Pubdate: Sun, 30 Mar 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

POT OIL COULD OPEN DOORS

A Colorado Innovation to Treat Kids Spreads to Other States, but Some 
Marijuana Advocates Are Skeptical.

A Colorado marijuana innovation is changing the way lawmakers in even 
the most conservative parts of the country talk about cannabis and is 
poised to create a rapid expansion in the number of states that have 
legalized marijuana in some way.

But many marijuana advocates view the new political campaign with 
skepticism, fearing it could halt their movement's momentum.

The invention is a non-psychoactive oil made from marijuana plants 
that is used to treat children with severe seizure disorders. The oil 
is rich in a chemical called cannabidiol, or CBD, but is low in THC, 
the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

Spurred by parents of epileptic children, legislatures in at least a 
dozen states so far this year have or will consider bills about the 
marijuana oil. Last week, the governor of Utah signed into law a bill 
legalizing possession of the oil. A bill in Alabama has passed the 
Legislature and is awaiting the governor's signature. Lawmakers in 
Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina, Wisconsin and other states have or 
will consider CBD bills this year.

"What the CBD movement has done, I think, is brought in the soccer 
moms to the discussion," said Josh Stanley, one of a family of 
Colorado brothers who own a medical marijuana business and developed 
the oil. "It's brought in the mainstream, and it's brought in the 
conservatives."

But, even though the bills amount to the most successful discussions 
ever held about marijuana legalization in some of the states where 
they are being considered, the nation's largest marijuana-reform 
groups view them with skepticism.

The deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of 
Marijuana Laws has criticized them as "unworkable" and without real 
benefits. A policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance is concerned 
the bills will leave other reform efforts behind.

"Is it better than nothing?" asked Mason Tvert, the national 
spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project and one of the leaders of 
the marijuana legalization campaign in Colorado. "Potentially. But if 
it means there is no longer a pressing need for comprehensive medical 
marijuana legislation, these will be a net negative."

More restrictive

Currently, 20 states and the District of Columbia have legalized 
medical marijuana. Because the CBD oil is derived from marijuana 
plants, states that legalize it will also be crosswise with federal 
law. But because the CBD laws are far more restrictive than typical 
medical marijuana laws, advocates on all sides of the issues aren't 
putting states that pass them in the medical marijuana column.

What the CBD bills have exposed is the long-standing tension within 
the marijuana movement.

Struggling to generate interest for broader marijuana legalization in 
the mid-1990s, activists instead got behind more limited medical 
marijuana initiatives. Since then, reform campaigns have taken on a 
well-established multi-year pattern: medical marijuana, then 
dispensaries, then full legalization.

But activists have long feared that, taken to its logical conclusion, 
medical marijuana could be a "box canyon" for broader legalization 
efforts. Basically, if more refined medicines derived from marijuana 
are available, why should lawmakers allow people to grow pot at home?

That is exactly where many activists worry the CBD bills will take 
their movement - and, perhaps not coincidentally, exactly where 
people opposed to legalization hope it will go.

"The question is not if but how," said Kevin Sabet, the executive 
director of the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana. "How do we 
deliver it to families?"

Sabet, whose group opposes marijuana legalization, said he supports 
further research into and medical development of CBD treatment. But 
he said that should occur within the established medical processes, 
something he said the federal government is increasingly willing to expedite.

One pharmaceutical drug - made from 100 percent CBD derived from 
marijuana plants-has been cleared for clinical trials. The only lab 
in the country with federal approval to grow marijuana, at the 
University of Mississippi, will reportedly start growing more 
CBD-rich strains for researchers to study.

"Used as pawns"

Sabet said using CBD bills to create interest in marijuana 
legalization is cynical.

"I think you have a lot of people here who are being used as pawns by 
the broader legalization movement," he said.

Tvert, however, said the cynicism lies on the other side. He points 
to Minnesota, where the governor has proposed a study on CBD in lieu 
of broad medical marijuana legalization and parents backing medical 
marijuana have called the move disingenuous.

"It raises the question of whether these CBD-only bills are good 
enough," Tvert said.

Even Stanley acknowledges the bills will likely have little immediate 
impact. The Utah law, for instance, allows parents to possess the oil 
in that state if a neurologist has said their children will benefit 
from it. But the law contains no provision for growing marijuana in 
Utah or making the oil there. And, because it is only sold as a 
medical marijuana product in Colorado, people have to be Colorado 
residents to obtain it.

Stanley said his brothers are working on manufacturing the oil from 
low-THC plants classified as hemp-thus allowing it to be produced 
outside of Colorado's complicated medical marijuana system. But, even 
if that works, Stanley said he hopes CBD laws won't be the end of the 
marijuana debate in states that adopt them.

"I'm not one of these guys who wants just CBD-only laws," he said. 
"But it's an opening. It's a start."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom