SUN-SENTINEL Medicinal Marijuana A "Mine Field" DrugSense FOCUS Alert #204 Thursday March 29, 2001 Well in the wake of yesterday's Supreme Court hearing on the Oakland Cannabis Club's case versus the Feds, the FT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL gets loose with an editorial that may well have been ghosted by a DFAF officer. This is implicated due to the fact that FL is the 'second' home for DFAF offices and their supporters, outside of St Petersburg. This one reads like every DFAF anti-MMJ release issued since the infancy of Prop 215 in California five years ago. It provides a host of items that can be addressed thru a quick and thoughtful LTE. Note to letter writers: There are a number of flawed premises and misleading statements in the article below. Please consider using the Drug War Facts collection to counter one or more. http://www.drugwarfacts.org WRITE A LETTER TODAY If not YOU who? If not NOW when? PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID (Letter, Phone, fax etc.) Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent letter list ( ) if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to Your letter will then be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is the only way we have of gauging our impact and effectiveness. CONTACT INFO: Source: Ft Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel Contact: Pubdate: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 MEDICINAL MARIJUANA A MINE FIELD The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments today on a volatile, extremely important question: Should marijuana be legalized as medicine? Mark this debate "handle with care." Specifically, the justices are being asked to decide whether a state law authorizing medical use of marijuana can override a federal anti-drug law saying pot has no medical benefits and can't be prescribed for patients. The case involves a California law, Proposition 215, approved by state voters in 1996. It permits pot possession, sale, purchase and use for medical purposes under a doctor's prescription. The federal government sued a pot buyers' cooperative to get it to stop distributing marijuana. A U.S. appeals court ruled last year that "medical necessity" is a valid defense against federal laws banning marijuana possession, sale, purchase or use. Voters in six other states later approved similar measures. Two petition drives in Florida, one to legalize medical marijuana and the other to legalize it for all uses, have stalled. Among legalization backers is Irvin Rosenfeld of Broward County, one of eight Americans legally allowed to smoke pot under a doctor's prescription. He claims marijuana is the only medicine that relieves chronic pain from bone tumors. While various studies of pot's medical benefits are under way, the drive to legalize marijuana is based almost entirely on anecdotal testimony of sick people. Supporters claim pot smoke can stimulate lost appetite and reduce nausea caused by chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer and AIDS patients. They also say it can reduce glaucoma, arthritis, chronic pain, headaches, muscle spasms and other ailments. It is legitimate to investigate and consider the potential medical benefits of any drug, even mind-altering illegal ones. For example, morphine is a proven pain-killer commonly used in hospitals and nursing homes. But medical-marijuana backers see it only as a compassionate way to fight pain and illness, ignoring many legitimate objections: No other prescription drug is delivered to patients by smoking it. Doing so prevents supplying measured, controlled, properly timed doses or providing stringent quality control to avoid toxic pollutants. Marijuana smoke contains about 2,000 separate chemicals, in an unpredictable, unmeasured and unstable mix. The active ingredient in marijuana, THC, is already available by prescription in pill form. Much current marijuana is far more potent, mind-altering and harmful than before. The side effects can outweigh the benefits. Tests show pot smoking can damage the heart, lungs, brain, reproductive organs and the immune system. It can be especially dangerous to those who seek it the most, suffering chronic, intractable illnesses. For many of the conditions supposedly helped by marijuana, including pain management, there are numerous adequately tested and proven, safer and more effective medicines already available, without marijuana's harmful side effects. Studies have documented the similarity in marijuana addiction, and difficulty of withdrawal, to that of heroin or cocaine. Drug experts consider marijuana a "gateway" drug that opens the door to experimentation with more harmful illegal drugs. Legalizing pot could hurt sick people by encouraging them to use a psychoactive (mind-altering) drug instead of something else that is more helpful. Finally, experts in drug policy believe this so-called "weedotherapy" campaign is a thinly veiled, well-financed effort to eventually legalize pot and other now-illegal drugs for purely recreational use. So far, the negatives of legalization of medical marijuana far outweigh the positives. State laws, no matter how compassionate the motivation, cannot be allowed to override federal laws. SAMPLE LETTER To the editors: Your editorial stated that we should not end the criminal sanctions against consenting adults who use cannabis for medical relief, based on the advice of their personal physician. You said that the active ingredient in cannabis, THC, is already available in pill form. That is indeed correct, but in our work with cannabis patients here in Florida, as well as nationwide, we have determined that many patients are unable to successfully consume pills as medication due to their specific needs, including chemotherapy related nausea and AIDS wasting syndrome. You note that current marijuana is often more powerful and harmful than before. Powerful yes, as a stronger dose reduces the number of doses needed. More harmful however is absurd, since cannabis sativa has had the exact same benefit and harm potential for over five thousand years. The marijuana being distributed at the Oakland Cannabis Club was carefully grown, harvested and measured for strength and purity, with of course no additives or adulterants included. Your suggestion that the harmful side effects outweigh the potential benefits is immediately contradicted by the tens of thousands of patients who elect to use cannabis instead of drug company narcotics. Clearly they feel your statement is in error, as do their doctors. Your statement that the effects of cannabis addiction are on par with heroin or cocaine is patently untrue.* The Institute of Medicine in a report commissioned by former Drug Czar McCaffery released a report in Mar 1999 that specificly equated withdrawal from active cannabis use to be on par with caffeine withdrawal. Uncomfortable, yes. But nothing akin to withdrawal from opiates or cocaine. Finally, your reference to the 'gateway theory'(a hoax that was also clearly debunked by the IOM report)is just plain outlandish. To suggest that current cannabis patients have any desire or plan to 'experiment with other more harmful illegal drugs' is poppycock. In the end, your editorial position endorses the arrest, prosecution and incarceration of patients who elect to use cannabis instead of heavy duty narcotics and pharmaceuticals, on the advice of theirdoctor. Now that's a minefield I'd rather not be part of. Respectfully submitted Stephen Heath Clearwater TARGET ANALYSIS Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel 250,000 Subscribers Our published letter archive only showed 5 LTEs published in this paper. Let's put on a concerted effort to increase that number. Your LTE could influence and help educate 300,000 people IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for his/her work. ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts 3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm Prepared by Steve Heath http://www.mapinc.org

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