Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jun 2014
Source: Journal News, The (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The Gannett Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.lohud.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1205
Author: Amy Piperato, M.D.
Note: The writer, a Thiells resident, is a doctor of internal 
medicine in West Haverstraw.
Referenced: Compassionate Care Act: http://mapinc.org/url/72YHaGxP

PASS MEDICAL MARIJUANA NOW

While the Senate can meet consensus on naming the wood frog the 
official New York State amphibian, some ignore the science behind 
medical marijuana as they delay passage of the Compassionate Care Act 
that would bring relief and treatment to many in the state. The 
writer's 3-year-old son suffers seizures from Dravet Syndrome.

This week, the Senate approved a bill making the wood frog the 
official New York State amphibian. Republican Sen. John DeFrancisco 
introduced the bill earlier this year at the behest of a class of 
fourth-graders in his Syracuse-area district.

While the New York state Senate was spending time on this measure, I 
was in the emergency room with my 3-year-old son who had just had a 
seizure while riding home from school on the bus. Vincent has been 
having seizures since he was 3 months old. Due to the intensity and 
prolonged duration of his seizures as an infant, his neurologist had 
him tested for a genetic mutation known to be associated with a 
catastrophic form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome. The results of 
that test came back positive when Vincent was 6 months old. By that 
time, he had been hospitalized four times for seizures lasting over 
20 minutes. After one seizure, the left side of his face was 
paralyzed for a day.

Vincent is on the mild end of the Dravet specturm. He has only had 
eight seizures in the past seven months. Many Dravet patients suffer 
from hundreds of seizures a day. Every seizure Vincent has is an 
emergency. Every seizure can steal hard won developmental gains. 
Every seizure has the potential to become a life-threatening status 
epilepticus episode. To prevent seizures, Vincent is now on three 
anti-epileptic drugs. These medicines stop him from sweating, 
threaten his liver and bone marrow, impair his appetite, and cause 
remarkably volatile behavior.

I am also a physician in New York. I wonder how those lawmakers 
opposed to the Compassionate Care Act would advise me to treat my 
son, since they are denying me access to a medication that has shown 
remarkable promise for pediatric epilepsy in states where it is 
legal. I have not seen the governor or senators in any of the exam 
rooms where chronic pain is treated with morphine, hydrocodone, 
valium or steroid injections. They are not doing hospice rounds on 
patients with metastatic cancer or end-stage Alzheimers. Nor are they 
with the neurologists prescribing infants and children drugs that 
carry the risk of developmental delay, organ failure and growth retardation.

Sen. DeFrancisco, chairman on the Finance Committee, has some extra 
time on his hands. His committee is apparently done with all their 
work and has no plan to meet again before this legislative session 
adjourns June 19. Unfortunately for Vincent, and thousands of 
patients across the state, the Compassionate Care Act is sitting in 
the Finance Committee waiting to be voted on so it can move to the 
Senate floor for approval.

Science supports

The Compassionate Care Act would allow certified patients to use 
marijuana to treat a serious illness under medical supervision. Sen. 
Diane Savino, D-Brooklyn, authored the Senate version of the bill. 
The use of medical marijuana would be under a physician's approval. 
The distribution system outlined by the bill is considered one of the 
most tightly controlled proposals on the books, with safeguards at 
every step, from "seed to sale," to prevent diversion for illegal 
use. Medical marijuana would be more stringently controlled than 
opiate medications.

In a June 9 lohud.com article, Sen. DeFrancisco stated, "The Savino 
bill will not come out of my committee, the Finance Committee. You 
don't have any kind of reasonable research on the effects. ... There 
has been no test studies done as to the adverse effects of smoking marijuana."

There are thousands of peer-reviewed, scientific journal articles 
that have been published confirming the beneficial effects of 
cannabis and cannabinoids for a wide array of medical conditions. 
Over 100 of these articles detail studies that were done with the 
gold-standard study design for evidence-based medicine: the 
double-blind, placebo controlled study.

Fortunately, Sen. DeFrancisco does not hold absolute power over the 
Compassionate Care Act. He could, technically, call an emergency 
meeting of "his" committee and bring the bill to a vote. An alternate 
option is moving the bill to the Rules Committee for a vote. If 
passed there, it would go to the full Senate for a vote. The Chairman 
of the Rules committee is Sen. Dean Skelos, the Republican co-leader 
of the Senate. Both DeFrancisco and Skelos have been opposed to the 
bill, in spite of the fact over 80 percent of New Yorkers are in 
favor of legalization of medical marijuana. The Compassionate Care 
Act also has broad, bipartisan, support in the Assembly and on the 
Senate floor.

I do not expect our lawmakers to be medical experts, but I do expect 
them to take personal responsibility for learning about the issues 
put before them. Sens. DeFrancisco and Skelos have been given ample 
opportunity to learn the science behind medical marijuana. Countless 
patients and families have also tried to share their gut-wrenching 
stories with the senators. Automated email responses give me the 
feeling my story was not heard. Maybe if the wood frog had seizures.

MORE

To read the Compassionate Care Act, go to the New York State Senate 
website, nysenate.gov, click on "Open Senate" and enter the bill 
number - S4406B - in the window.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom