbell’s Soup
I’m not going to go on a diatribe attacking Campbell’s or Lowe’s but are pharmaceutical and insurance companies going to give money to a show with reports on the wonders of a drug that patients can grow or easily obtain themselves? Of course not, if people knew that their arthritis could cheaply and more effectively be controlled by marijuana from the compassion club down the street, then they aren’t going to go buy Aleve at Walgreen’s or CVS.
Out of 7 commercials that immediately preceded or followed the ‘pot shop’ segment, 5 had interests in the story. Easily accessible medical marijuana is an affront to the monopoly of relief currently held by a handful of large corporations.
60 minutes sold out the issue of medical marijuana in California for millions of patients that need it to have relief and a relatively normal life.
Click here to see the trailer for the segment RIGHT AFTER A SHORT COMMERCIAL.
[...] Found here. [...]
60 minutes sells out medical marijuana | Delta Epsilon Blog said this on September 23, 2007 at 7:04 pm |
I am disabled with MS,siadiac nerve out and rheumatoid arthritis and am on medical marijuiana. The goverment needs to keep these places open for people like me I am 61 yrs old and cant go out on the street and buy it and go to jail. I am in a wheelchair. I have to take my grocery money and buy my own medicine cause no one helps me with it and I only get 856.00 amonth from SSI disability. Nothing else stops the pain and Vicadin, Oxycotton makes me deathly sick. Please stop this BS with our medicine. I and very disapointed in 60 minutes, why dont you have sick people on your show like me and thousands of others who really need, or dont you give a damn either???????????????????????????///
That is always the way with advertising. You don’t see a commercial for xbox360 during rachel ray’s show and you never see an advertisement for mr. clean during nascar. All of these people have something to gain and something to lose and they know it. So, they shell out lots of cash to watch their own wallets.
Sorry to say Shelba, but they really don’t give a damn. Study after study shows the safety and efficacy of medicinal marijuana yet the federal government still classifies it as having NO medicinal value. That is absurd! I’m very sorry to hear about your struggles and I hope you can take a little bit of comfort in the fact that youngins like myself are fighting for better treatment for all, especially the elderly.
To Jeff: I definitely agree with that. Edward Hermann and Noam Chomsky wrote the quintessential book on media analysis in Manufacturing Consent and I highly reccomend checking it out. If you don’t have the time or desire to read the lengthy study in its entirety, google the ‘propaganda model’ . This is where they break down the 5 filters content goes through before making it on air.
Thank you very much for the great comments!
I just got done reading an essay for a Deviant Behavior course I’m taking at Virginia Tech on the “drug war.” Based on the argument presented by the essay, I would say the stigma against medical marijuana stems from the perceptions of the “war on drugs.” The federal government chose to criminalize marijuana instead of making it a health issue and this is where we’re at now. Even if marijuana abusers were treated as sick instead of criminal we would have a different perspective on medical marijuana use today, in my opinion.
[...] As I was logging in today I came across an interesting review of 60 Minutes’ special on medical marijuana in California. If you are interested in the debate it might be worth checking out: Click Here! [...]
On Medical Marijuana… « Batch Is The New Shit said this on September 24, 2007 at 6:16 pm |
Very well said, Cliff. Medications like vicodin and oxycontin (both of which I use) are starting to be seen that way as well. The media doesn’t present stories of the millions who can’t get through their day without relief from opioids, but they do talk about prescription abuse rising and ‘hillbilly heroin’ and so forth.
Most Americans’ views are shaped by some form of mainstream media whose content is shaped by corporate interests. Sensationalist stories about meth lab raids and pharmacy robberies will dominate coverage about drugs and we as news consumers will continue to get the short end of the truth stick.
