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HYSTERIA ABOUT MARIJUANA

Editor - In July, 1997, the British Medical Association called for the rescheduling of marijuana so doctors could prescribe it and research it. 

Though there is argument that modern medicine should not resort to smoked leaves, Health Canada's director recently stated that "Marijuana as a medicine is not an outlandish proposition."

The hysteria of prohibition in the U.S.  has stifled virtually all therapeutic research.  Only after Proposition 215 passed in California did the government reluctantly lift the ban.  Last month, published research proved a marijuana metabolite is remarkably effective in reducing inflammation and swelling in acute and chronic arthritic conditions. 

Last November, research was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience documenting specifically how marijuana stimulates the same area in the brain that morphine uses to kill pain but uses a completely different biochemical mechanism without the side effects of tolerance, dependence, withdrawal and nausea. 

One example of Oklahoma's war on sick people is William Foster, 38, of Tulsa, a husband and father of three children, who suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis.  For growing 60 plants in a locked bomb shelter in his basement, he received a 93-year sentence on a first offense. 

After one year of prison medical care, Will's left leg has ulcerated, and his handwriting has become almost unreadable.  His children suffer nightmares of the bust and their high grades have plummetted. 

Another example is Jimmy Montgomery, 44, of Sayre, a paraplegic who testified last month before investigative hearings at the Institute of Medicine.  He was sentenced to life plus 16 years first time offense for possessing two ounces of marijuana with intent to distribute.  A lack of medical attention led to his medical parole and to the amputation of his leg.  In both cases, a medical defense was not allowed by law. 

The Drug Policy Foundation is supported in its advocacy of harm reduction techniques ( including needle exchange ) by a consensus of the board of the American Medical Association as editorialized in JAMA, ["Winds of Change in American Drug Policy," Sept.  17, 1997]. 

The DPF membership was quite large and active long before Soros helped fund our efforts two years ago and consists of judicial, law enforcement, health, education and other professionals and individuals who believe that the harm reduction methods of control through regulation is preferable to harm maximization ( zero-tolerance ). 

Harm reduction removes marijuana from the black marketplace ( the only documentable gateway to hard drugs ) and licenses adults to sell only to adults in regulated package stores as is hard alcohol.  By providing certified addiction clinics and specialists who could prescribe clean known potency drugs at non-hyperinflated prices, addicts making up 80 percent of black market customers would be stolen. 

According to Milton Friedman, a Republican Nobel Laureate in economics and member of the DPF, this would drastically reduce robbery, prostitution and sales to minors, break the back of the black market and its associated violence, and relieve our justice system and prisons.  If an addict committed a violent act, he would be incarcerated.  The message sent to children, as it is now for morphine and other drugs, is that sick people get treated, embracing humane and Christian principles. 

Recently, the Swiss voted by 71 percent to continue a three-year heroin medicalization program.  Ueli Minder, a policy coordinator for the Swiss Federal Office of Public Helath, is firm that this policy has drastically reduced not only property and other petty crimes, but also violent crimes and is a huge success. 

Under current policy, children can obtain marijuana much easier than beer.  The same is rapidly becoming true of heroin.  Our justice system is broken, drug use is increasing, drug trafficking is booming.  Our policies are putting money into the pockets of greedy men while placing our children in the path of the jaws of justice.  The only way to kill the market that uses our children to sell to children is to take control through regulation. 

Michael Pearson, Registered Pharmacist Oklahoma City