Pubdate: Mon, 03 Mar 2014
Source: Kentucky Kernel (U of KY Edu)
Copyright: 2014sKernel Press, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.kykernel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/790
Author: Becca Clemons

BILL OPPONENTS SAY MORE RESEARCH NEEDED ON EFFECTS OF POT

Rep. Robert Benvenuti, the most vocal opponent of the medical 
marijuana legalization bills in the Kentucky Legislature, is not the 
only one concerned about the growing acceptance of what is still 
considered a Schedule I drug under federal law.

Benvenuti has called for more research on cannabis use, a sentiment 
echoed last week by Francis Collins, the director of the National 
Institutes of Health.

Collins' comments were regarding the legalization of marijuana in 
general, not just for medicinal purposes.

"I'm afraid I'm sounding like this is an evil drug that's going to 
ruin our civilization and I don't really think that," he told USA 
TODAY. "But there are aspects of this that probably should be looked 
at more closely than some of the legalization experts are willing to admit."

One study could examine if there are any links between marijuana and 
lung cancer, for example, he said.

The NIH in December released a survey showing that more than 60 
percent of 12th-graders do not view marijuana use as harmful, a rate 
that has risen in the past two decades. More than before, 6.5 
percent, said they smoked marijuana daily.

"This is not just an issue of increased daily use," Dr. Nora D. 
Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said 
when the survey results were released. "It is important to remember 
that over the past two decades, levels of THC - the main psychoactive 
ingredient in marijuana - have gone up a great deal. ... Daily use 
today can have stronger effects on a developing teen brain than it 
did 10 or 20 years ago."

THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, levels went up from 3.75 percent in 
1995 to 15 percent in an average marijuana cigarette, she said.

The national organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which says 
it seeks "a middle road between incarceration and legalization," 
cites studies that say marijuana use affects parts of the brain used 
for memory, learning, attention and reaction time. Other health harms 
from marijuana, its members say, are an increased risk of heart 
attack and lung irritation, and a link with mental illness.

Despite polls showing that a majority of Kentuckians favor use of 
medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation, just 26 percent 
favored the use of marijuana for recreational purposes, according to 
a Kentucky Health Issues Poll released in May 2013.

Benvenuti, at Thursday's House Health and Welfare Committee meeting, 
said a study showed that traffic fatalities in Colorado had increased 
114 percent under its medicinal marijuana law.

The study, published in January in the American Journal of 
Epidemiology, showed that the presence of marijuana in drivers had 
increased by 8 percent over the past decade, although the study did 
not say marijuana use was the cause of the crashes. The drug also 
could be detected in a blood up to a week after use, the study's authors said.

Colorado highway patrol data shows that traffic fatalities there 
declined each year from 2007-11. The state passed its medical 
marijuana law in 2000.

Benvenuti's biggest cause for concern was that little research exists 
for possible benefits of marijuana. That's especially true on the 
federal level, because getting the drug approved for use in a study 
can be difficult.

"Representative (Mary Lou) Marzian said marijuana 'could possibly' 
help some people - 'could possibly' - and does not hurt anybody," he 
said. "What FDA-approved research has been done to show that it can 
help people? Because we don't approve drugs in this country based on 
'could possibly.' "
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom