Pubdate: Tue, 28 Aug 2012
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2012 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324

POT FOR PTSD? OREGON'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW NEEDS GROUNDING IN 
SCIENCE, MEDICINE

If Oregon held a public hearing on whether to define marijuana as an 
effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, here's what 
would happen:

First, several Oregon veterans would testify about their positive 
personal experiences with marijuana in treating their combat-related 
stress and anxiety.

Second, marijuana advocates would speak in favor of adding PTSD to 
the list of qualifying conditions for Oregon's medical marijuana 
program. How could we do any less, they'd ask, for people who have 
served our country so honorably? How could we let even one veteran suffer?

Finally, a couple of drug-treatment specialists would express concern 
about some common side effects of marijuana, including paranoia and addiction.

At the end of the hearing, Oregon would wind up exactly where it 
started: short on clinical medical evidence, long on personal 
testimony and overflowing with politically loaded arguments.

It's a fine way to debate marijuana, as other states have found, but 
it's not a great way to practice medicine.

Medical marijuana advocates want Oregon to treat PTSD on par with 
severe pain, severe nausea, seizures, HIV/AIDS, muscle spasms and 
other health problems on the state's long list of qualifying 
conditions, as The Oregonian's Noelle Crombie reported this week.

There's no evidence that Oregon veterans with PTSD have a hard time 
obtaining medical marijuana cards. (The inclusion of severe pain as a 
qualifying condition makes it possible for almost anyone to get a 
marijuana card, if a sympathetic doctor is handy.) There's also not a 
robust body of research showing marijuana as an effective medical 
treatment for PTSD. The state of Arizona, for example, recently 
decided not to add PTSD to their list of qualifying conditions for 
medical marijuana, based on the scarcity and quality of available studies.

Yet PTSD comes up often in marijuana debates, because it's a 
hard-to-treat disorder -- and because it's easy to exploit for 
political purposes. It allows advocates to drape an American flag 
around the question of expanded legalization and let emotion ride 
herd over facts.

The best available anecdotal evidence suggests that marijuana can 
provide relief for many patients with many types of medical problems, 
including PTSD. It would make sense, as the American Medical 
Association has recommended, to significantly expand the research and 
develop clinical trials to gather more information about side 
effects, optimal doses and best THC concentrations for different 
types of patients, including veterans with combat injuries.

It also might make sense, ultimately, to further decriminalize 
marijuana as a recreational drug.

Either change would require altering the short-sighted federal laws 
that wrongly classify marijuana like heroin and forbid all but the 
most limited medical research.

The only untenable option is for Oregon to keep expanding its medical 
marijuana program without the science to back it up. It's the 
equivalent of practicing medicine without a license and dispensing 
medical advice based on personal anecdotes, political pressure and 
Google searches rather than sound evidence. People with serious 
health problems -- yes, especially veterans -- deserve better. 
Granting people permission to smoke pot is a government function, to 
be sure, but let's not pretend it's medicine.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom