Pubdate: Wed, 09 Apr 2014
Source: Tampa Bay Times (FL)
Copyright: 2014 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/letters/
Website: http://www.tampabay.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Note: Named the St. Petersburg Times from 1884-2011.
Author: Gregory L. Gerdeman
Note: Gregory L. Gerdeman is an assistant professor of biology at 
Eckerd College who has studied the effects of cannabis on the brain 
for more than 15 years. He wrote this exclusively for the Tampa Bay Times.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

SCIENCE IS INDISPUTABLE: MARIJUANA IS MEDICINE

There appears to be growing support in the Legislature to legalize a 
type of marijuana that won't get you high but offers medical benefits 
for a range of maladies, including uncontrollable seizures in children.

House Bill 843, like similar bills being considered in other states, 
represents a new twist in our national history of redefining 
marijuana to achieve political goals. It moved quickly through its 
first committee, with near unanimous support.

The bill would legalize strains of cannabis with extremely low levels 
of THC and high levels of a sister compound called cannabidiol, or 
CBD. Cannabidiol is a molecule that is close to THC in molecular 
structure but without the psychoactive effects for which marijuana is 
best known. Studies have shown that when both are present, as in most 
recreational marijuana, CBD even works to counteract or balance the 
THC-induced high.

It's not entirely clear why. Science has dedicated far more attention 
to understanding THC and its infamous psychoactivity. For decades, 
government funds - and the only legal supplies of cannabis for 
researchers - have been reserved for scientists who test presumptions 
that marijuana is dangerous. Studying cannabidiol doesn't fit that paradigm.

Regardless, supporting the legalization of non-euphoric medical 
marijuana allows lawmakers to care for suffering kids without having 
to acknowledge that the more traditional strains, rich in 
euphoria-inducing THC, are also a source of legitimate medicine with 
greater scientific backing.

It's a strange blend of true compassion and political expediency. 
This is not criticism of the motivations behind the bill. It would 
truly help many people who are genuinely suffering, albeit only a 
subset of those who could benefit from a wider range of 
physician-recommended cannabis-based medicines.

Public opinion about medical marijuana has shifted dramatically in 
recent years. Polls indicate broad support among Florida voters for 
another measure, a constitutional amendment on the November ballot 
that would legalize all kinds of marijuana for medical purposes.

As for lawmakers, they could take some ownership of what citizens 
want - a thorough consideration of the pros and cons of medical 
marijuana - by debating a separate bill: the Cathy Jordan Medical 
Cannabis Act. Tallahassee still treats broader reform of cannabis 
laws like a live hand grenade.

The public appears to accept what its elected officials do not: 
Marijuana is medicine, even the kind that gets you high. The science 
is indisputable.

It also is very old. Cannabis-based medicines were widely used in 
this country before marijuana prohibition, and the FDA did not 
object. Every major pharmaceutical company formulated medicine with 
marijuana in it.

So recent rhetoric used by some lawmakers - that medical marijuana 
would be a return to "snake oil" pre-FDA medicine - is a fallacy. 
Like the pejorative labeling of "pot docs," the snake-oil jab implies 
a charlatan and degrades intelligent social discourse.

Even the U.S. government's own pilot medical marijuana program was 
successful for the few patients allowed in. It was shut down anyway.

Moreover, gold-standard clinical studies found THC-rich marijuana to 
be useful for certain chronic pain conditions while also being safe 
and well tolerated. More such trials should be supported to test 
therapeutic claims. Nonetheless, it is universally recognized that as 
medicines go, overall safety of marijuana is not a big concern. By 
contrast, thousands die annually from widely used opiate painkillers. 
Even aspirin kills hundreds of Americans each year.

And marijuana? By any credible interpretation, the number is 
somewhere between zero and a whole lot less than aspirin.

Nationwide, strains of CBD-rich marijuana are showing promising 
therapeutic potential including neuroprotective and anti-seizure 
properties, even anti-cancer activity. These observations remain 
anecdotal, begging for scientific investigation. While a lot of 
questions remain about just how it works and how reliably, it is 
likely that if the CBD molecule were newly invented by Big Pharma, 
they would be pushing for fast-track approval by the FDA.

In the face of a remarkable yet believable shift in public opinion, 
the pressing policy questions really come down to whether or not 
herbal cannabis can be standardized and regulated. Policies and 
punishments that classify cannabis as the least useful, most 
dangerous kind of drug are flagrantly out of step with this reality, 
and increasingly large majorities of Floridians know it.

Propaganda-based marijuana laws need to be held to the measure of 
21st-century evidence-based cannabis science.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom