Merciful or menacing?Groups argue over proposal to legalize medical use of marijuana
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Kalamazoo
BY ROBYN ROSENTHAL

Special to the Gazette

KALAMAZOO -- If it were just about the science -- and not the politics -- states would allow marijuana for medical purposes, says a leading researcher who was the first to report the drug's effectiveness in treating Lou Gehrig's disease.

``There is actually an overwhelming abundance of evidence to support the medical efficacy of cannabinoids, the active ingredients in marijuana. There is more evidence (of their effectiveness) than there is for many prescription drugs,'' said Dr. Gregory Carter, of the University of Washington School of Medicine, where he co-directs the Muscular Dystrophy Association-Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) Clinic.

On Nov. 4, Michigan voters will decide on a ballot proposal that would allow some severely ill patients to use marijuana.

Some patients with pain, nausea and other symptoms could use marijuana as a treatment. If voters pass the initiative, Michigan would become the 15th state -- and the first in the Midwest -- to have some kind of medical-marijuana law.

Supporters of Proposal 1 say the initiative would give relief without fear of arrest to people suffering from debilitating diseases.

Difficulties

Opponents say there are synthetic prescription drugs that offer some of the same benefits as marijuana. Citizens Protecting Michigan's Kids, which opposes the initiative, said the proposal could lead to increased teen drug use and hinder police efforts to fight drugs.

Voter passage of the measure would remove state-level penalties for registered patients using marijuana. But the proposal includes no provision to provide access to the drug through the state or pharmacies, and sale of the drug would remain a felony, even to legal users. Supporters hope users would grow their own plants, but in the interim until harvest, the marijuana would have to be bought on the street.

`The unintended consequences (of the initiative) are too grave and too severe,'' said Appeals Court Judge Bill Schuette, who helped form Citizens Protecting Michigan's Kids. ``I'm a judge. This proposal is a doozy.''

Pros and cons

The law would allow people with debilitating diseases, such as cancer, glaucoma, AIDS and Alzheimer's disease or those with severe or chronic pain, seizures, nausea and other ailments approved by the state, to grow, possess and use limited amounts of marijuana. The users would need approval from medical doctors, have identification cards and be entered into a registry.

``I can tell you that, as a physician and researcher specializing in the care of patients with severe neuromuscular diseases, including (Lou Gehrig's disease), marijuana works in ways no other medicines do to help these people, being both a safe and effective medicine,'' Carter said.

Others aren't convinced.

``They're treating it like a panacea that everybody is waiting for, and it's not so,'' said state Sen. Tom George, a Republican from Texas Township who is also a physician. George opposes the measure.

George, an anesthesiologist, said a synthetic drug called dronabinol (the commercial name is Marinol) offers benefits similar to those of marijuana.

He said marijuana has many properties not completely known, which could be hazardous to patients. Because patients would be allowed to grow their own marijuana, the drug's purity would not be guaranteed, he said. Neither would it be possible to ensure proper dosage, which could result in overdoses.

Carter said users have found dronabinol too sedating. He also said there has never been a reported overdose of marijuana or dronabinol in humans.

``It's pathetically simple to dose,'' Carter said.

Groups take sides



More organizations are supporting medicinal marijuana -- or at least urging government support of additional research on the drug.

The American College of Physicians, the second-largest medical society in the United States, is calling for an evidence-based review to determine whether marijuana's classification should be relaxed. The group also argues that all physicians who prescribe medical marijuana and their patients should not face criminal and civil penalties -- regardless state laws.

Former U.S. Surgeon Generals Joycelyn Elders and Jesse Steinfeld have publicly endorsed the medical use of marijuana.

Statewide, however, many health and law-enforcement groups have come out against Proposal 1, including the Michigan State Medical Society and Prosecuting Attorney's Association.

Dianne Byrum, spokeswoman for the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care, an advocacy group that gathered signatures to put the question on the November ballot, said the law would apply to a small percentage of the state's population, perhaps less than half of 1 percent, or about 50,000 people.

``The reality is, they're getting it now,'' Byrum said of people using marijuana for medical reasons. ``This gives them protection against arrest and prosecution.''

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies are focused on battling large-scale drug-trafficking operations, not small-scale users, said spokesman Rich Isaacson, of the DEA's Detroit office. Medical-marijuana users typically would not be targeted by the DEA, he said.

Not a first

If voters approve the marijuana initiative, it wouldn't be Michigan's first law allowing the drug for medical purposes.

In 1979, the Legislature passed a bill that allowed cancer and glaucoma patients to participate in a federal program that made it legal for those patients to purchase marijuana for therapeutic reasons.

Greg Francisco, who is spearheading the local campaign to pass Proposal 1, said the 1979 law allowed patients to use only federally cultivated marijuana. Francisco said the program ended after about two years because the federal supply was inadequate. He said about 300 people were enrolled in the program.

``The research is there. It works,'' Francisco said of medical marijuana.

Francisco is a former Bloomingdale Public Schools counselor who resigned from his job in 2006 after he was charged with marijuana possession. The charge was later dropped. Francisco now operates a wool mill.

Five Michigan cities have medical-marijuana ordinances. Law-enforcement officials in two of those communities, Flint and Ann Arbor -- similar in size to Kalamazoo -- said they have not had complaints about medical marijuana since their laws went into effect.

Voters in Flint approved the medical-marijuana ordinance in 2007; Ann Arbor voters passed a similar law in 2004.

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