Pubdate: Thu, 15 Mar 2012
Source: Marblehead Reporter (MA)
Contact:  2012 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Website: http://www.wickedlocal.com/marblehead/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3395
Author: Kris Olson
Note: Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.

BILL TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA GETS MARBLEHEAD BOOST

Rep Is Co-Sponsor; Scientist Lends Voice

Marblehead =AD If the Massachusetts Legislature
ultimately decides not to make the state a
nationwide leader in legalizing marijuana, it
won't be due to a lack of support from Marblehead.

On March 6, the Cannabis Regulation and Taxation
Act, proposed more than a year ago and
co-sponsored by state Rep. Lori Ehrlich,
D-Marblehead, got a lengthy hearing before the
Judiciary Committee, which raged into the evening.

There for all of the testimony and supplying some
of his own was another Marblehead resident, Kevin
McKernan, an accomplished scientist and founder
of Medicinal Genomics, who last summer announced
he had sequenced the genome of two strains of
cannabis, a first step in perhaps unlocking a
wealth of knowledge that may one day improve
treatment and perhaps even cure a number of diseases.

Research has been slowed, McKernan noted, while
scientists like him wait for licenses from the
DEA to possess the drug for the purposes of
studying it. McKernan used a lab in Amsterdam,
where marijuana is legal, to assist in his sequencing project.

The current bill (H 1371) creates industry
licensing, regulation and taxation standards, and
establishes a Cannabis Control Authority
comprising seven members with an initial
appropriation of $2.5 million. It leaves in place
penalties for driving under the influence of marijuana.

The bill's preamble states that the legislation
acknowledges that =93100 years of criminalization
in Massachusetts has failed to stop the
production, distribution and use of marijuana,
and that sustained enforcement efforts cannot
reasonably be expected to accomplish that goal.=94

It states that the bill seeks to =93eliminate
prohibition-related crime and to raise new tax
revenue=94 while =93promoting new jobs and industries
in commercial cannabis and hemp=94 and =93respecting
the personal autonomy of adults, where freedom supposes responsibility.=94

Ehrlich explained that during the last
legislative session, the bill had been debated in
front of the Revenue Committee, of which she is a
member, due to the potential tax revenue it would create.

As someone who really enjoys listening to both
sides of an argument, I was open to listening and
found myself compelled by the arguments made in
favor of the bill by doctors, medical experts,
lawyers and even law enforcement,=94 she explained.

She added that voters in her district have twice
expressed a preference to loosen marijuana laws.
Back in 2008, Marblehead overwhelmingly supported
the decriminalization of possession of an ounce
or less of marijuana, approving the ballot
question by a margin of more than two to one. Two
years later, voters in Ehrlich's district were
asked in an advisory question whether their state
representative should =93be instructed to vote in
favor of legislation that would allow the state
to regulate the taxation, cultivation and sale of
marijuana to adults.=94 Again, a strong majority,
56 percent, said =93yes,=94 to 44 percent =93no.=94

Learning about McKernan's work only deepened her support, she said.

There are legitimate historical parallels to
Prohibition, and we all know how that turned
out,=94 she said. =93The revenue upside combined with
the benefit of bringing an illicit business out
of the shadows will have great benefits that
extend beyond medicinal benefit. With all of the
biotech industry in Massachusetts, there are
research and business opportunities as well.=94

As the March 6 hearing approached, the
Massachusetts Family Institute sounded a familiar
refrain in signaling its opposition to the bill in an email.

Marijuana is a mind-altering drug that is almost
always the gateway to other drug abuse,=94 the
institute wrote in its email. =93Legalization WILL
lead to its proliferation, especially to minors,
and WILL lead to more impaired drivers on the roads.=94

McKernan's keen scientific mind =AD as a fresh
Emory University graduate, he led an MIT team
working on the Human Genome Project in the
mid-1990s, and his previous businesses, Agencourt
and Agencourt Personal Genomics, based in
Beverly's Cummings Center, each reportedly sold
for in excess of $100 million =AD bristles at the
=93gateway=94 theory in particular, on several
fronts. Part of it is the =93lack of scientific
rigor=94 behind the faulty premise that there is a
causal connection between marijuana use and subsequent use of harder drugs.

If you believe that logic, outlaw milk, as it's a
gateway to alcohol,=94 he wrote in a comment on the Reporter's website.

Where there is a causal connection, he suggested,
is the contribution marijuana prohibition has had
in leading people to become hooked on
prescription drugs, which, while easier to
obtain, are far more toxic and addictive.

In fact, noted McKernan, cannabis is coming into
favor as a tool to get people off of heroin, as
it is less toxic and less addictive than methadone.

And, while McKernan's background leads him to be
particularly receptive to the science-based
arguments to legalize marijuana, he is mindful of
the social arguments as well, including the
economic cost of the war on drugs. He noted that
the U.S. locks up a far greater percentage of its
citizens than the rest of the world, with
nonviolent offenders =AD and those convicted of
marijuana possession, in particular =AD
representing a significant portion of the prison population.

But McKernan's passion on the issue is also
fueled by his conclusion that much suffering
could be alleviated, if only researchers had
greater access to cannabis. He noted that dozens
of cannabinoids =AD many of them non-psychoactive,
unlike the commonly known THC =AD have shown signs
of being able to shrink nine different types of
tumors, including glioblastoma, an aggressive
type of malignant brain tumor, which have proven
difficult to treat, at best, with chemotherapy.
He likened chemotherapy to threading a needle:
giving the patient a sufficiently high dose to
attack the tumor but not so much that it becomes
lethal. Cannabis, by contrast, has a far greater
=93therapeutic index,=94 or ratio of the lethal dose
to the effective dose for treatment.

McKernan said that the science that informed the
original =93war on drugs=94 =AD for example, the myth
that marijuana use kills brain cells =AD is
=93grossly out of date.=94 He noted that the American
Medical Association and American College of
Physicians have petitioned for the DEA to reschedule cannabis.

While McKernan has been following with interest
political developments related to cannabis
legalization across the country and on the
federal level, the March 6 hearing was McKernan's
first personal experience with the legislative
process, which he called =93educational.=94 While
realistic about the fate of the Massachusetts
Cannabis Regulation and Taxation Act, McKernan
explained that he does draw some hope from
history. The end of the prohibition of alcohol,
he noted, came not from federal decree but from the states

The Judiciary Committee has until early next week
to make a recommendation on the bill before the
biennial bill-reporting deadline. Other sponsors
of the bill include Reps. Ellen Story, D-Amherst;
Ruth Balser, D-Newton; and Ann Gobi, D-Spencer.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom