FLAWED, BUT NOT FATALLY To hear Gov. Bill Owens tell it, Amendment 20, the "Medical Marijuana Initiative," is really just a sort of "Drug Dealers' Full Employment Act." That's going overboard, but Owens and the group Coloradans Against Legalizing Marijuana do have a legitimate point: The initiative all but assures that, at least for first-time users, the source of the drug will be illegal dealers. So we agree that the amendment is not particularly well-crafted. But in all their drug-war inspired bluster (Owens has declared that the initiative will not pass "in Colorado not on my watch...") opponents forget that despite flaws, the measure's simply about compassion. The amendment would decriminalize the use of marijuana for patients suffering from diseases some terminal such as cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma. It would allow patients who have received a physician's authorization to register with the state to possess and use up to six plants or two ounces of the herb. Patients would not be able to use the drug in public places or operate a vehicle, and employers would not have to accommodate its use in the workplace. Patients could use their registered status to avoid criminal prosecution for use and possession, but would be subject to laws against distributing the drug to others. The measure's major flaw is that it doesn't even address the question of distribution. Unless patients happened to stumble upon a wild cannabis plant in a ditch somewhere, they would have to make their initial acquisition illegally, since even marijuana seeds are banned under federal law. Presumably thereafter a patient could avoid this awkward situation by growing his or her own plants. Opponents, which include the American Medical Association and the Colorado Medical Society, also point out that smoking marijuana carries its own health risks, and that regulated medication containing a synthetic version of marijuana's active ingredient, THC, is available by prescription. But proponents note that the drug does not have to be smoked: It can be inhaled as a vapor, eaten or drunk as a tea. They argue that condemning the drug because of a delivery system is a bit like saying patients shouldn't receive intravenous morphine because that's how junkies take heroin. And for those suffering severe nausea and vomiting, using THC in pill form obviously would be a challenge. Owens and others claim that "marijuana isn't medicine," but the Institute of Medicine has reported that marijuana can be effective for the relief of some symptoms, and the New England Journal of Medicine has editorialized in favor of using the drug in certain situations. An expert panel at the National Institutes of Health has concluded that marijuana can relieve the nausea associated with chemotherapy, increase the appetites of AIDS patients and relieve painful pressure caused by muscle tumors and glaucoma. Ultimately, it's hard to deny that this is something of a "message" initiative, and that many of its proponents support the general legalization of marijuana. But the amendment, flawed as it is, is sufficiently limited that those who fear full-blown legalization need not fret. And how much danger is there, really, in letting a terminal cancer patient ease his or her symptoms? Rather than "send the wrong message" to children, the amendment would actually clarify that marijuana is a real drug, and not to be trifled with. And who among us really wants to see an AIDS patient dragged from his or her home by police simply for trying to ease the pain and symptoms of the disease? We urge a vote of Yes on Amendment 20.
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