Bravo. What a great post; particularly relating to the pharmaceutical TV ad investments which continue to increase and increase. Yes, there has been effective stigmatization of pot promulgated by the government, but lets not kid ourselves, there is a medical stigma as well; until marihuana is equally available to both the healthy and the sick, pot users will continue to be stigmatized by applying the sick label to them. Of course, the alocholic
is often stigmatized but not the moderate drinker; moderate alochol usage is OK. But what ultimately is of paramount importance iswhether or not pot usage is stigmatized is the decriminalization of said usage. In a free society one has the freedom to stigmatize the pot user and the pot user has the freedom to ingest.
@dankprofessor:
I couldn’t agree more, dank. People should have the choice of what to put into their bodies as long as their ingestion is not harming society. All the talk about the violence and crime associated with drugs is absurd. Violence and crime don’t appear because of what’s in cocaine or heroin; they appear because those substances are illegal and forced onto the black market to be controlled and regulated by thugs and gangsters.
I think drugs CAN ruin lives, but no worse than alcohol can unless you include the prohibition-induced lengthy prison sentences.
On the other hand, I think fighting for total legalization at this point is impractical and unpopular and as we slowly shift public perspectives on this issue, we have to at least ensure that the sick have appropriate medicine.
Dem. In Winfield, which is how I know the author of this blog has made excellent points concerning the fight for medical marijuana legislation. Last year when I testified before committees from both houses of the Maryland General Assembly the opposition sent Dr. Bertha Madras from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Her entire argument was based on if the FDA hasn’t approved it, then we as Americans shouldn’t be taking it. I doubt seriously that I have to go in to detail the weaknesses of this argument. Just look up how many FDA approved drugs have been pulled from the market or their now preferred method of dumping dangerous drugs on to the market, the Black Box Warning. So let CBS know you didn’t like their story and maybe if enough negative e-mail comes in they will decide to do a follow-up. If this (I dream things that never were…) happens then I say we insist that the commercial before during and after can not be for BIG Pharm. I’m thinking Trojan condoms and Budweiser would be good sponsors. :) But seriously write CBS but most of all write your legislators both state and federal.
Peace
Even if you ignore all of the dangerous drugs the FDA has allowed on the market, there is one drug the FDA did approve that refutes the ONDCP’s Madras’ agrument:
Marinol! http://www.marinol.com/
Marinol is BASICALLY a pill with synthetic THC, the most active ingredient in marijuana. So if the chemical that gets you high and has the most effect is a schedule III drug, why is marijuana schedule I? How can the US government claim that marijuana has no health benefits if its key proponent is synthesized and prescribed as well as controlled as loosely as vicodin or codeine?
The only argument against this is that there are other chemicals as well as impurities in smoked marijuana. Marijuana can be grown to reduce other chemicals and if it is regulated, the impurities argument can be thrown out. As I have stated openly on this site, I smoke marijuana for chronic nerve pain but I would rather not. I think marijuana should be legal at VERY LEAST medicinally so patients can have the right to cheaply grow or buy marijuana but if I had the choice, I would take sativex.
Sativex takes ALL of the active chemicals (primarily cannabinoids) in marijuana and puts it into a medicine that you simply spray in your mouth and takes effect about as quickly as smoked marijuana (so VERY quickly). Marinol is primarily prescribed for nausea but you have to wait an hour for effect and might vomit the pill up before it takes effect.
CBD, another active ingredient in marijuana, has been implicated in treating MS and chronic pain. Marinol only contains a synthetic THC and therefore would not be able to treat the panoply of conditions that smoked marijuana and sativex can, or at least not as effectively.
Smoking is far from an ideal method of ingesting any medication but I think the decision should be in the hands of the patient. I also think that sativex should be widely available.
http://www.gwpharm.com/sativex.asp
You can read about sativex from the manufacturer here or search the term for more information on this medication.
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Anyone Loves TV » 60 minutes sells out medical marijuana said this on November 11, 2007 at 10:08 am |
Follow these guidelines and you will build that new home with little, or no, problems. roofing and siding contractor can help…
No one seems to care about those of us in major pain, unless it is our loved ones or friends. Sometimes we will luck out and get a good doc and he/she will do their darnedest to try and help, but even then the gov’t is either after us or them. It is sad. I have had RSD type II for four yrs now and all the research I have read on medical marijuana shows me that I could benefit from it’s properties, but my state doesn’t allow for it’s use. 60 Minutes and the like should be ashamed of themselves for cheating us out of telling our side. It isn’t the truth if only one side is told. Just another show of uncaring people only worried about ratings and not informing the public of anything other than what they want them to know, their belief or sadly they got enough money to leave US out. If this whole issue of medical use of marijuana wasn’t so politicized, us against them, we could get the care we deserve. But because marijuana has had a bad name for so many years the legal eagles won’t look at what it CAN do for the ones in pain. They are refusing to see it’s positive effects on those of us that hurt. Now if one of them or their family mambers needed this or they saw that ir could help them they may change their minds. Sad something like that has to happen before someone opens their eyes. Majority of the meds I am taking now impair me more than marijuana would and have a worse affect on my body in the long run than does marijuana, but no one will stand up and say that so that these ding dongs can understand. Maybe it is so easy to understand they just can’t get their heads around it, maybe that is what it is, it is too easy. I don’t know but they need to do something quick for those of us that can benefit from it’s use and 60 Minutes needs to tell the truth, the whole truth, not just what someone else tells them to say.
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
When are you dumb dopeheads gonna face the facts? Maryjane will
never fit into our capitalistic system because being god’s gift, it’s basically free. So we simply criminalize the poor and sell
expensive substitutes
[...] The story was about medicinal marijuana in California. (Got your attention? [...]
NikiiBabie’s Haven » Blog Archive » Potpourri said this on February 12, 2008 at 6:36 pm |
Or be like me who suffers from Fibromyagia and Chronic Pain. Im 37 years old and my doctors (many of them) will not prescribe me narcotics cause they say once I start Ill be on them forever. Well I guess I am young or old enough to have to cry and scream outloud cause I am in so much debilitating pain.
I did some reseach and found that I could get some relief from MMJ but its illegal in my state. Well brothers and sisters I took my care in my own hands and got some to smoke. I was amazed by the effects it gave me (I felt free to be able to do things) It sickens me that Im treated this way but dont know what else to do. One day a friend of mine came over and looked at me and said my gosh what is wrong I just started to cry and she gave me 2 pain pills (yes this is illegal too but what do you do when you have no where to turn and noone to help) so I busted one in half so between that joint and 1/2 of pain pill, 3 hours later I started back with the pain so I took the other half and endulged again. When I ran out I ended up in the ER again but low and behold this time they piss tested me (told me they wanted to check for uninary track infections. So the doctor comes in and gives me this big lecture and tells me this bout was “withdraws” withdaws hell I dont take this stuff all the time. After I repetitively told him I had 1 pill in the amount of 3 to 4 hours and took the other half he then decided that I wasn’t withdrawing (I was positive for opiates and cannaboids, first time in my life this happened. So all they would give me was something to control my vomiting and nausea (when my pain level hits a certain point I start getting nauseous. The meds didn’t work for my nausea at all but when I got home I smoked 4 hits off a pipe and my nausea was completely gone within 15 min and it didn’t come back till the next day when my pain started to rise again. Im having problems with my Blood presser when I get like that it shoots up really high the last one was 160/115 remember Im 37 and too young for pain pills. So that is my story..
Well you listen to your propoganda. People who call others dopeheads is really uncalled for.. How would you like to be in so much pain like some of us are and until you do keep your uninformed comments to yourself.
“When are you dumb dopeheads gonna face the facts? Maryjane will
never fit into our capitalistic system because being god’s gift, it’s basically free. So we simply criminalize the poor and sell
expensive substitutes
macbags said this on January 5, 2008 at 12:53 pm”
Politicians are 10 years behind the times when it comes to hemp use. People have been fighting for a long time against marijuana and pot prohibition with some movement going on now. Still too slow for those caught up in the jail system for possessing a little weed. Our freedoms have been trampled on by folks who know nothing about how beautiful cannabis can be for someones life, if one learns how to grow cannabis. Keep up the good work.