Recently, both California and Arizona took the long needed initiative and approved the
use of marijuana for medical purposes. The California bill says that patients may use
marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. It does not, however, allow doctors to
prescribe the drug. Arizona voters passed a bill that swings out even further to the
left than California's. Voters in Arizona think that people should be able to use any
illicit drug for bona fide medical purposes. A recommendation by two doctors is enough
to warrant a prescription. Unfortunately, the bills passed in both states are terribly
vague and are destined to be abused.
Legalization of marijuana for medical purposes is a step in the right direction, but
California and Arizona are going about it the wrong way. The chemical in marijuana that
has medicinal benifits is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Studies have shown that
marijuana can ease pain, relieve nausea, and generally relax a person. Marijuana is
cheap and easy to produce, so if legalized, it would be plentiful and probably widely
used. The problem is that there are as many harmful effects from smoking marijuana as
there are benefits. It slows reflexes, dulls the brain, and sometimes causes
hallucinations and/or cancer. There's no mystery about why it is illegal in most parts
of the world... including the U.S.
There is a simple solution that is not being discussed by the hard-headed bureaucracy.
THC is easily removed from the plant and could be administered as medicine in pill form.
What a novel idea! No... actually it isn't novel at all. Many other forms of illegal
drugs are dispensed as medicine is this manner. Steroids (Cortizone, Prednizone and
others) and opiates, namely codeine and morphine, are prescribed regularly to patients
for pain relief. Of course the doctors don't dispense poppy seeds or cocaine, the drug
comes in a pill. The amount of the drug is carefully regulated to prevent most side
effects but to still have the medicinal qualities. THC would be just as easy to put in
pill form, plus it has an important advantage over many other pain relieving drugs; THC
is not adictive. Abuse of Tylenol 3 with Codeine? is a very rare occurrence, even though
it can become addictive. Therefore, the abuse of a doctor prescribed THC pill would be
even less common.
The solution of putting THC in a pill has not been suggested before because it doesn't
satisfy the ultimate goal of either side of the debate. Those who are for legalization,
such as Ethan Nadelman, the director of an institute that promotes deregulation of
illicit drugs, are using medicine as an excuse to get marijuana legalized for
recreational purposes. Those against legalization know the motives of people like
Nadelman and are worried that any relaxation of the law will lead to more deregulation.
The compromise of putting THC in a pill should partially satisfy both extremes of the
argument. It should also eliminate concern that legalization of marijuana for medical
purposes will lead to the legalization of other illicit drugs. Marijuana would remain
illegal but THC could be legalized in a manner that makes it very hard to abuse. Those
who want marijuana legalized are using medicinal purposes as the backbone of their
argument. This is the medicine they asked for. The drug would be available only by
prescription, so it could be used only by people who legitimately need it.
Why forgo a valuable medical resource because the abuse of that resource is illegal?
This type of ultra conservative thinking would eliminate most of the medications on the
market today. No more cough syrup, it has alcohol in it. Robitussin? is out of the
question. There are enough opiates in a bottle to kill someone. Proponents of the
legalization of marijuana are not really arguing over the legalization of the drug as a
medicine. They want marijuana to be completely legalized. On the other hand, the status
quo and red tape are keeping a perfectly good medicine off the market. A little less
convention and a little more compromise would calm the uproar about legalization of
marijuana.
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