Union-Tribune Editorial

MARIJUANA MADNESS: RESPECTED RESEARCHERS VS. RAGTAG TASK FORCE

San Diego City Council members face a choice on whom they want to
listen to about medical marijuana. Will they listen to the city's
Medical Marijuana/Cannabis task force or will they listen to UCSD's
Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research?

The Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is a consortium of
respected medical researchers from UC campuses in San Francisco, San
Diego and Davis. These researchers will be conducting more than a
dozen scientific research projects on the possible use of marijuana
for pain, HIV, AIDS symptoms and other health problems. They also will
study specific medical protocols for marijuana's possible use,
balanced against the safety and health issues of the drug.

The UC researchers are following strict scientific guidelines that
include clinical trials, rigorous peer review of research, and
publication of their results in respected medical journals. Center
officials estimate they will have enough evidence and data to begin
publishing their results in two to three years.

No Medical Experts

In sharp contrast, the city's Medical Marijuana/Cannabis task force is
a consortium of marijuana activists, marijuana growers and providers,
legal activists, a political consultant, a cancer patient, an AIDS
patient and several others whose connection to the issue is unclear.
There are no medical or pharmacological experts on the panel. There
was an osteopath who is controversial in AIDS research circles, but he
quit. Three others among the original members also no longer serve.
They include Steve McWilliams, who has been arrested several times for
growing marijuana.

The task force has put out a survey of San Diego physicians on the use
of medical marijuana, extensive guidelines for possessing and growing
marijuana and a list of recommended dosage amounts of marijuana for
specific ailments. Unlike the UCSD Center for Medicinal Cannabis
Research, most of the data for the task force's publications are
entirely anecdotal, according to the chairwoman of the task force,
Juliana Humphrey.

For example, the proposed guidelines say patients should be allowed to
possess three pounds of marijuana and that "caregivers," people who
provide medical marijuana, could grow up to 90 marijuana plants. The
task force's list of patient dosages for specific conditions includes
such things as five grams a day for major depression and 7 to 12 grams
a day for muscle spasm and back disease. There's no medical basis for
such prescriptions.

While there are some references to research in these recommendations,
their citation is purposely skewed. As for the rest of the information
given by the task force, it is completely unscientific. There is no
accounting for research methods, survey samples are not random or
representative in any scientific way, and the source of the anecdotal
data is not revealed.

The task force itself has no expertise on medical marijuana and was
formed almost entirely by council member Toni Atkins, following
pressure from some of her constituents. There is nothing in
Proposition 215, the 1996 medical marijuana initiative, or in its
implementing legislation, that either mandates or suggests municipal
regulations for medical marijuana. The imprimatur claimed by medical
marijuana activists comes from a suggestion by Attorney General Bill
Lockyer that guidelines can be developed by local governments. It's
not mandatory, and only about a dozen or so communities throughout the
state have done so.

Handcuffing the Police

The task force's proposals would makes San Diego's guidelines among
the state's most permissive, even bordering on legalization.
"Patients" would be allowed to smoke marijuana anywhere tobacco is
smoked, which means anywhere outdoors.

Also, the task force guidelines include a 72-hour waiting period for
police to seize plants. That means that even if police officers have
probable cause to believe someone is illegally trafficking in
marijuana, they can't seize his plants for 72 hours if he claims to be
a medical marijuana patient or caregiver. The cops must walk away.

In that 72 hours, the plants can be cut down and sold or otherwise
disposed of, and police would have no recourse. The task force
recommendations are riddled with such conditions, which can be easily
used to facilitate recreational use and even trafficking of marijuana.

The task force is being opposed by nearly the entire drug and alcohol
treatment and prevention community in San Diego. Although many here
may not know it, San Diego's treatment and prevention community is one
of the most respected in the country, and is held up as a model of
effectiveness nationwide. Its opposition to these guidelines should
carry more weight among City Council members than the pro-marijuana
advocacy of task force activists.

Presiding Juvenile Court Judge James Milliken, who has instituted
significant reforms to send youngsters who use drugs to treatment and
prevention programs instead of to jail, has spoken out strongly
against the task force recommendations. He's particularly concerned
about allowing caregivers to grow up to 90 plants or allowing patients
to possess three pounds, saying that would make the drug even more
available to kids.

Uncredible Task Force

The credibility of the task force is in doubt. Instead of heeding its
recommendations, the City Council should listen to the UCSD Center for
Medicinal Cannabis Research. Its research will be ready in two to
three years, and the council can revisit the issue then.

The scientific findings about medical marijuana may entirely conflict
with the activist agenda promoted by task force members. There's no
justification for City Council members to jump at public policy based
on the suspect foundation provided by the task force, not when real
scientific inquiry is well under way at UCSD.

Despite the claims of some marijuana activists, the legality of
medical marijuana is not a pressing issue. San Diego police say there
are only a half-dozen arrests each year when the medical marijuana
defense is raised, and in most of those instances charges are not filed.

Next week, when the task force's recommendations are due to be
considered, Mayor Murphy and other City Council members should table
this issue until the real experts from the UCSD Center for Medicinal
Cannabis Research can weigh in. As with any medicine, we should depend
on scientific research to determine whether marijuana can be used
safely and what the proper protocols and uses should be. That
scientific information will be available shortly, produced right here
in San Diego.