Pubdate: Wed, 28 Mar 2001
Source: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2001 Sun-Sentinel Company
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Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

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.
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