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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: icy on October 16, 2013, 11:41:22 AM

Title: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: icy on October 16, 2013, 11:41:22 AM
The Dalai Lama has revealed he supports the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

He made his comments during a somewhat timely visit to Mexico, as legislators in Mexico City plan draft legislation that would decriminalise use of the drug.

Speaking at an event hosted by former president Vicente Fox, the Tibetan leader said "the exception" for smoking marijuana would be if it has medicinal values, AFP reported.

"But otherwise if it's just an issue of somebody (using the drug to have) a crazy mind, that's not good," he added, when asked about his position on legalisation during the event on Tuesday in the central state of Guanajuato.

While Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has taken a stand against the easing of Mexico's drug policies, lawmakers in Mexico are pushing to make it legal to carry up to 30 grams of marijuana.

The movement to decriminalise marijuana in the Mexican capital has intensified in recent months, following a large pro-marijuana march in May and a three-day forum on drug policy held in September.

In addition to decriminalization, some lawmakers are proposing that Mexico City establish "cannabis clubs," where users can grow and smoke marijuana together.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Blueupali on October 16, 2013, 11:08:34 PM
I agree with the Dalai Lama on this issue.
  It does make sense to me to use an herbal remedy, if it is shown to have medical benefit; for example I think medical marijuana is supposed to help reduce pain in cancer patients as well as increase their appetites, which are subdued due to other drugs.
  I don't see how it is a much different than using other painkillers, which often have mind altering side effects.
  Of course, as the Dalai Lama rightly points, using it as an intoxicant would be contra-reccommended.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Rihanna on October 19, 2013, 06:58:00 AM
I don't understand why HHDL's stance that he backs the drug’s use for medicinal purposes be made a headlines and  attracted interest among Buddhists and others in various countries who posted
comments on several websites.

It is like asking someone to comment whether being rich is good or bad. If the wealth is used to benefit others, then being rich is good. But if it is used as a tool to suppress others or to boost one's ego, etc then being rich is bad. This is from the spiritual point of view.

Similarly, another example I can think of is, in a soccer match, is it better if Arsenal wins the game or Manchester United? If you are a Manchester United fan, of course if Manchester United wins, it will be good. And that would be bad for the Arsenal camp. And vice versa.

Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Blueupali on October 19, 2013, 07:14:36 AM
I don't understand why HHDL's stance that he backs the drug’s use for medicinal purposes be made a headlines and  attracted interest among Buddhists and others in various countries who posted
comments on several websites.

It is like asking someone to comment whether being rich is good or bad. If the wealth is used to benefit others, then being rich is good. But if it is used as a tool to suppress others or to boost one's ego, etc then being rich is bad. This is from the spiritual point of view.

Similarly, another example I can think of is, in a soccer match, is it better if Arsenal wins the game or Manchester United? If you are a Manchester United fan, of course if Manchester United wins, it will be good. And that would be bad for the Arsenal camp. And vice versa.

I do see what you are saying, but a lot of people in the U.S. think that things are either good or bad--- inherently.  So--- alcohol is ALWAYS bad; marijuana is ALWAYS bad.  That sort of thing.  It is hard for people to think, oh, moderate use in certain contexts is okay. 
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Matibhadra on October 19, 2013, 08:16:28 AM
I wonder how much the Dalai Lama's support to marijuana is sincere, or just a propaganda coup to attract the support of liberal-minded people, under the direction of his boss and personal patron, also a supporter of the legalization of marijuana, George Soros -- himself described in a compelling way as a “bankster, nazi collaborator and psychopath” (http://dont-tread-on.me/?p=1348 (http://dont-tread-on.me/?p=1348)).

Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Admin on November 08, 2013, 07:54:44 PM
[Admin: This topic has been moved from the General Discussion board because it is not directly related to the Dorje Shugden practice or ban.]
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Freyr Aesiragnorak on November 24, 2013, 01:03:13 PM
I think the reason this made the news, is because this statement comes from a religious figure in the public sphere.

The reason why the government is leading to decriminalize marijuana, is due to the uncontrollable drug problem endemic to the country. Drug cartels are running a muck and one of the ways to ease the problem is by decriminalizing it so they don't have a hold of the people any more. Marijuana is the lesser or many evils traded by these cartels but makes up most of their business, another is cocaine. 
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: brian on November 24, 2013, 04:10:34 PM
I think i will buy the idea as well, for one reason, if it is beneficial. Use of drugs in medicine line is absolutely normal, it is the heavy usage that has actually caused problems. I think everything in this life is that same. Too much of something can kill. As long as it is under a controlled level and will not cause any harmful situation to any beings, then it should be good enough. I am sure HHDL has his own reason to support the use of Marijuana in medicinal line.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Aurore on November 24, 2013, 07:50:30 PM
This makes logical sense. Drugs as an object itself creates neither good or bad karma. It is the action created by people in an altered perception or the attachment towards the object which makes it bad or good. It does not apply only to drugs but to most things that exist in our daily lives.

In the case of using marijuana for its medical values which can help assist pain is not a bad thing. Truly dependent on motivation as well.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: DS Star on November 25, 2013, 12:30:37 AM
I think i will buy the idea as well, for one reason, if it is beneficial. Use of drugs in medicine line is absolutely normal, it is the heavy usage that has actually caused problems. I think everything in this life is that same. Too much of something can kill. As long as it is under a controlled level and will not cause any harmful situation to any beings, then it should be good enough. I am sure HHDL has his own reason to support the use of Marijuana in medicinal line.

Drugs have been widely used in Western medicine procedures and treatments. This is not unique. The stronger and more dangerous drug, Morphine, is beeing administered every day in hospitals around the world to relieve severe pains for terminally ill patients and those undergone surgeries, etc.

Depending on the usage and control, drugs is actually an important medicine in treatments of severe cases. So moderate use of Marijuana is a non-issue at all.

When one is wearing dark glasses, everything he sees is dark... even a white shirt looks dark  :P
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: yontenjamyang on November 25, 2013, 08:46:33 AM
I think this is great. Morphine is a standard painkiller prescribed for chronic pain and usually administered in hospitals with strict supervision. My dear beloved late father was a patient with received morphine for his fourth stage cancer. So, I think that the medical communities knows what should be done to prescribe marijuana.

Physical pain a type of suffering, ie "the suffering of suffering" that is real and common. While we can argue about "mind over matter" and the practice of the Dharma to alleviate suffering, worldly medicine certainly has a role to play to alleviate the suffering of humans and animals.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Matibhadra on November 25, 2013, 11:54:50 AM
The interesting point here is hardly the medicinal use of marijuana, which is well known from immemorial time, but rather how the clever dalai took the popular issue as an opportunity for cheap self-promotion among liberal-minded Westerners, thus reinforcing his deceptive image as an open-minded, liberal, democratic leader -- which is exactly the cover he needs in order to keep perpetrating his dictatorial and medieval atrocities against Tibetan people, such as religious persecutions, promoting bloody riots, self-immolations, and so forth.

Human blindness and naivete seem to have no limits, and the clever dalai successfully takes advantage of such weakness.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: pgdharma on November 26, 2013, 09:02:40 AM
I agree with HHDL on this matter. If the marijuana is used in moderation and for medicinal purposes to relieve the patient from pain I think it is alright to use it as a painkiller but if it is used as an addiction and to craving than it is not good. If other painkillers do not work and if marijuana helps to relieve the pain and sufferings of the patient then there is nothing wrong with taking marijuana.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: hope rainbow on November 27, 2013, 10:49:59 AM
There is no denying possible actually. Marijuana does help in some medical cases, and even sometime it is the only thing that helps, even in some cases for children.
In this case, the drug is actually prescribed by a doctor and obtained from pharmaceutical origin, not from "drug dealers".
So this is not about supporting the use of recreational drugs, this is to clarify, to distinguish between recreational use of drugs and medicinal use.
To mix this up is not showing intelligence or logic...
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Matibhadra on January 08, 2014, 03:17:15 PM
By the way, did you know that marijuana is free in North Korea?
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: diablo1974 on January 09, 2014, 07:07:16 AM
It really depends on the effectiveness of Marijuana use for medical purposes. ROI...how much improvement is compared to normal medicine treatment than using prohibited drugs such as Marijuana. We cannot deny the risk of drug traffickers making use of this 'convenience' to illegally grow more than sufficient use for personal gains. Hence, proper regulation and 'clean' law enforcers needs to be installed in proper.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: icy on January 09, 2014, 07:14:44 AM
Quote
By the way, did you know that marijuana is free in North Korea?

What do North Korean use it for?
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Matibhadra on January 09, 2014, 05:02:09 PM
Quote
What do North Korean use it for?


As far as I am informed, for whatever they want. Freedom means freedom, at least in North Korea.

Last year on the social news site Reddit, an American consultant who said he has traveled to North Korea every year since 2008, said while he was in North Korea, he and his group came across North Korean citizens growing marijuana in small gardens. Weed in North Korea, the consultant wrote, seemed to be used mostly "as a medicine."

"The drug is especially popular among the lower classes of North Korean society. After a day of hard manual labor, it is common for North Korean workers to smoke marijuana as a way to relax and soothe tight or sore muscles," wrote Vice reporter Ben Tool, citing North Korean sources.


Meanwhile in the ”Land of the Free” (US delusional self-epithet) police made a marijuana-related arrest every 42 seconds in 2012, according to US News and World Report -- while all the banksters assaulting your household from the privately owned Federal Reserve are free in the streets. This is the obviously meaning of freedom in US.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/marijuana-in-north-korea_n_4067341.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/marijuana-in-north-korea_n_4067341.html)
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Kim Hyun Jae on January 10, 2014, 08:38:43 AM
The more we label something as "untouchable" or "illegal", there will be room for smuggling, smugglers and the control of underworld business and cartel. People are attracted to anything that is either vice, illegal or unobtainable by law. It entices people's curiosity and greed towards the kind of income it can attract including power.

If the Dalai Lama supports the move to make marijuana available as a medicine to treat and help many of the poorer patients within limited dosage to relieve their temporal pain, I don't see any reason to oppose it either.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Q on January 10, 2014, 02:27:59 PM
No offense but HHDL always gives exception in certain things... like... Trijang Rinpoche is allowed to practice Dorje Shugden haha!

Ok... fine, that's not a very nice thing to say.

Anyway, back to the topic, this is one of the times when I go like... HHDL is the most fabulous person on earth. I've seen terminally ill patients that are in hospice... trust me, many times the pain is unbearable that those morphine just cant take away the pain (at least without accidentally killing them...). Medicinal marijuana really is a good option for them.

But just out of curiosity sake... will taking medicinal marijuana cause negative karma? If it does, then why HHDL approve it's usage?

Also, i have always had this question in my mind... if our karma forces us to have a terminal disease that causes a lot of pain... will lessening the extent of pain suffered from that disease lessen the negative karma that we expend?
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: icy on January 17, 2014, 10:02:02 AM
Medical professionals and patients believe that marijuana is valuable in combating nausea and loss of appetite related to chemotherapy and AIDS treatments, in reducing pain from multiple sclerosis and in treating an array of other maladies.  However, it is not wise for the laws legalizing it as recreational pot.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Manjushri on January 18, 2014, 01:33:56 PM
hahha, funny how HHDL portrays himself to be so open, probably gaining brownie points from the mass public, but on the other hand, further suppresses and causes great suffering to those who practise Dorje Shugden.

His Holiness supports marijuana use for medical purposes - ie. if it relieves the sufferings and ailments of others, he supports the method of using this drug to alleviate their suffering. Dorje Shugden practitioners are suffering with the dilemma to chose between their gurus and being politically correct, they are suffering from their unjust treatment, they are suffering from the implications the ban has caused, but what is His Holiness doing about it to support or relieve their sufferings? How come HH supports Marijuana for medicinal use so that others are relieved from their pain, but totally sideline another group, who are also suffering, but from a different cause? Suffering is suffering.... contradictory much, HH?
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: maricisun on January 18, 2014, 03:48:07 PM
I do agree with HHDL on the use of medical drugs like Marijuana. It does helps to alleviate pain during much suffering for cancer patients or other serious illness. Morphine are also used as long as it is being used moderately and not for pleasure or being addicted to it.
As long as they follow the laws and regulations, it does helps patients to ease their sufferings.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: OMB on January 19, 2014, 04:26:27 PM
I fully support HH Dalai Lama!  Marijuana has been cultivated and used for medicinal purpose for atleast 4000 years across many cultures. No reason to oppose to it as it does ease the pain/suffering of the patients.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Klein on January 21, 2014, 07:47:45 AM
This makes logical sense. Drugs as an object itself creates neither good or bad karma. It is the action created by people in an altered perception or the attachment towards the object which makes it bad or good. It does not apply only to drugs but to most things that exist in our daily lives.

