California’s experience is instructive. With the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, that state authorized patients with doctor-issued identification cards to grow or possess specific amounts of marijuana for medical use.
Sadly, that system has been widely abused. Storefront pot dispensaries with names like OMG Collective or Happy Meds resemble hippie crash pads more than pharmacies. Other so-called clinics hand out the ID cards for cash. One TV station sent healthy undercover agents into one such clinic; they walked out with pot cards for such ailments as hair loss, dry skin and, in one preposterous case, pain from wearing high heels.
“I don’t have to talk to you, dude!” a pipe-puffing, alleged doctor told reporters outside one such clinic.
While any legal drug can be abused, the current system governing the approval and distribution of pharmaceuticals at least has some safeguards.
To be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a drug must undergo several phases of rigorously monitored, double-blind clinical trials where patient populations of increasing size are either given the experimental drug or a harmless placebo.
Results are then compared between the two groups, and data is published in scientific journals and reviewed by federal authorities. Only after a drug is certified as safe and effective can it be prescribed by physicians.
Even then, drugs can only be sold through licensed pharmacies, with ever-increasing levels of scrutiny for those drugs with the potential for addiction and abuse.
If medical marijuana is ever made legal, it should undergo that same multistage testing process and be dispensed through normal pharmacies with a doctor’s prescription. While there have been some clinical trials concerning the use of tetrahydrocannabinol (the psychoactive ingredient in pot) in a number of illnesses, there is no conclusive evidence that it is widely effective or better than existing medications.
For example, one of the conditions cited in the proposed Oklahoma bill is Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel condition. As a lifelong Crohn’s patient, I know that it is treated with anti-inflammatory medications and drugs that dial down the immune system since Crohn’s is an autoimmune disease.
Getting stoned might help you forget you have it, but pot is unlikely to offer any meaningful therapeutic value. In fact, a bad case of the munchies could make your Crohn’s worse.
If pot is a drug, let’s test and evaluate it scientifically. Then, and only then, it should be made available in pill or liquid form through legitimate medical channels. Any other approach is too open to abuse.
Brake was chief writer for former Gov. Frank Keating and former U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin.
This is obviously the opinion of some one that has been brainwashed by the propaganda of Harry Enslinger and has failed to receive the modern science now available. The web site PubMed offers 22,000 studies and their findings confirming the medical benefits found in cannabis.
Our own U.S. Government owns a patent # 6,630,507 that clearly points to many medicinal uses for cannabis.
You cannot have it both ways.
Marinol, is a fairly new drug that has already been proven to cause overdoses leading to death. Marinol is a compound of synthetic chemicals produced to mimic the PSYCHO ACTIVE cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant called (Tetrahydrocannabinol) or THC. THC is but one of the 60 cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant. There is simply no way to single out one cannabinoid then produce it synthetically and reasonably expect the same medical benefits.
You cannot compare opium to cannabis, opium in raw form or prescribed pharmaceutical graded is extremely easy to overdose from and extremely physically addictive. This kind of thinking is what has created the epidemic of drug addictions resulting in nearly 800 deaths per year in Oklahoma alone. Just because it is a prescribed pharmaceutical does not mean it is safe. If pharmaceuticals were safe 800 people would not die each year in this state nor would we have dozens of class action law suits against these "safe" pharmaceutical drugs. This is a FALSE sense of security due to highly organized advertisements from well financed pharmaceutical companies. Brainwashing.
Read the abstract of this US Patent Held by The US Government via the US Dept. of Health & Human Services at this web link below.
http://www.rm3.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/US6630507-Hampson-USDHHS-Antioxidants.pdf
Mike, why is it that everyone who has their photograph taken for the commentary is smiling, but you choose the tact of looking like you've got a wooden spoon jammed up your keister?
Might I add that it's hilarious that someone who takes a conservative tact about everything would seem to actually be suggesting the GOVERNMENT regulate another aspect of our lives. You'd think that the part of you that hates big brother telling you what to do would champion an individual's right to do whatever they want to their own body. After all, I'm sure you wouldn't be a fan if the government reinstated prohibition. Alcohol has proven to be far more destructive than pot. Heck, pot is as pure a substance as one can get. All other drugs require refinement or tweeking (even alcohol). By this merit alone one could argue it's a substance created by God, not man, and thus is good. I have prescribed medications that I feel are more harmful than marijuana, so forgive me for not believing the government has my interest at heart when approving medications.