Pubdate: Wed, 24 Sep 2014
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2014 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/mVLAxQfA
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159

'PILL MILL' LESSONS CAN INFORM MARIJUANA DEBATE

Chances are you didn't attend the medical marijuana debate hosted 
last week by state Sen. Eleanor Sobel at Broward College's campus in 
Pembroke Pines. Few people did.

Had you been there, you would have heard the questions that surround 
the push to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes - as proposed 
in a state constitutional amendment facing voters in November.

For example, is medical pot really about helping the sick, or is it 
about legalizing marijuana for just about anything, as Javier 
Correoso of Drug Free Florida maintains?

The biggest loophole, he argues, is that the amendment language not 
only allows doctors to prescribe marijuana for debilitating diseases 
- - such as cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis - but also "other 
conditions." He says the latter will turn Florida into another 
California, where just about anyone with a hangnail qualifies for a 
medical pot prescription and dispensaries seem to outnumber actual weeds.

But as amendment supporter Ben Pollara argued, the Florida Supreme 
Court determined the language was aimed solely at debilitating 
diseases and would not allow the drug to be prescribed for other purposes.

There's risk, no question, in Florida's proposition to legalize 
medical marijuana. There's a chance some doctors will prescribe the 
drug in ways not intended. We saw that happen with pill mills, where 
unscrupulous doctors overprescribed narcotic pain medications to 
addicts for one simple reason: the almighty dollar. So, yes, there's 
a chance some doctors will similarly be motivated to overprescribe 
medical marijuana.

Still, there are ways to manage risk. We see it now in Tallahassee, 
where state regulators are writing the rules for who can grow the 
non-euphoric strand of marijuana, called Charlotte's Web, which 
lawmakers legalized this year because it helps children who suffer 
certain types of seizures.

If regulators were able to write the rules that shut down pill mills 
and throw unscrupulous doctors in prison, surely they can write rules 
that would keep unscrupulous doctors from overprescribing medical marijuana.

For in addition to the risk, there's an upside.

People facing the nauseating effects of chemotherapy say they get 
relief from smokable marijuana, better than the pill version of its 
active ingredient, THC. Also, people with multiple sclerosis say they 
get relief from nerve pain by smoking marijuana. And consider what 
reader Philip Curcio of Boca Raton recently wrote us to say:

"I have a condition for which there is no known cause and no known 
cure. Those of us with polymyalgia rheumatica take varied medications 
to help us move our hands, arms and legs every day. Some mornings, I 
cannot make a fist to wash my face, pour a cup of coffee. A lot of 
the medications for this condition have annoying side effects. A 
physician I visited initially said that more relief - and a quicker 
remission and recovery - can be attained with medical marijuana.

"Considering the pain and limitations I experience every day, I'd be 
willing to try something natural to get me to a point where this 
condition would vanish. I need to support my family."

Nobody is looking to create a system that leads to abuse, 
recreational use or use by minors, as critics fear.

"This is about getting medicine, getting relief to sick Floridians. 
Period. End of story," Pollara said.

Polls say about seven out of 10 Florida voters agree that seriously 
ill people should be able to turn to marijuana if it can provide relief.

So rather than shut the door on those who desperately seek relief, 
let us learn a lesson from the pill mills and if this measure passes, 
get the regulations right.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom