MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS A THERAPEUTIC FARCE

There is a growing movement to make the use of cannabis for medical
purposes legal in Florida.

It seems that every few years vocal marijuana interest groups seek a
way to normalize their drug of choice to the rest of us.

Maybe they forget the terrible human toll exacted by drug abuse. We
have to look no further than our own friends and families, addiction
treatment centers and local hospitals to see the tragic consequences
these substances visit upon human beings. The misery would only be
compounded should medical marijuana be allowed.

Smoked marijuana is not medicine. Pot smoke contains more carcinogens
than cigarette smoke and is simply not healthy for you. Inhaling toxic
chemicals and carcinogens from the burning of a crude weed is not
recommended by any reputable medical authority.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration routinely tests new drugs
according to a rigorous protocol to prove their safety before they are
allowed to be sold to the public as medicine. Marijuana has passed no
such test.

Is there potential use for some form of cannabis in medicine? Sure.
The American Medical Association recently recognized limited
therapeutic benefits of marijuana - specifically pain reduction and
appetite improvement - in certain patients and has called for further
research to look into the development of cannabinoid-based medicines
and alternate delivery systems.

If this research shows promise, scientists will then be able to
isolate the therapeutic chemicals, have them tested and approved by
the FDA and, finally, packaged in a synthetic form as medicine much
like was done with Marinol some years ago.

These are possibilities for the future, but right now neither the AMA
nor any competent medical authority in this country has yet endorsed
marijuana as medicine.

Let's look at the California experiment that began in 1996. People in
that state have been using medical marijuana as a convenient cover for
the illegal recreational use of the drug. Initially prescribed to
alleviate nausea and loss of appetite associated with treatments for
cancer and HIV, medical cannabis is now widely prescribed for ailments
such as headaches, back pains, insomnia and even in-grown toenails.

In one clinic in San Diego in 2006, the DEA reported that only 2
percent of the patients received their prescriptions for serious
conditions like AIDS and cancer, while the other 98 percent received
marijuana to treat back spasms, headaches, anxiety and other such maladies.

Is this the kind of "medicine" we want in Florida?

The case for medical marijuana is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The true
agenda behind the rhetoric is full legalization.

Smoking marijuana as a medical treatment empowers marijuana interest
groups to achieve their ultimate goal of marketing this intoxicating
substance to the entire population, sick or not.

Legalization would most certainly lead to abuse by an even greater
number of youth and adults than seen today.

Allowing medical marijuana would embolden those who would use the
plight of the sick as a clever subterfuge for drug legalization with
tragic ramifications for our residents.

We support medical progress and relieving pain in the sick and dying,
but allowing medical marijuana would cost us all more than we can pay.

Bruce D. Grant is director of the Florida Office of Drug Control.