Next Wednesday (10/13, 7pm) I square off against Medicap pharmacist/owner Jo Prang at a ballot issues and candidates forum at NAU auditorium in Rapid City. I've been asked to submit five questions that the moderator will present to Ms. Prang, and she will submit five questions to be asked of me. Aside from a two-minute opening statement by each of us, that will be the "debate."
I'd like to see what you would ask Ms. Prang. There is an excellent chance I will use one or more of your suggestions. So, please present your questions. Thanks.
I will send my questions to the moderator in a couple of days.
17 comments:
There are so many good articles, it's tough to choose.
My cousin smoked his 80 year-old mother through a potato when her chemo killed her appetite.
She will have some pharmocological data to support the use of Marinol. Here is a rebuttal.
There was an RN at SDWC advocating for Marinol suppositories. May be a good idea to be ready to rebut with contraindications.
"Rebut." Get it?
Agree with her when she cites Marinol as a legitimate therapy. Remind the audience that it is not tolerated by some patients.
Ask her if she has a personal financial interest in preventing medical marijuana's legalization.
Ask her if her pharmacy sells opiates and other controlled substances. Ask her if she's ever been aware of anyone abusing morphine, demerol, valium, or any of the other heavy duty pain killer she peddles.
How much would she stand to lose if 10 percent of her pain killer and nausea remedy customers started growing their own?
Ask her if she's ever heard of a case where a legitimate customer's children have pilfered their stash of opiates.
Ask her how many of the pharmaceuticals she sells have a natural, organic anlog. (i.e. how many of her remedies are just actually substances that have been discovered in nature, tweaked a little chemically so they can be patented, packaged and marketed at a profit.)
Also, how much does her business charge for drugs compared to the same drugs sold in Canada and/or Mexico?
Lots of good comments & suggestions, just don't go after her personally. Go after the pharmacies in general.
She would probably love to turn this into a personal attack because Bob is a convicted felon... so no matter how right you are, you'd probably lose that part of the argument in the general public mindset.
I probably don't need to post this, I've seen you argue on logic in the past.
repete, interesting question though. If this measure passes, will it be possible to have certain "felons" records expunged? Seems like maybe a good judge or Governor or whatever could so order it. I wonder if the State or Fed would contest it.
Am I just dreaming over here?
*replect*
Good question... I suppose some kind of legal presidence was set when booze was relegalized.
Anybody know? Does Bob get to be a real citizen again when its proven the earth isn't flat?
Ask her why she believes smoke inhalation is a terrible way to adminster drugs, given that second-hand cigarrette smoke causes so much damage to those around it.
Really the debate on this issue comes down to one thing: the method of delivery. No one in their right mind will dispute that marijuana indeed has therapeutic value. Even the federal government admits as much when describing Marinol.
Have you seen this patent for cannabnoids as antioxidents and neuroprotectants http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6630507.html
IF the US government even holds a patent proclaiming the benefits of cannabanoids as neuroprotectors and antioxidants does she think its fair to withhold this potentially life saving medicine that has a track record of safe use dating back thousands of years from patience while modern medicine figures out how to extract and package these canabanoids in a manner that is profitable?
Bill,
I would certainly think that the Governor could do that through clemency.
Judges can't, because the person was guilty of committing a crime at the time that they performed the act. If I'm caught going 50 in a 45 today and they change the speed limit to 55 tomorrow, I'm still guilty of breaking the law that was in place on the day I was caught. It would be similar concept as me going getting pulled of with a .000001 BAC today and the DUI law changing tomorrow to zero tolerance. They couldn't come get me on Monday and arrest me because I wasn't breaking the law at the time I was pulled over.
While I am not positive, I don't believe that there is any mechanism that the legislature could use to remedy it either. One possibility would be to pass legislation stating that felons convicted of such and such crime could not be discriminated against for anything (or whatever the legalese would be for that). I honestly don't know that this would be a viable option, though.
So, I believe the only real hope would be the Governor granting clemency.
First Jo isn't a dummy. I think she will try to bring up recreational cannabis use either in her opening remark or in a question form. Don’t let that happen it would just drag you down a slippery slope. But you have done this many times just like repete has said so that shouldn’t be a problem. After all medical marijuana and recreational use are two different things and IM13 is only about medical marijuana.
If it were me I would open with my two minutes on the United States history of medical pot and how it became illegal and why. And the fact that doctors had to be forced to stop prescribing marijuana because of false informationand it sure wasnt because they wanted to.
Its interesting that all they could find was Jo. My fist question to her would be how much income she would lose if medical marijuana were to become legal in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease
* Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
* Chronic Pain
* Diabetes mellitus
* Dystonia
* Fibromyalgia
* Gastrointestinal disorders
* Gliomas
* Hepatitis C
* Human Immunodeficiency Virus
* Hypertension
* Incontinence
* Methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus (MRSA)
* Multiple sclerosis
* Osteoporosis
* Pruritus
* Rheumatoid arthritis
* Sleep apnea
* Tourette's syndrome And if that had any impact on her reasoning to speak against it.
The research for all of these things can be easily found on the net.
Second question would be what percentage of the drugs that she fills have overdose as a side effect.
Third question would be would it be possible for a prescribed drug to be less effective then one that is natural. Or vise versa?
Fourth would be what studies other then those funded by the government does she have to back up her assumptions?
And five. Do any of the prescriptions she fills not have any side effects?
Bob,
You could ask her to list the side effects of the alternative medications that she distributes, but then you probably wouldn't get a chance to talk.
I'm not sure I can come up with anything better than some of the suggestions here and what you can come up with yourself.
I will echo repete's suggestion to not go after her personally. I'll also suggest not going after pharmacies, "Big Pharma" and business in general. I don't think that will play over well with the crowd that you'll be addressing. They'll close up and feel defensive if you do that.
I certainly wouldn't bother to ask her about Mexico & Canada.
There's likely to be a few people that you can actually sway on the subject. Best of luck.
"buderd"
Bill,
Great suggestions.
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