Pubdate: Sun, 29 Apr 2012
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2012 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324
Author: Lauren Ruth Wiener
Note: Lauren Ruth Wiener lives in Portland and is the author of 
"Riding the Cyclone: Growing Up Feral in the '60s."

CONFESSIONS OF A 'RECREATIONAL DOPER': ISN'T IT TIME TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?

I agree with Oregon attorney general candidate Dwight Holton: 
Oregon's medical marijuana law is a train wreck. Yes, the supply 
mechanism is absurdly problematic, but a more basic question remains 
poorly addressed: What conditions can marijuana alleviate? National 
drug policy being what it is, undertaking controlled double-blind 
studies hasn't exactly been a cinch.

Oregon law treats pot as a palliative for a list of symptoms: severe 
pain or nausea, persistent muscle spasms, wasting syndrome, seizures. 
The only diseases named are cancer (actually not one disease, but a 
category), Alzheimer's and glaucoma. Given the symptoms, you'd expect 
medical marijuana patients to be suffering from epilepsy, AIDS or 
multiple sclerosis. Doubtless some are. Also, many young men can now 
indulge their love of snowboarding despite chronic pain from 
unspecified causes.

Perhaps Holton feels the vagueness of the law invites abuse by 
recreational dopers. I know I do. I'm one of them, so it seems.

I started smoking pot as a messed-up teenager, and of all my former 
bad habits, finger-chewing and marijuana are the ones I still have. 
It's clear why: From age 7 to 14, I was regularly and energetically 
battered, thrown around, hectored. The abuse was off the charts, and 
I'm lucky to be here.

Research in the neurobiology of childhood trauma shows that 
subjecting the developing brain to recurring bouts of intense, 
prolonged terror miswires the limbic system. Among other effects, the 
amygdala becomes hypersensitive, sounding the alarm day and night. 
Subjectively, this means anxiety, panic attacks, irritability -- or, 
as it's commonly known, "getting all bent out of shape over nothing."

Each species of marijuana has its niche. Cannabis sativa gets humans 
to cultivate it by making a molecule -- the famed THC -- that mimics 
a naturally occurring neurotransmitter called anandamide. Named from 
the Sanskrit ananda (bliss), it's a key part of the brain's pleasure 
and motivation circuitry.

Anandamide works in an unusual way. Neurotransmitters ordinarily flow 
out one neuron's axon into the dendrite of another, but cannabis-like 
molecules flow backward, out the dendrite into another neuron's axon. 
Signaling systems engineers will recognize this as a mechanism often 
used to regulate incoming flow -- to dampen or mute signals that 
might overflow capacity.

The limbic system is dense with receptors for anandamide, especially 
the hippocampus and amygdala. After I smoke, I feel calmer and more 
focused. For me, the dots connect themselves.

So does our medical marijuana statute recognize this effect? Sort of. 
It sees pot as appropriate for "agitation due to Alzheimer's." Why 
Alzheimer's, particularly? Why not agitation from post-traumatic 
stress disorder?

Do I hear a wrecking train?

Support is growing for both medical and recreational marijuana use, 
and not only because millions of people enjoy it. By now, even Pat 
Robertson has noticed that emergency rooms are not filled with people 
dying from pot overdoses. Addicts who rob liquor stores generally 
want meth. Many stoners buy pot like groceries -- with money they 
earned from working. Because (Cheech and Chong notwithstanding) you 
can consume regularly and still be a hard-working, responsible, 
creative, well-regarded employee.

You can maintain a good marriage, too. And be a good friend, honest 
taxpayer, informed citizen -- yes, even a sober driver. (It doesn't 
take a prohibitionist to see that driving while stoned is a terrible 
idea.) What seems to be harder is distinguishing medical from 
recreational uses, especially with so little rigorous data about why 
people really use the stuff.

We can amend Oregon's law to include or exclude various medical 
conditions. Or we can face the obvious: It's a fuzzy line.

Just legalize it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom