MEDICAL MARIJUANA: TEXAS NEEDS A THOUGHTFUL DISCUSSION

Medical science is producing evidence that ingredients in marijuana
can ease chronic pain. Numerous studies show that marijuana helps some
cancer and other seriously ill patients relieve chronic pain and
control nausea and vomiting.

Marijuana use, however, is illegal in Texas, which means that even if
a doctor believes in its medicinal benefits, a doctor can't prescribe
it nor can a patient legally obtain or use it.

Let's be clear on this point. This newspaper is not advocating the
decriminalization of marijuana. We are advocating a thoughtful public
policy discussion to allow patients facing chronic pain legal access
to this alternative treatment.

Unfortunately, the only bill in the Texas House would add to the
confusion on this subject. It would change the state's health and
safety code to allow a person charged with possession of marijuana to
be allowed to show evidence in court that a licensed physician
recommended the drug as a treatment. While we think a discussion of
medical marijuana use in Texas is long overdue, this bill from state
Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, is the wrong approach.

The bill provides false hope for patients and inadequate guidance for
doctors and law enforcement agencies. A patient could still be
convicted on illegal drug charges because the law doesn't legalize the
use of medical marijuana. In addition, the bill doesn't indicate the
amount of marijuana a patient could possess or how the patient could
legally obtain it.

Medical research and public opinion are changing. The American Medical
Association has urged research to deliver the benefits without
subjecting physicians and patients to criminal sanctions.

Ten states also have laws that protect from arrest or jail those
patients who possess and grow their own medical marijuana with a
doctor's approval. Some states register doctors and patients and
provide ID cards so police officers can determine who uses marijuana
for medical reasons.

And last year a Scripps Howard Texas Poll found that 75 percent of
Texans favored legislation that would allow people with cancer and
other serious illnesses to use their own marijuana for medical
purposes as long as their physician approves.

The Naishtat measure isn't the right answer. The state needs a sound
policy for the future, and lawmakers should start asking the right
questions now.