Pubdate: Mon, 06 Aug 2012
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2012 The Arizona Republic
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Doug Banfelder

MEDICAL-POT PATIENTS HAVE RIGHT TO CHOOSE

It is very odd to hear Arizona elected officials promoting the primacy
of federal mandate over a law passed by the state's voters, as Yavapai
County Attorney Sheila Polk and other county attorneys recently have
("Brewer urged to halt pot program," Republic, Tuesday).

It appears that Polk and 12 other county attorneys are all of one mind
when it comes to marijuana: Any production and distribution is
criminal, and any use of the drug constitutes abuse. They seem to have
concluded that the electorate must have been confused when voting for
the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA), and so now they are simply
trying to save us from ourselves.

A career prosecutor and co-chair of a county substance-abuse group,
Polk, who is generally noted for impartiality, seems incapable of
accepting that marijuana has legitimate medicinal benefit, and that
patients choosing it over synthetic pharmaceuticals are exercising
their right to make an alternative, natural health-care choice.

Such patients are everyday Arizonans. Among cardholders are
accountants, hair stylists, auto mechanics, entrepreneurs, plumbers,
chefs, management professionals, retirees, community volunteers,
neighbors, parents and grandparents. The fact is there is no
stereotypical medical-marijuana patient.

Ms. Polk is dismissive of patients who obtain cards for severe and
chronic pain; she recently mischaracterized the condition as
"self-defined." This is incorrect. To qualify for a card, a doctor
must perform an extensive review of a prospective patient's medical
records, clearly making any finding of pain as a qualifying condition
doctor-defined.

And given that pain management is a $60 billion industry, with nearly
100 million Americans suffering from chronic pain, why is it
surprising that so many seek a patient card in order to obtain relief?
Put into proper context, it is easy to understand why "severe and
chronic pain" is the largest category of debilitating conditions under
the AMMA.

As for men comprising the majority of cardholders, many of them
relatively young, consider the following: Who usually performs the
most labor-intensive work? Who is most attracted to extreme sports?
Who is most at risk for spinal-cord injury? Men 18 to 24. And as many
of us know only too well, the cumulative effects of those activities
don't always present themselves until later in life.

The American public is well ahead of the political class on marijuana
policy.

Many of those in power remain tone-deaf to public opinion, ignore
mounting evidence of marijuana as medicine and continue favoring (and
funding) enforcement-only approaches that have demonstrably failed
over the course of many decades.

Rather than attacking the Arizona Department of Health Services for
creating a responsible program in line with what voters approved, Ms.
Polk and company should instead focus on the heroin plague raging in
our schools and the abuse of prescription painkillers, which has now
reached epidemic levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. The White House Office on National Drug Control Policy
calls abuse of prescription painkillers "the nation's fastest-growing
drug problem."

Leave the AMMA, its patients and businesspeople be. Threatening
peaceable, productive everyday Arizona citizens with legal sanctions
is contradictory to a pillar of Americanism -- freedom of choice.

Voters in an increasing number of states are expressing their desire
for more finely attenuated policies that permit marijuana for
medicinal use and manage it by way of stringent state regulation. This
can be and is being done elsewhere.

Arizona medical-marijuana cardholders would welcome productive
dialogue with our county attorneys and other community leaders in
developing new, more-effective policies for drug education and program
management.

Doug Banfelder is a non-cultivating caregiver under the Arizona
Medical Marijuana Act and a member of Americans for Safe Access.
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MAP posted-by: Matt