Pubdate: Fri, 14 Mar 2014
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2014 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Contact:  http://www.ajc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Sharon Cooper
Note: Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, chairs the House Health and Human 
Services committee.

RESEARCH NEEDED, COMPLEXITY ABOUNDS

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." That old adage 
certainly fits a scenario playing out in the Georgia General Assembly.

House Bill 885 or "Haleigh's Hope Act" - better known around the Gold 
Dome as the medical marijuana bill - began as a tightly drawn bill to 
provide children with intractable seizures access to an oil derived 
from a specific marijuana strain available only in Colorado.

This little-known product is "manufactured" by a group of 
marijuana-growing siblings - not physicians or scientists. It gained 
national notoriety thanks to the CNN special "Weed" and anecdotal 
reports by families of their children's seemingly miraculous cures. 
As we studied this bill, we found that this oil hasn't been tested 
for purity or consistency, and it hasn't been tested in animals.

Parents desperate to alleviate their children's suffering are 
petitioning legislatures to change state laws to allow the 
importation or production of this product, known as Charlotte's Web oil.

Though federal authorities seem to be using Colorado and Washington 
state as mini laboratories to gauge the effects of full legalization, 
they have given both states strict rules to follow. Rule No. 1: It's 
illegal to transport marijuana across state lines, whether exporting 
or importing. Break the rules, and the feds will swoop in. Colorado's 
amnesty only extends to its state line.

HB 885 has been rewritten several times. Children and adults with any 
type of seizures, even minor ones, are now included. At one point, a 
single academic medical center would grow marijuana and produce the 
oil for clinical trials. That's out, because our universities cannot 
legally be involved in growing, producing or testing illegal, non-FDA 
approved substances.

Since industrial hemp products aren't intended for human use as 
"medicine," and research universities cannot approve the use of 
non-FDA approved products, two provisions allowing hemp cultivation 
for the oil and the use of non-profit dispensaries to grow and 
produce it were also nixed.

The latest version says we won't prosecute approved patients and 
caregivers having a Georgia prescription if they possess the oil in 
our state. Even so, Colorado won't recognize a Georgia physician's 
prescription for any form of marijuana, and Colorado and the feds 
still agree it's illegal to remove this oil from that state. Our law 
could even unintentionally shut down the production of Charlotte's Web.

One major question lingers: With the threat of malpractice lawsuits, 
will Georgia physicians continue to be responsible for the treatment 
of patients taking such a product? Unregulated, copycat versions are 
out there. A Georgia house painter is ready to sell his.

When you talk about growing marijuana, authorizing dispensaries or 
decriminalization, you're talking the language of those wanting full 
legalization. "All-inclusive" medical marijuana bills are the first 
step. Although some chemicals in marijuana may have medicinal value, 
marijuana itself isn't medicine. We just clamped down on Georgia's 
pill mills, but "loosey goosey" medical marijuana programs with bogus 
medical ailments could become a "pot mill" epidemic.

Marijuana is a gateway drug. Research shows marijuana causes 
addiction in 9 percent of people who try it; 17 percent of 
adolescents who try it; and 25 to 50 percent of daily users. 
Persistent use during adolescence and into adulthood can result in an 
eight-point drop in I.Q., enough to plunge someone of average 
intelligence into the bottom third of the I.Q. scale.

The fate of HB 885 is still unknown, but there's hope for these 
children. The drug Epidiolex is derived from marijuana and is 
FDA-approved for a type of compassionate program available to 
children with severe seizures where every child gets the real 
medicine. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is exploring participation 
in such a program. Let's encourage other research centers to do the same.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom