Pubdate: Wed, 17 Dec 2008
Source: Cincinnati City Beat (OH)
Copyright: 2008 Lightborne Publishing Inc.
Contact:  http://www.citybeat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1692
Author: Margo Pierce
Referenced: Senate Bill 343 http://drugsense.org/url/J2QmOU5h
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

DOCS FOR DOPE

Ohio Senate Considers New Medical Marijuana Legislation Backed by Doctors

Marijuana is a medicine. Not many doctors are willing to make that 
kind of statement publicly, especially when U.S. Drug Enforcement 
Administration raids result in the jailing of physicians, terminally 
ill patients and statelicensed marijuana growers in states where the 
medicinal use of marijuana is permitted by law.

But Richard J. Wyderski, a physician at Miami Valley Hospital in 
Dayton, believes the benefits of the herbal therapy far outweigh the 
risks of pushing for legalization. In this case he's publicly backing 
Senate Bill 343, most commonly referred to as the Ohio Medical 
Compassion Act sponsored by Sen. Tom Roberts (D-Dayton).

"I provided testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee," Wyderski 
says. "I talked about the historical aspects of marijuana - it was a 
medicine back in the 1800s and early 1900s - and the regulatory stuff 
that happened that led to it no longer being used medicinally even 
though it was on the U.S. pharmacopoeia until the early 1940s.

Patients who have chronic, debilitating conditions do benefit and 
should have access to medical marijuana to be able to use it in a 
safe manner under medical supervision unadulterated by other 
substances that might be supplied if they obtain it illegally."

SB 343 is similar to the medical marijuana legislation proposed by 
State Sen. Robert F. Hagan (D- Youngstown) in 2005 (see "Toking the 
Cure," Issue of March 2, 2005). That law never received a hearing, 
but the new bill was the subject of expert testimony in November.

The bill would create a "registry identification" card for 
individuals who use medical marijuana for specific medical 
conditions. Those with a diagnosis that fits the definition of 
"debilitating medical condition" outlined in the legislation would be 
able to apply for the card and use marijuana under the supervision of 
a licensed medical doctor.

Those conditions include cancer, positive status for HIV, AIDS, 
hepatitis C, Krohn's disease, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, spinal 
cord injuries and other chronic pain syndromes.

The Institute of Medicine report reviewed all the scientific evidence 
of the effectiveness of marijuana used as a medication for a variety 
of conditions," Wyderski says. "Muscle spastisity for multiple 
sclerosis is one of the most commonly used examples, but there's 
evidence it works for nausea - cancer patients who have nausea with 
chemotherapy."

Under SB 343, the doctor would not actually prescribe marijuana or 
even supply the patient with the medicine. She would be able to 
advise the individual of the benefits and risks, recommend dosage, 
monitor reactions and provide the required diagnosis for patient 
registry. The patient, doctor, primary caregiver and individuals who 
work at sites that cultivate medical marijuana would all be protected 
from arrest and prosecution under state law.

That's important, Wyderski says, because it begins to differentiate 
between drug use and drug abuse. In his case, he received a verbal 
reprimand from his own hospital for treating patients who were 
self-medicating with marijuana.

I was the medical director for our outpatient clinic here in Miami 
Valley, and we had a lot of patients who used marijuana for pain 
control, to alleviate anxiety symptoms and so forth, and they were 
seen as bad drug abusers by our nursing staff and the administration 
of our clinic," he explains. "Even though I didn't have a lot of 
heartburn about it, literally they would dismiss people from the 
clinic. I was called out because I was allowing them to use marijuana 
and also prescribing other medications they needed despite the fact 
that they were 'drug abusers.

In our policy if anybody is using an 'illicit drug,' marijuana being 
one of them, we cannot prescribe another controlled substance for 
that same individual. So I'm practicing bad medicine because I 
prescribe controlled substances for people that are using illegal drugs."

Wyderski says that mixing the use of different drugs can cause 
dangerous side effects. Prescribing a "controlled substance" like 
codeine - a powerful painkiller - to someone taking heroin would be a 
bad idea, which is why his clinic requires drug screening before 
prescriptions are written. Disregarding the relative safety of 
marijuana as a medicine and putting it on par with drugs like heroine 
or cocaine keep a legitimate drug out of reach.

The FDA came out with a statement in 2006 that, despite the 
scientific evidence of its effectiveness, marijuana's ineffective," 
Wyderski says. "So I don't have any hope that the FDA would ever 
approve marijuana for prescriptive use by physicians.

There's a lot of marijuana research that's missing in part because 
it's so hard to do research on the medical marijuana. There are very, 
very few comparative studies with other drugs that are available that 
are FDA-approved. In some cases there have been head-to-head trials 
where other drugs are more effective than marijuana, which is also 
important information to know. It's not just that marijuana is 
ineffective, just that other medications sometimes are more effective."

The U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear a case let stand a lower 
court ruling that a doctor is allowed to discuss the benefits and 
risks of marijuana, so Ohio doctors are allowed to discuss this 
medical option. But when it comes to pain management and quality of 
life for terminally ill people, doctors need more freedom and protection.

Using unregulated herbal therapies as his example, Wyderski makes his 
case for passage of SD 343.

We already have people using all kind of herbal therapies for all 
kinds of other things, and herbal therapies are not regulated by the 
FDA," he says. "We have black cohosh for menopausal symptoms. People 
use ginco biloba thinking it might help their memory.

(Marijuana) is a special plant because of abuse potential, and it 
probably should be controlled in some way. I think SB 343 reasonably 
puts into place those kinds of controls while at the same time 
allowing individuals to have access to a plant that does have 
medicinal value. It sets parameters where that substance use is 
supervised by a clinician."

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