PLIGHT OF THE DESPERATELY ILL DESERVES MARIJUANA ACCESS

The difficult and serious question of medical marijuana is
back.

Voters will decide this November whether to approve a state law
allowing limited medical use of marijuana for patients with terminal
or serious illnesses.

This is a much improved initiative measure that treats the question
with the thoughtfulness that was scandalously absent last year. But
because federal laws can't be removed by state action, vexing
questions will remain whether or not Washingtonians support medical
use of marijuana. Indeed, the federal questions limit how well the
measure can be written.

Despite the problems that will remain, voters will nevertheless do
well to say yes to Initiative 692 as a matter of imperfect compassion
and support for the very sick and dying.

Voters should do so only with some careful understandings of the
opposing views. The state medical association, for instance, doesn't
support the initiative. What evidence there is about marijuana's
medical effectiveness has not been subjected to the usual federal
reviews. There is no quality control for any marijuana that will be
obtained by patients. Indeed, opponents can reasonably speak of the
initiative as abandoning the normal Federal Drug Administration
process for approving medicines.

Yet, there is no real prospect for the FDA to move forward anytime
soon, at least without pressure from the states. This initiative is
miles ahead of the measures passed in recent years by California and
Arizona. Initiative 692 defines carefully who can use marijuana for
medical purposes. Principally, those are cancer and AIDS patients,
chronic pain sufferers and people with serious muscle diseases, such
as multiple sclerosis. The measure also attempts to prevent the circus
atmosphere around California "buying clubs" by saying that no person
may provide medical marijuana to more than one person.

In most circumstances, there are many traditional medical alternatives
to marijuana. But society also ought to be as supportive as possible
toward desperately ill individuals for whom those treatments aren't
working. Compassion ought to be the guiding principle when patients
are dying. That's especially true for a state that has rejected
assisted suicide.

If initiative supporters are being honest, this measure is not about
legalizing marijuana. Legalization would be a horrible idea, widening
use of a drug with some extraordinarily bad effects on the mental
state of users. If somehow passage of the initiative were to be used
to promote wider recreational use of marijuana, the Legislature would
have an absolute duty to amend or wipe out the initiative,
immediately.

In fact, we would not support a yes vote if we weren't prepared to ask
the Legislature to deal with any problems that may occur. Legislators
are notoriously reluctant to overturn any initiative. But it is
reasonable to hope that legislators would act if drug abuse or crime
were to increase because of this measure. If legislators hear
conflicting assessments, our advice would be to listen to those who
know the problems best -- police and prosecutors.

If the medical marijuana initiative can be implemented responsibly,
however, young people are capable of understanding that marijuana is
being approved only for the desperately ill. They can see that first
hand by watching a beloved older family member suffer from an illness.

In such an instance, the medical use of marijuana might help young
people disassociate the drug from any false perception of glamour.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady