Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jun 2014
Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
Column: Weed Between the Lines
Copyright: 2014 Boulder Weekly
Contact:  http://www.boulderweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57
Author: Leland Rucker

THE THC FEAR FACTOR

It was great news to hear that New York has decided to legalize 
medical cannabis.

Well, sort of. After weeks of debate and many compromises, the state 
will allow doctors to prescribe patients suffering from multiple 
sclerosis, epilepsy, glaucoma and cancer to use medical cannabis in 
the form of tinctures, edibles or oil for vaporizers.

They will not be allowed to smoke it. The official reason for this 
peculiar concession is that Gov. Cuomo, along with some in the state 
legislature, are concerned that marijuana is a gateway drug.

Welcome to the THC Fear Factor.

Never mind that we're not talking about the recreational user or 
children here; these are people with debilitating illnesses looking 
for symptom relief. Some will be using cannabis to replace the 
prescription drugs they currently use. And the governor is worried 
that they might get hooked on cannabis? That they might be looking to 
sneak a buzz instead of finding respite from a crippling disease?

Never mind that the "gateway theory" has been pretty much 
scientifically discredited. As far back as 1999, a government study, 
Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base 
http://bit.ly/1j2tPY1 laid it out pretty succinctly. "The gateway 
analogy evokes two ideas that are often confused. The first, more 
often referred to as the 'stepping stone' hypothesis, is the idea 
that progression from marijuana to other drugs arises from 
pharmacological properties of marijuana itself."

As the researchers found out, the "stepping stone" analogy applies 
only in the sense that someone who enjoys the feelings of cannabis 
might be wiling to try other mood-altering drugs.

"There is no evidence that marijuana serves as a stepping stone on 
the basis of its particular physiological effect," they write. "One 
might argue that marijuana is generally used before other illicit 
mood-altering drugs, in part, because its effects are milder; in that 
case, marijuana is a stepping stone only in the same sense as taking 
a small dose of a particular drug and then increasing that dose over 
time is a stepping stone to increased drug use."

The second is that marijuana leads to a world of harder drugs where 
there is more pressure to try other illicit substances. "The latter 
does not suggest that the pharmacological qualities of marijuana make 
it a risk factor for progression to other drug use," they found. 
"Instead, the legal status of marijuana makes it a gateway drug."

That hasn't stopped prohibitionists and whomever has Gov. Cuomo's ear 
on this subject these days from promoting the gateway theory 15 years 
later. The THC Fear Factor has dominated prohibitionist lore back to 
the 1930s. There is no evidence to suggest that people who alter 
their consciousness are any better or worse off than people who 
don't. But something about THC brings out a kind of moral fervor in 
some to try and keep the rest of us from enjoying it. And this, even 
though their own consciousness is altered by everything from alcohol 
to ice cream and coffee.

For many patients, smoking cannabis is still the fastest delivery 
system, and the one they can most control. For people dealing with 
nausea and extreme discomfort, waiting an hour for an edible to come 
on isn't a reliable option, and edible consistency is still a work in 
progress. But that people with epilepsy, glaucoma and cancer 
shouldn't be able to smoke marijuana because it might be a gateway 
drug sounds pretty desperate, especially from a credible governor of 
a major U.S. state. Will Cuomo arrest patients if they are caught smoking?

Or for buying bud from the black market?

THC Fear Factor thinking is at work in states that have allowed 
medical cannabis, but only if it's extremely low in THC and high in 
CBD, another prominent cannabinoid. Florida last month joined 
Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah 
and Wisconsin to enact restrictive, CBD-only medical marijuana laws.

The problem is that some of these programs are aimed at one 
particular disease, specifically the rare epilepsy disorder that is 
calmed by "Charlotte's Web", a high-CBD strain featured in Sanjay 
Gupta's CNN Weed specials. Although that's a start, only a low 
percentage of patients need that particular strain. Many who use 
cannabis for other ailments won't be helped by low-THC strains.

Tests and research indicate that hybrid strains that include THC and 
CBD (and other of the 85 cannabinoids) work better for those 
contending with multiple sclerosis, pain and nausea. And though the 
federal government doesn't accept medical cannabis, it has approved a 
synthetic THC pill called Marinol. The jury is still out on whether 
it works as well as cannabis itself.

I don't generally use the cannabis/alcohol analogy, but it applies 
here. People who change their consciousness with alcohol (or coffee, 
or prescription drugs) and want to restrict others from changing 
theirs with THC are the worst of hypocrites, especially since the 
scientific evidence continues to prove that alcohol is far more 
dangerous than cannabis.

Even if you believe that medical cannabis is a ruse to push 
legalization, millions of people around the country are using it to 
alleviate symptoms of various ailments, and whether they smoke it, 
eat it or vaporize it, if it works for them, why should anyone else care?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom