Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jun 2012
Source: Tucson Weekly (AZ)
Copyright: 2012 Tucson Weekly
Contact:  http://www.tucsonweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/462
Author: J. M. Smith

HELPFUL HERB THE STATE SHOULD LET PEOPLE USE MMJ TO TREAT DEPRESSION

If you've ever been depressed or have lived with someone who is
depressed, you know it sucks-and not just a little bit.

Depression really, really sucks a lot in ways that make people lose
their jobs and wish they were dead. It seeps out from the hearts and
souls of sufferers to affect everyone around them, putting cracks in
otherwise sound relationships. At times, being depressed is like being
at the bottom of the pool, sucked down against the drain on your back,
watching the world go by up there in the air. But down at the bottom
of the pool, you can't breathe. You want to swim up to the surface, to
gulp in huge gasps of atmosphere, and feel alive and vibrant.

But you can't ... without medication.

On May 25, the state took comments at a Phoenix hearing on the
addition of marijuana as a medication option for depressed Arizonans.
Several state residents were at the hearing to offer testimonials to
the Department of Health Services, which will decide in the coming
weeks whether MMJ makes the cut.

Michael Flint told DHS representatives to add it to the list. Flint
was first diagnosed with depression in 1996 and has been on
antidepressants since. He takes a chemical brew of two antidepressants
and sleeping pills, which he needs because the antidepressants keep
him up at night. It's a Catch-22: If he doesn't take the sleeping
pills, he is more depressed from a lack of sleep. If he takes them, he
feels run down the next day from the drugs. The side effects suck, and
the meds aren't effective.

"The available options don't work, and marijuana does work. It works
immediately. It's nontoxic. You can't overdose on it," Flint told DHS
representatives at the hearing. "This is what I need to do for my own
health, and I'd appreciate your consideration of that. Thank you."

Another woman at the hearing, who gave her name only as Tammy, tried
numerous antidepressants during her 23 years in the Air Force,
including many frequent fruitless attempts at self-medication with
alcohol. She stayed depressed. Two years ago, she retired. Then, last
year, she got an MMJ card for other issues. Guess what? She isn't
depressed when she smokes. She works out. She meditates. She rides her
bike 100-ish miles a week. She rides horses. She's active.

"I'm proof that cannabis works," she said.

Kent Eller, the chief medical officer for Phoenix's Southwest Network,
also spoke. Southwest is a provider network that cares for 7,000
mentally ill patients. Eller's exposure to the effectiveness of MMJ
came in the 1990s, when he worked at cancer- and HIV-care centers that
allowed patients to smoke, because it was the compassionate thing to
do. But depression is a different story.

"I am not at all for marijuana for the treatment of depression," he
said.

Eller doesn't deny that MMJ eliminates symptoms, but says depression
is a deeper issue that requires more-sophisticated treatment. He fears
patients would drop off the medical radar if they get into the MMJ
system, where patients self-medicate, often with no doctor
supervision. That lack of medical involvement could let illnesses that
look like depression go undiagnosed and untreated.

"So I would suggest that we not add marijuana for the treatment of
depression," he said.

Hmmmm. If people have illnesses other than depression, they will go to
doctors, because the MMJ won't help. If marijuana does help
depression, who needs doctors? And the DHS isn't making any decisions
about how people treat depression. Adding depression to the list would
only make it an available option. The decision, as with all treatment
decisions, should be made between doctors and patients, not wholesale
by banning an apparently effective treatment.

Add depression, says Mr. Smith. As Dr. Eller said about allowing
cancer and HIV patients to use medical marijuana, it's the
compassionate thing to do.
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