T
The420Guy
Guest
If a proposed bill passes, people in Missouri would have the right to use
marijuana if they've exhausted the use of pain relief medicine for the
effects of cancer, glaucoma, AIDS and other diseases.
The bill to legalize marijuana for such patients was introduced March 13 in
the Missouri House of Representatives and is awaiting further discussion.
It would acknowledge marijuana as acceptable for medical use in Missouri by
classifying the drug as a Schedule II Substance, lowering it from its
current Schedule I classification, which prohibits using it as medicine by
the Drug Enforcement Administration in 42 states.
"I've spoken and heard from numerous people for whom the drug works," said
Rep. Vicki Walker, R-Kansas City and sponsor of the bill. "For most of
these patients, this is the last thing they try because it is illegal."
Addiction to the active agent in marijuana, THC, is a point of debate, said
Stanley Watson, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan.
"There are no convincing studies that marijuana is very addicting," Watson
said. "Of course it is possible that a patient might like the brain effects
and decide to keep using it."
Watson and a team of professors and doctors from around the country
reviewed scientific evidence of using THC and marijuana as medicine and
published their findings in 1999 under the Institute of Medicine.
"There's fairly little good clinical information about actual cannabis
compound being used for medical treatment," Watson said. "What's really
missing is good organized data. It needs more study."
Yet Watson said there's no reliable data to support the idea that marijuana
is bad medical treatment. The drug relieves pain and provides symptom
relief for some people, he said. However, he said marijuana might take a
toll on health because smoking it is similar to smoking tobacco, he said.
"Do I know of anything that marijuana is good at that other medicines
aren't? Not really," Watson said. "Maybe the way out of this is not to be
testing marijuana itself but chemical compounds."
The Food and Drug Administration's rules for medical treatment, which don't
accept marijuana as a legitimate treatment, make a base for drug use rules
in most countries around the world, said Will Glaspy, spokesman for the DEA.
"The question that needs to be asked is, are we going to abandon that
system for a system that is based essentially on the ideas of lobbyists,"
Glaspy said.
Glaspy said reports on studies of marijuana done by the IOM and American
Medical Association are usually twisted by marijuana initiative lobbyists,
whose goal is legalization of all drugs.
But that isn't Walker's reason for sponsoring the bill, she said.
"For me," Walker said, "this bill is a humanitarian bill that only seeks to
help ease the pain of so many who cannot get relief elsewhere."
The bill is currently in a health committee but not on the committee's
calendar for discussion.
In Columbia, a proposition on the ballot for the April 8 municipal
elections would decriminalize the use of marijuana for medical reasons.
Pubdate: Tue, 01 Apr 2003
Source: Maneater, The (Columbia, MO Edu)
Copyright: 2003 The Maneater
Contact: forum@themaneater.com
Website: The Maneater
marijuana if they've exhausted the use of pain relief medicine for the
effects of cancer, glaucoma, AIDS and other diseases.
The bill to legalize marijuana for such patients was introduced March 13 in
the Missouri House of Representatives and is awaiting further discussion.
It would acknowledge marijuana as acceptable for medical use in Missouri by
classifying the drug as a Schedule II Substance, lowering it from its
current Schedule I classification, which prohibits using it as medicine by
the Drug Enforcement Administration in 42 states.
"I've spoken and heard from numerous people for whom the drug works," said
Rep. Vicki Walker, R-Kansas City and sponsor of the bill. "For most of
these patients, this is the last thing they try because it is illegal."
Addiction to the active agent in marijuana, THC, is a point of debate, said
Stanley Watson, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan.
"There are no convincing studies that marijuana is very addicting," Watson
said. "Of course it is possible that a patient might like the brain effects
and decide to keep using it."
Watson and a team of professors and doctors from around the country
reviewed scientific evidence of using THC and marijuana as medicine and
published their findings in 1999 under the Institute of Medicine.
"There's fairly little good clinical information about actual cannabis
compound being used for medical treatment," Watson said. "What's really
missing is good organized data. It needs more study."
Yet Watson said there's no reliable data to support the idea that marijuana
is bad medical treatment. The drug relieves pain and provides symptom
relief for some people, he said. However, he said marijuana might take a
toll on health because smoking it is similar to smoking tobacco, he said.
"Do I know of anything that marijuana is good at that other medicines
aren't? Not really," Watson said. "Maybe the way out of this is not to be
testing marijuana itself but chemical compounds."
The Food and Drug Administration's rules for medical treatment, which don't
accept marijuana as a legitimate treatment, make a base for drug use rules
in most countries around the world, said Will Glaspy, spokesman for the DEA.
"The question that needs to be asked is, are we going to abandon that
system for a system that is based essentially on the ideas of lobbyists,"
Glaspy said.
Glaspy said reports on studies of marijuana done by the IOM and American
Medical Association are usually twisted by marijuana initiative lobbyists,
whose goal is legalization of all drugs.
But that isn't Walker's reason for sponsoring the bill, she said.
"For me," Walker said, "this bill is a humanitarian bill that only seeks to
help ease the pain of so many who cannot get relief elsewhere."
The bill is currently in a health committee but not on the committee's
calendar for discussion.
In Columbia, a proposition on the ballot for the April 8 municipal
elections would decriminalize the use of marijuana for medical reasons.
Pubdate: Tue, 01 Apr 2003
Source: Maneater, The (Columbia, MO Edu)
Copyright: 2003 The Maneater
Contact: forum@themaneater.com
Website: The Maneater
