There are pretty hardcore pain meds out there, like hydromorphine (i think its called diladed or something) which is about 200xs as strong as morphine. So maybe it isnt that there arent sufficient drugs, maybe its just the pharm. companies charging a lot.

Also, you arent allowed to return any narcotics to the drug store. Typically you wind up with a lot of left over narcotics after a terminally ill person passes away, hospice nurses I know tell me they destroy a huge amount of narcotics that have never even been open because of the no-return policy

Honestly, I don't think that many people are getting thrown in jail who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. That is what we are talking about after all isn't it?

Gizmo, maybe you have a point about the costs.. and it is interesting how the drug companies treat their pills like the software industry treats software and the music industry their CDs.. no returns. Of course you can get more for your unused drugs on the black market than your unused music and warez.

Ryan, if the cases of medical marijuana patients being booked I've heard of are all the ones that exist then it's still only a handful, but I don't think calling the number "not that many" matters or should matter to the ones who it does affect. It's about fighting for the freedom of others. And the number who would be helped by MM is probably a tiny fraction of that 50 million, but to each his own. I hear that for some MM is a godsend. But everybody else still needs a solution and whether or not the market will provide it depends on how lucrative that market is I guess.

also, at least from what i understand, marijuana is _not_ going to cut it when it comes to excruciating pain. Then again I could be wrong. Of course unless they come up with a way to give marijuana to comatose patients it wouldnt help a lot of those terminal patients.

That is assuming you are referring to marijuana.