DON'T SKIRT FDA RULES TO OK 'MEDICAL' MARIJUANA

I understand that supporters of "medical" marijuana legislation in
Illinois will soon mount a publicity campaign involving anecdotal accounts
by marijuana smokers. The question is whether smoking marijuana is an
effective medicine, and this should be answered by scientific research --
not politicians.

"Medical" marijuana is a misnomer. Marijuana is a plant containing more
than 400 different compounds plus more than 60 cannabinoids. Scientific
research has found a few medically beneficial cannabinoids and these are
already available by prescription. Current research of marijuana suggests
that more cannabinoids may have medical benefits and advanced medicines
may be available in the near future.

To safely "prescribe" a medicine, the strength, purity, effectiveness,
proper dose for a specific medical condition, and its interaction with
other medications must be known. This knowledge is only met through
rigorous scientific research and proper pharmaceutical manufacturing
conditions. Common sense tells us that it is impossible to meet these
safety requirements by smoking a substance.

Medicine must not be based on anecdotal accounts of benefits, but on
peer-reviewed, scientific research. Using the same criteria applied to all
other drugs, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has repeatedly
rejected crude marijuana for medical use.

Circumventing the FDA drug approval process and legalizing a harmful
psychoactive plant that has not passed scientific muster would be
irresponsible and endanger public health and safety. Many plants,animals
and minerals have medicinal properties, but that alone does not translate
into them being safe or effective for medical use in their crude form.

We don't chew the foxglove plant to get digitalis, a drug used to treat
heart disease.

We don't drink the urine of pregnant horses to get estrogen replacement.

We don't eat moldy bread to get penicillin.

And sick people should not smoke a weed and call it "medical" marijuana.

Joan Bellm

Carlinville