Pubdate: Sat, 20 Oct 2012
Source: Northwest Arkansas Times (Fayetteville, AR)
Copyright: 2012 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Contact: http://nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/68570/letter/
Website: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/828
Author: Steve Brawner
Note: Steve brawner is an independent journalist in arkansas.

MARIJUANA DEBATE: FACES, FACTS

On Nov. 6, Arkansas voters will decide the fate of the Arkansas 
Medical Marijuana Act. They will base their decisions on faces more than facts.

Here are the facts: Passage would allow certain Arkansas patients to 
obtain a doctor's written certification for up to 2.5 ounces of 
useable marijuana every 15 days. The act lists 17 medical conditions 
making a person eligible to use the drug. The Arkansas Department of 
Health can approve more.

Patients will be able to obtain the marijuana at dispensaries 
operated by nonprofit groups. Those who live more than five miles 
from a dispensary can grow up to six plants in an enclosed, locked 
facility. The patient can designate a caregiver to obtain the 
marijuana and grow the plants for them.

Voters will see a 384-word ballot title, all one lo-o-ong sentence, 
that would enact an 8,000-word state law. Even if it passes, growing 
or selling or using marijuana for any reason will still be illegal 
under federal law.

Those are the facts. The faces will belong to people like Emily 
Williams, 56, from Fayetteville. Two years ago, she endured 
chemotherapy after being diagnosed with lymphoma. The two pills she 
was given by the doctor after her first treatment did not alleviate 
her terrible nausea and pain, so she called an acquaintance who 
earlier had offered to help her obtain marijuana. She had used the 
drug briefly three decades earlier in college, didn't like it, and 
planned to use it only once.

"Within 15 minutes, the nausea was gone; the headache was gone; the 
ache was gone," she said. "I stood up, walked in the house, went 
upstairs, took a shower, brushed my teeth, and went to bed and went to sleep."

The next morning, desperately sick and getting no relief from her 
medication, she called her acquaintance asking for more of the drug. 
During the next few treatments, she tried every other 
doctor-prescribed medication that was offered. Nothing worked except 
the marijuana, which she ate in butter she had melted and then 
refrigerated. To her, it was a natural treatment that was far 
preferable to the manmade chemical concoctions her doctors offered, 
all of which had side effects and one of which later was removed from 
the market.

She hid what she was doing until about halfway through her treatment 
regimen when she finally told her husband, Kit, the Fayetteville city 
attorney. He supported her actions and still has his job.

The leading group opposing the measure, Little Rock-based Family 
Council, is running a television commercial featuring its own faces - 
those of drug dealers and young people smoking pot. The group's 
executive director, Jerry Cox, says passage will make marijuana more 
available and therefore more common. Of course, he's right. He says 
this is really a back-door attempt to legalize marijuana across the 
state, a blanket charge I don't accept, though I'm sure that has been 
a motivation of some backers and some of the people who signed the petition.

Cox doesn't discount that cannabis may have medicinal benefits. 
However, he says those should be demonstrated through medical 
research. Then the drug should be produced like every other drug in 
America - through a regulated process, not grown in people's backyards.

The Arkansas Medical Society has not taken a position on the issue at 
this time, but the pharmacists and law enforcement groups are 
opposed. Allen Hamby, president of the Arkansas Fraternal Order of 
Police, told me not a single member of his board of trustees supports 
the idea. He said having a state law contradict federal law places 
police in an awkward position. "We've got a drug that we fight every 
day as law enforcement, and they're trying to make it legal, and 
we're afraid it's going to be abused," he told me.

The Food and Drug Administration has not found a medicinal use for 
marijuana in its natural state, though it has approved a synthetic 
version known as Marinol. Something must be wrong with the FDA's 
research, because Emily Williams is not lying.

That leads to a lot of questions Arkansas voters will have to answer. 
Who would want to deny cancer patients a natural remedy that would 
alleviate their suffering? On the other hand, is this the way to 
introduce a medicine into the drug supply - by letting people just 
grow it on their own and letting doctors approve its use without 
anyone knowing who it helps and how? How do you ask law enforcement 
to fight a war on drugs and then make drugs more available? And how 
can something be legal in Arkansas but illegal in America? The entire 
proposition rests on the hope that the federal government won't 
enforce its own laws.

To move forward, scientific research is needed that would demonstrate 
the benefits of medical marijuana. Then the FDA should work with the 
medical community, law enforcement, and Congress to create a safe, 
legal, consistent distribution process.

Because that has not happened, I'm voting no, which is easy to write 
from the comfort of my office. However, I'd have a tough time saying 
it to Emily Williams' face - the face I'll imagine in the voting 
booth. The last poll I saw showed Arkansans were split on the issue. 
I understand why.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom