Pubdate: Sat, 03 May 2014 Source: Kingston Times (NY) Copyright: 2014 Kingston Times Contact: http://www.kingstonx.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5510 Author: Jesse J. Smith WAFTING IN: MEDICAL MARIJUANA MAKES PROGRESS IN NEW YORK Back in January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo broke New York State's decade-long stalemate over medical marijuana by announcing that he'd dusted off a never-implemented 1980 law allowing up to 20 hospitals to prescribe the plant to seriously ill patients. Since then, the governor's office has remained silent while the state health department drafts regulations to guide the program. Meanwhile, various plans to go beyond the governor's proposal have been gaining adherents in the state legislature. The announcement that New York would soon join the list of 20 states and the District of Columbia allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes has re-ignited a debate over a plant that despite strong evidence that it provides some medical benefits to cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis patients and people with other serious illnesses remains on the federal government's list of banned substances that have no legitimate medical use, such as heroin and cocaine. Evidence of cannabis' use as medicine dates back about 3,000 years. It was introduced into Western medicine in the 1840s by a British surgeon working in India. Since then, numerous small-scale studies have suggested a range of medical benefits associated with cannabis and various synthetic and natural compounds known as cannabinoids. The evidence for marijuana's medical benefits is strongest in its role in treating nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. According to a report from the National Cancer Institute, a study of 30 randomized studies found that THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) extracts outperformed traditional anti-nausea drugs and helped patients gain weight. Other studies have shown cannabinoids' efficacy in relieving pain and reducing anxiety and sleeplessness in cancer and AIDS sufferers. The National Cancer Institute paper endorses the use of cannabinoids - already in use in prescription anti-emetics like Marinol - while hedging due to a lack of research on the medical value of smoked or otherwise ingested cannabis. Other studies have shown cannabis to provide beneficial effects to people suffering from ailments ranging from MS to post-traumatic stress disorder. A legislative turnaround Marijuana's status as a Schedule I narcotic - designated by the feds as having no legitimate medical purpose - has made it difficult to conduct the kind of large-scale, long-term studies needed to form a medical consensus. In November, the American Medical Associated reiterated its opposition to the full on legalization of marijuana, calling the plant "a dangerous drug." But when it comes to the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, the physicians' group takes a more nuanced approach. A 2001 report by the AMA's Council on Science and Public Health noted that short-term studies showed promise for the use of cannabis in for the treatment of neuropathic pain and other ailments. The report noted that the plant's status as a Schedule I narcotic had made it difficult to develop clinical protocols for its use in medical settings. "The patchwork of state-based systems that have been established for medical marijuana is woefully inadequate in establishing even rudimentary safeguards that normally would be applied to the clinical use of psychoactive substances," it reads. The report recommends a government review of marijuana's status as a Schedule I drug. Moving marijuana into the "controlled substance" class of drugs - which includes patently dangerous but medically accepted substances like hydrocodone and Valium - would open the door to wider-ranging research as and use of marijuana as prescribed by doctors nationwide. On the federal level, there's been little progress in taking marijuana off the Schedule I narcotics list. But that hasn't stopped 20 states and the District of Columbia from implementing medical marijuana protocols (Washington and Colorado took a step further approving legalization of recreational pot last year). In the Northeast, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island all have legalized medical marijuana to varying degrees. In New York, meanwhile, the Democrat-controlled state Assembly has passed a bill allowing the use of marijuana for certain ailments each year for nearly a decade. The measure has invariably died without a floor vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, one of the bill's original sponsors, blames Republican inaction on the influence of Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long, who has made opposition to marijuana legalization a litmus test for Republicans seeking the endorsement of the small, but politically important, third party. But, earlier this year, Long backed off that stance, saying that while the party continues to oppose medical marijuana it was no longer a deal-breaker for Conservative support. Combined with Cuomo's proposal for a narrowly construed medical marijuana system, that change in position could provide the impetus a reform measure needs to clear the Senate and become law. Several Republican state senators have indicated their support for such an initiative. "I think that what Cuomo was doing was saying, 'OK, I'm opening the door a crack, now it's up to [state lawmakers] to see how far you want to take it,'" Cahill said. Unsanctioned approval While the medical establishment and New York politicians have been slow to officially embrace medical marijuana, a thriving underground of patients, marijuana growers, weed-friendly patient advocates and healthcare providers haven't waited around for the law. Back in 2009, local marijuana grower and activist Joe Barton lamented the bust of his Hurley pot farm by publicly declaring that cops were depriving cancer patients of his high-quality product. One Hudson Valley healthcare worker who often deals with the terminally ill said that marijuana use by the very sick was an everyday, if unsanctioned, occurrence in her workplace. "We're not allowed to condone or push people towards [medical] marijuana," said the employee, who asked to remain anonymous because of the topic's sensitivity. "But we've had patients who straight-up smoked. You'd smell the marijuana down the hall and just pretend you didn't smell it." The employee said she'd seen firsthand the efficacy of marijuana in relieving pain, especially among those whose lingering ailments had left them largely resistant even to high doses of traditional pain medications like morphine. The marijuana, she said, most often comes into the facility in the form of baked goods or other "edibles." Other times, patients employ vaporizers that deliver the THC without the smoke. Oftentimes she said elderly patients, who may be unfamiliar with or disapproving of marijuana, try it after conversations with their children or grandchildren. The employee said that she'd seen patients' appetites and mood improve dramatically with marijuana use. She estimated that about three-quarters of her colleagues, including doctors, believed that marijuana had a role in medicine. That number, she noted, included older, more conservative healthcare workers who generally disapprove of recreational drug use. "Once you see it work, it changes how you think about it," she said. "I have co-workers who think it should be legal for medical use who would never, ever want their children or grandchildren smoking it for recreational use." Opponents of medical marijuana see these attitudes as a smokescreen for full legalization. They point to the examples of states like California, where a broadly constructed medical pot law made it a relatively simple thing for virtually anyone to obtain a prescription (often from a physician employed by a marijuana dispensary). In Washington State and Colorado, medical marijuana laws opened the door to voter referenda that made the two states the first in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Many legalization advocates don't shy from the medical marijuana as stalking-horse-for-legalization argument. National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws Capital Region (NORML) executive director Kevin Jones regard "medical marijuana" as a meaningless phrase akin to "medical tomatoes." "Calling it medical doesn't change the plant," Jones said. "But once we get patients taken care of, we can get past the toxicity theory and the addiction theories, which are false, and move on to legalization." Jones said that while 30 to 40 percent of New Yorkers favor outright legalization of marijuana and 80 percent favor its medical use. New York politicians don't hear often enough from people who want to change the laws, Jones said. He believed a tipping point would occur when people realized that 70 years of prohibition and a four-decade-old War on Drugs had done little to prevent those who want to smoke marijuana from doing so while costing taxpayers billions. "I smoke every day, because I can get [marijuana] every day," Jones said. "It's not the smokers who are getting screwed. It's the taxpayers." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D