In the case of using marijuana for its medical values which can help assist pain is not a bad thing. Truly dependent on motivation as well.

I agree. Just like alcohol is neither good or bad. What we do after we drink alcohol will create either good or bad karma. Too much alcohol will influence how we think and the things we do.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: brian on January 22, 2014, 06:12:17 AM
I think if marijuana can save one person's life, then why not use marijuana to save than to inflict more pain and kill? Why will they want it to be like this way? There are a lot more types of drugs from the hospital that we can use to drowse ourselves. as long as it is not overdosed or misused, i feel it is entirely fine. morphines are being used in hospitals to cure and calm patients. It is still drugs... I congratulate Dalai Lama for this support as i see no harm in this.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: icy on January 22, 2014, 10:17:37 AM
With a majority of Americans now in favor marijuana legalization, President Barack Obama is now saying weed is no more dangerous to individuals' health than alcohol.

In an interview with the New Yorker's David Remnick published Sunday, Obama said while he believes marijuana is "not very healthy," the drug isn't as harmful as some insist.

“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol," Obama told Remnick.

When asked if he believes marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, Obama said it is less damaging "in terms of its impact on the individual consumer."

"It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy," he added.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: icy on February 20, 2014, 11:01:14 AM
The Dalai Lama was recently interviewed in Washington about medical marijuana:

You support the use of medical marijuana. Have you ever smoked pot?

No. Never. These kinds of substances are generally considered poison, very bad. But for particular illnesses, this is sometimes deliberately used. So that’s up to the doctor, or up to scientists. The ability to judge reality is something very unique. Our brain is something very special. So if that is damaged, that’s awful. So alcohol and drugs are very bad.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: Jessie Fong on February 22, 2014, 07:34:10 AM
The Dalai Lama was recently interviewed in Washington about medical marijuana:

You support the use of medical marijuana. Have you ever smoked pot?

No. Never. These kinds of substances are generally considered poison, very bad. But for particular illnesses, this is sometimes deliberately used. So that’s up to the doctor, or up to scientists. The ability to judge reality is something very unique. Our brain is something very special. So if that is damaged, that’s awful. So alcohol and drugs are very bad.

So, HH has never smoked marijuana. He was just expressing his personal opinion that he supports the use of marijuana as a medicine or for medicinal uses. It's just one person's opinion but the fact that HH is a well-known figure worldwide, obviously anything that he mentioned attracted interest.

Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: cookie on February 23, 2014, 11:47:31 AM
The state of California recently step toward fully decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana
There is no existing evidence of anyone dying of a marijuana overdose, but this doesn't preclude the possibility of experiencing adverse or unpleasant effects when it is consumed in large amounts. For comparison's sake, alcohol overdoses claim approximately 5,000 casualties per year.This is often cited as a reason that marijuana is safer than other drugs, like alcohol.
No serious proponent of medicinal marijuana would claim it cures anything. Marijuana does, however, treat symptoms — pain, nausea — that are caused by a wide range of illnesses. Hence it can be used for pain management and anti-nausea(e.g for chemotheraphy patients)
Marijuana has been used for ages in treating many ailments through its pain relieving actions. But unfortunately, the degenerated human has decided to be greedy and used it to "contaminate" minds and lives of those who have no control. Sad !
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: RedLantern on February 23, 2014, 12:03:10 PM
I knew there was something I like about His Holiness,the Dalai Lama. Surely no one smokes weed to have a "crazy mind", just a chilled one.
I guess the Dalai  Lama says that to show he's not for creational drugs. Scientific studies have proven cannabis has medical value,is safe and effective to many health problems.Taken with doctors advice and proper prescription will do no harm.
Title: Re: Dalai Lama Supports Medical Marijuana Use
Post by: ilikeshugden on February 24, 2014, 01:41:23 PM
This is rather interesting. I personally feel that Marijuana is a healthy drug as long as it is not abused, as with any drug. It is the safest recreational drug and is safer than smoking cigarettes.