Pubdate: Wed, 02 Sep 2015
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2015 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Linda Valdez

IS POT FOR PARTIES OR PRESCRIPTIONS?

Marijuana is either a harmless recreational high or a valuable medicine.

Or both. Or neither.

We don't really know. But we are being asked to make major policy 
choices anyway.

A proposal to add to the list of approved uses for medical marijuana 
includes eight new conditions, from arthritis and Autism to 
Tourette's syndrome and traumatic brain injury.

Why stop there? Let's just say it's a tonic for whatever ails you.

OK. Some people may benefit from medical marijuana, but official 
numbers on who uses it make me skeptical.

Of the nearly 80,000 people with state-issued medical marijuana 
cards, more than 70 percent listed severe and chronic pain as the 
condition that qualifies them to use pot. Most cardholders were male 
and the biggest single group of users were between 18 and 30 years 
old, according to the Department of Health Services.

All that youthful pain was treatable under Arizona law with up to 2 
1/2 ounces of pot every two weeks, for a total of 9.14 metric tons of 
marijuana sold for medicinal purposes last year.

As we used to say in the Hippie times: Wow, man.

I know people who feel their anxiety, pain or nausea is eased by 
marijuana. For them, the side effects of using pot might be less than 
from some more potent and habit-forming pharmaceuticals.

"Voters will again make a big policy choice (on marijuana) based on 
thin evidence that consists of scare stories from one side and 
feel-good assurances from the other." Linda Valdez

The difference is that the pharmaceuticals come from a drug store. 
They have been through rigorous testing. They are standardized. They 
have set dosages.

Federal law made it difficult to do research on marijuana, so we lack 
information.

Members of the Arizona Cannabis Nurses Association have peer-reviewed 
studies to support their petition to add to the list of conditions 
that quality for medical marijuana. But those studies are not what 
the FDA requires before approving new drugs.

Last year, the nurses group successfully fought to get PTSD added to 
the list of conditions approved for medical marijuana.

Now the group wants to add the four conditions mentioned earlier, as 
well as Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, diabetes and 
neuropathic pain.

It is cruel to deny sufferers any relief they could get - especially 
when pot is widely available to all those young people in chronic 
pain. If marijuana helps sick people, they should have it. But it 
should be seen as an herbal remedy. Chamomile with a kick.

Medical marijuana is a strategy to legitimize full legalization. I 
may wind up supporting legalization. I don't support the strategy.

It's unwise to dumb-down what it means to be a medicine.

After all, you are not supposed hand out your doctor-prescribed pain 
pills at a party.

Yet even as the state is being asked to expand medical use of 
marijuana based on research that falls short of what's required for 
other medicines, there's a push to legalize pot for recreational use.

If the measure gets to the ballot in 2016 as expected, voters will 
again make a big policy choice based on thin evidence that consists 
of scare stories from one side and feel-good assurances from the other.

Unfortunately, that's how we do things when it comes to marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom