Pubdate: Mon, 25 Feb 2013
Source: Concord Monitor (NH)
Copyright: 2013 Monitor Publishing Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/WbpFSdHB
Website: http://www.concordmonitor.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/767

STATE SHOULD ALLOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA

To alleviate the suffering of the seriously sick and terminally ill, 
New Hampshire, should join the rest of the New England states and 
decriminalize the controlled use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The New Hampshire Medical Society, the state Department of Safety, 
the police chiefs association and attorney general all oppose 
legalizing the use of medical marijuana, but the concerns they cite 
aren't weighty enough to tip the scales against the passage of Exeter 
Democratic Rep. Donna Schlachman's bill. Eighteen states have 
legalized the use of medical marijuana, and legislation is pending in 
eight more, including New Hampshire. What experience elsewhere shows 
is that to work as intended, and not lead to the proliferation of 
marijuana users, strict controls are required. Those controls should 
extend to patients, caregivers, marijuana dispensaries and physicians.

House Bill 537 proposes limiting the use of marijuana to patients 
suffering from a specific set of diseases or conditions: cancer, 
glaucoma, AIDS, HIV, hepatitis C, Lou Gehrig's disease, muscular 
dystrophy, Crohn's disease, Alzheimer's or multiple sclerosis. 
Missing from that list is chronic pain, a diagnosis that at least 
anecdotally has been blamed for making it easy for people to feign 
injury in order to convince a physician to prescribe marijuana.

Credible studies have shown that the active ingredient in marijuana 
does relieve pain in some people and may have an anti-inflammatory 
effect. The drug has also proven useful, in some people, in reducing 
extreme anxiety and permitting sleep. If, after a trial period, no 
significant level of abuse occurs with the legalization of medical 
marijuana, lawmakers should assume that the control system in place 
works. At that point, they should consider expanding the list of 
ailments for which marijuana may be prescribed.

The bill, as written, would allow patients with a prescription, and 
their caregiver, to possess up to four marijuana plants. Gov. Maggie 
Hassan, who supported the legal use of medical marijuana as a state 
senator, has concerns about that portion of the bill. It's also the 
component that would be the most difficult to monitor and enforce. If 
stripping the cultivation provision from the bill makes its passage 
more likely, its sponsors should do so. Later, if marijuana from the 
five state-authorized dispensaries proves to be too expensive to 
provide relief to sufferers with a limited income, lawmakers could 
reconsider the grow-your-own provision.

Over the years, a long list of people with horrible illnesses or in 
terrible pain, their loved ones and their survivors, have trouped to 
the State House to plead with lawmakers. They want the ability to 
alleviate their suffering without becoming criminals. They want to 
obey the law but believe they have no choice but to break it. When 
they do, the legal system looks the other way out of compassion, as it should.

The Legislature shouldn't punish citizens in pain because it lacks 
the wit or the will to create a system that allows them to access a 
source of relief without increasing the recreational use of 
marijuana. We're confident such a system can be created. Lawmakers 
should pass House Bill 573 and Hassan should sign it.
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