POT PROPAGANDA

Science, Not Politics, Should Drive California's Drug Policy

With all of the talk about medical marijuana dispensaries in
California, it is hard to separate truth and science from ideology and
dogma.

In recent years, marijuana activists in the state have donned white
coats and exclaimed a newfound concern for the seriously ill, while
legislators and judges have been left to wrestle with the consequences
of a poorly written referendum, Prop. 215. Known as the Compassionate
Use Act of 1996, it allowed patients with a valid doctor's
recommendation to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal medical
use.

Unfortunately, Prop. 215 has nothing to do with the sick and dying, as
a simple reading of its text reveals. It says marijuana can be legally
recommended for "any illness for which marijuana provides relief."

Rampant Fraud

This has led to a multimillion-dollar, state-sanctioned
drug-distribution industry, resulting in a substantial increase in
medical fraud (the drug has been recommended for everything from
hangnails to fatigue to reduced sex drive), "medical marijuana" use by
minors and increased local crime.

Medical marijuana dispensaries mask as havens for the sick, when in
reality they serve as city-condoned centers for drug use.

That is why scores of California localities, such as San Pablo, San
Rafael, Concord, Dublin, Fremont, Livermore, Newark and Pleasanton,
and to the south, San Diego, San Marcos, Anaheim, Oxnard, Rancho
Cucamonga, Norco, Hemet, Fontana, Murrieta, Temecula, Colton and Chino
(among others) have come out with a ban on such dispensaries.

They should be commended.

A 2007 expose by "60 Minutes" revealed just how easy it is to obtain
marijuana - "sick" or not. So it is also not surprising that the Food
and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association and the
renowned Mayo Clinic have come out against smoked marijuana as a
so-called medicine.

A landmark study almost 10 years ago, conducted by the Institute of
Medicine, said, "Smoked marijuana should generally not be recommended
for ... medical use." Smoked marijuana (smoked anything) has never
passed basic medical standards of safety and efficacy.

Legalizing smoked marijuana under the guise of medicine is
irresponsible and contradictory to basic scientific standards for
therapeutic drugs.

Of course some people who use the drug may find relief from their
illnesses, but smoking a drug as volatile and unstable as marijuana is
like chewing on willow bark to partake in the benefits of aspirin.

Marinol, derived from the plant's most active ingredient, THC, already
exists. Though it's not often prescribed, doctors have the right to do
so if they feel it would best serve their patient (though
non-cannabis-based drugs are almost always chosen as a first resort).

Serious Loopholes

Other isolated components in marijuana -- delivered in aerosol sprays
or patches -- are currently being studied, and research in this area
is important.

Cannabis-based drugs could indeed open new pathways to fight obesity,
nausea, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses, but just as someone
should not inject heroin to gain the therapeutic effects of morphine,
these drugs need to be used in the proper context and setting.

Even if smoking marijuana might make someone "feel better," that is
not enough to call it a medicine. If that was the case, then tobacco
cigarettes or vodka shots could be called medicine because they are
often attributed to making one "feel better."

Furthermore, it is contrary to common sense and established law to
have the electorate, influenced by big spending from pro-marijuana
interest groups, decide what medicine is.

Serious loopholes exist in Prop. 215 that permit the abuse of current
drug laws and allow drug dealers to avoid arrest and prosecution.
These are key reasons why a large, growing number of city and county
governments have moved toward banning medical marijuana identification
cards and dispensaries.

Other California communities should follow suit. Science needs to be
the basis of both our legal and illegal drug policies, not political
ploys designed to legalize smoked marijuana for any reason.