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To explain why he has used medical marijuana in the past, Terry Bradley on Wednesday held up a hand missing two fingers. The injuries, he said, were sustained from abuse as a child.
Using marijuana, said Bradley, has helped him cope with the pain of his injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder that resulted.
"Pot has saved my life," Bradley said prior to a rally at the State House before a legislative hearing on the issue. "It has made my life better."
That was a theme other medical marijuana advocates sounded at the rally and during testimony before the House Health Committee. But opponents, who spoke during the hourlong hearing, said making medical marijuana available could have unforeseen consequences for the state.
Randall Hillman, the executive director of the Alabama District Attorneys' Association, said authorizing medical marijuana meant the state would have to ensure that only medical patients get it and also would have to authorize areas to grow marijuana. Hillman also said creating a marijuana market would invite crime into the state.
"(Mexican) cartels have ramped up their efforts in Alabama," he said. "If you do this, you are creating the market."
Legislators made it clear that medical marijuana legislation was unlikely to pass the Legislature.
"There are a relatively small number of people (in Alabama) who are pro-medical marijuana, and many more against marijuana," said Rep. Jim McClendon, R-Springville, the chairman of the committee. McClendon said he found it unlikely any legislation on the matter would get out of his committee. "I certainly don't see it surviving a vote on the House floor," he added.
Proponents of medical marijuana said they were prepared for that. Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, who has introduced medical marijuana legislation in each regular session of the Legislature since 2008, said advocates were doing "missionary work" in a difficult field.
"It's not easy in Alabama," Todd said.
She added that medical marijuana advocates were not looking to legalize the drug but to give physicians "another tool in their medical tool kit."
Medical marijuana is legal in 18 states; Connecticut and Massachusetts approved the measure in votes Nov. 6. A medical marijuana proposal that was on Arkansas' ballot failed, but it got nearly 49 percent of the vote.
A number of opponents noted the Food and Drug Administration had not approved marijuana for medical purposes and expressed concerns about an unregulated product being dispensed in Alabama. Michael Flanagan, a physician based in Dothan and president-elect of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, told the committee he saw "insufficient evidence" to allow the use of cannabis for health care.
"As a pain physician, I have not seen a need to include marijuana in a pain reduction plan," he said.
Jeanne Arnold, a resident of Muscle Shoals, said she lost her granddaughter in an accident in 2010. The driver of the other car, she said, later was found to have been using marijuana. Arnold said she wanted marijuana restricted to prevent other families from going through "what my family has gone through."
"These drugs have not been through FDA," she said. "If it's about medicine, put them through (clinical) trials."
The FDA argument was rejected by Christopher Butts, co-president of the Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition.
"The FDA approved Vioxx, and that killed 20,000 people before it was pulled off the market," he said.
Butts, who suffered a spinal compression injury in 1992, said he was addicted to prescription painkillers for five years – an addiction, he said, that ruined his marriage. Butts said he consumes three cannabis cookies a day to help with his pain.
"Three cookies a day is better than three or four Oxycontins a day," he said.
Other speakers said taking prescription drugs left them with adverse side effects, or left them immobilized, or robbed them of any quality of life. Ron Crumpton, the executive director of the Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition, said he had once taken 28 pills a day, many with adverse side effects, to combat a host of ailments. He said he had better pain management smoking four 1-gram marijuana cigarettes each day.
Crumpton said he was "not surprised" by the skepticism from the legislative panel, but said his group had the support of at least 15,000 people.
"We're just going to keep pushing hard," he said.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: montgomeryadvertiser.com
Author: Brian Lyman
Using marijuana, said Bradley, has helped him cope with the pain of his injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder that resulted.
"Pot has saved my life," Bradley said prior to a rally at the State House before a legislative hearing on the issue. "It has made my life better."
That was a theme other medical marijuana advocates sounded at the rally and during testimony before the House Health Committee. But opponents, who spoke during the hourlong hearing, said making medical marijuana available could have unforeseen consequences for the state.
Randall Hillman, the executive director of the Alabama District Attorneys' Association, said authorizing medical marijuana meant the state would have to ensure that only medical patients get it and also would have to authorize areas to grow marijuana. Hillman also said creating a marijuana market would invite crime into the state.
"(Mexican) cartels have ramped up their efforts in Alabama," he said. "If you do this, you are creating the market."
Legislators made it clear that medical marijuana legislation was unlikely to pass the Legislature.
"There are a relatively small number of people (in Alabama) who are pro-medical marijuana, and many more against marijuana," said Rep. Jim McClendon, R-Springville, the chairman of the committee. McClendon said he found it unlikely any legislation on the matter would get out of his committee. "I certainly don't see it surviving a vote on the House floor," he added.
Proponents of medical marijuana said they were prepared for that. Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, who has introduced medical marijuana legislation in each regular session of the Legislature since 2008, said advocates were doing "missionary work" in a difficult field.
"It's not easy in Alabama," Todd said.
She added that medical marijuana advocates were not looking to legalize the drug but to give physicians "another tool in their medical tool kit."
Medical marijuana is legal in 18 states; Connecticut and Massachusetts approved the measure in votes Nov. 6. A medical marijuana proposal that was on Arkansas' ballot failed, but it got nearly 49 percent of the vote.
A number of opponents noted the Food and Drug Administration had not approved marijuana for medical purposes and expressed concerns about an unregulated product being dispensed in Alabama. Michael Flanagan, a physician based in Dothan and president-elect of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, told the committee he saw "insufficient evidence" to allow the use of cannabis for health care.
"As a pain physician, I have not seen a need to include marijuana in a pain reduction plan," he said.
Jeanne Arnold, a resident of Muscle Shoals, said she lost her granddaughter in an accident in 2010. The driver of the other car, she said, later was found to have been using marijuana. Arnold said she wanted marijuana restricted to prevent other families from going through "what my family has gone through."
"These drugs have not been through FDA," she said. "If it's about medicine, put them through (clinical) trials."
The FDA argument was rejected by Christopher Butts, co-president of the Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition.
"The FDA approved Vioxx, and that killed 20,000 people before it was pulled off the market," he said.
Butts, who suffered a spinal compression injury in 1992, said he was addicted to prescription painkillers for five years – an addiction, he said, that ruined his marriage. Butts said he consumes three cannabis cookies a day to help with his pain.
"Three cookies a day is better than three or four Oxycontins a day," he said.
Other speakers said taking prescription drugs left them with adverse side effects, or left them immobilized, or robbed them of any quality of life. Ron Crumpton, the executive director of the Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition, said he had once taken 28 pills a day, many with adverse side effects, to combat a host of ailments. He said he had better pain management smoking four 1-gram marijuana cigarettes each day.
Crumpton said he was "not surprised" by the skepticism from the legislative panel, but said his group had the support of at least 15,000 people.
"We're just going to keep pushing hard," he said.
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: montgomeryadvertiser.com
Author: Brian Lyman
