Pubdate: Wed, 02 Jun 2010 Source: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) Copyright: 2010 The Daily Herald Company Contact: http://www.dailyherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/107 Authors: Dora Dixie and Pete Bensinger Note: Dr. Dora Dixie is medical director of The Women's Treatment Center in Chicago. Peter Bensinger is president of Bensinger, Dupont & Associates, a Chicago-based consultant on substance abuse, drug testing and gambling addiction. MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS BAD MEDICINE, BAD POLICY The Illinois organizations and doctors opposed to the proposed medical marijuana law support the research necessary to gain FDA approval of any drug, including cannabis. Physicians rely on this process to give their patients effective care and avoid serious health risks. Why is marijuana being treated differently from other drugs? Morphine and codeine come from the opium plant, but no doctor suggests that cancer patients smoke opium. Marijuana is being treated differently because the public's hearts and minds are being tugged by stories about people who say marijuana has helped their condition when nothing else has. Do we know what else they've tried? Do we know if marijuana is actually helping their condition or just giving them the sense of feeling better? These stories don't meet accepted standards for the development of safe, effective medicine. The American Medical Association, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, American Glaucoma Society, American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Cancer Society all reject smoked marijuana as medicine. Crude marijuana - especially smoked - does not meet the accepted standards of medical practice. There are too many unanswered questions. Who will train doctors about when and how much to prescribe? What are the side effects and long-term risks that doctors are required to counsel patients about? Will there be warnings provided by distributors regarding possible pesticides and herbicides that have been linked to leukemia and lymphoma, microbes that could be deadly to immune-compromised patients, and other carcinogens in the marijuana plant? Who will be in charge of quality control? How does a doctor choose the appropriate plant species for the condition being treated? Beyond the unanswered medical questions, states that have passed such laws have the highest rates of teen marijuana use. Treatment admissions for marijuana now exceed alcohol at public-funded centers in Los Angeles. Illinois employers would face major problems with workplace drug policies because the proposed legislation requires that impairment be shown if someone has a medical marijuana card. Impairment has never been the standard used by employers, who now would have to wait for an accident to happen before they could act. And at a time when the state budget is in crisis, the bill would add new administrative, law enforcement, treatment and health care costs to state and local budgets. The president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police called this bill "an enforcement nightmare." Marijuana laced with the pesticides used by drug cartels in Mexico has already surfaced in Los Angeles County dispensaries. Former Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline cautioned that "street gangs will open up marijuana dispensaries and use the profits to buy guns, heroin and bail out fellow gang members." This bill allows six plants per patient that can produce 13,000 marijuana joints annually. Who could use 30 joints a day? This places the dosage of a drug in the hands of the users and increases the likelihood that marijuana will be passed on to patients' friends and families, or sold on the street. There would be no restrictions on the location of dispensaries (except 500 feet from a school), so they could be anywhere - next to a park or in a shopping mall. As with other laws, we must consider the greatest public good. Let's support existing research and science and make sure we have safe and effective medicine, following good public policy. This bill is neither. Dr. Dora Dixie is medical director of The Women's Treatment Center in Chicago. Peter Bensinger is president of Bensinger, Dupont & Associates, a Chicago-based consultant on substance abuse, drug testing and gambling addiction. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D