NOT ABOUT 'GETTING HIGH'

A medical marijuana bill is crafted to take care of concerns about
creeping legalization and the medical science involved

Wisconsin's Legislature should outlaw prescription drugs. History
demonstrates that they will be abused - too often used simply for a high
and to feed addictions.

And this, of course, would be ludicrous. The benefits - in offering relief
from maladies minor to deadly - outweigh the risks.

The same is true in the case of medical marijuana. A carefully crafted law
can, as with prescription drugs, allow for access to the proven relief it
allows and make it clear that its abuse is still illegal and can be
prosecuted.

Such a law has, in fact, been crafted by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and
Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Waunakee). The legislation got its first hearing
Tuesday before the Assembly and Senate health committees.

The objections are legal and medical. Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) said
she believes this to be the vanguard for legalizing all marijuana.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said medical marijuana is, plain and
simple, against federal law. And the Wisconsin Medical Society raised
concerns that a bill allowing medical marijuana does an end-run on science
and safety because the federal Food and Drug Administration has not given
its approval to it as a medicine. Michael Miller, a physician, told
lawmakers that THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is available
synthetically in pill form, Marinol.

On Vukmir's point, we would note that the nation has essentially
decriminalized possession of small amounts. This being the case, it makes
no sense to deny it to people with ailments for whom medical marijuana can
supply relief when alternatives won't, as cheaply or as efficiently.

Abundant research demonstrates medical marijuana's efficacy in combating
the loss of appetite, nausea and pain that accompany so many illnesses.
With this law, medical marijuana would require a doctor's recommendation.

A person using medical marijuana would have to register with the state
Department of Health Services, which would regulate the nonprofit
"compassion centers" authorized to dispense the small amounts allowed
under the law. And this bill provides for a "medical necessity" defense,
giving protection to those in need of medical marijuana and those
providing it.

Van Hollen gives short shrift to this year's announcement that the federal
government will essentially not pursue cases in which people use medical
marijuana in accordance with state laws.

And Marinol, according to testimony offered by Daniel N. Abrahamson, legal
affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance, is an unsatisfactory
alternative for many people. It's expensive, many suffering from nausea
can't hold it down and it works more slowly than medical marijuana when
smoked.

Simply, people whose doctors say they can get relief should have access to
medical marijuana.

Should the state allow medical marijuana? To be considered for publication
as a letter to the editor, e-mail your opinion to the Journal Sentinel
editorial department.