MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS BAD MEDICINE, BAD POLICY

The Illinois organizations and doctors opposed to the proposed medical
marijuana law support the research necessary to gain FDA approval of
any drug, including cannabis. Physicians rely on this process to give
their patients effective care and avoid serious health risks.

Why is marijuana being treated differently from other drugs? Morphine
and codeine come from the opium plant, but no doctor suggests that
cancer patients smoke opium. Marijuana is being treated differently
because the public's hearts and minds are being tugged by stories
about people who say marijuana has helped their condition when nothing
else has. Do we know what else they've tried? Do we know if marijuana
is actually helping their condition or just giving them the sense of
feeling better? These stories don't meet accepted standards for the
development of safe, effective medicine.

The American Medical Association, National Multiple Sclerosis Society,
American Glaucoma Society, American Academy of Ophthalmology and
American Cancer Society all reject smoked marijuana as medicine. Crude
marijuana - especially smoked - does not meet the accepted standards
of medical practice. There are too many unanswered questions. Who will
train doctors about when and how much to prescribe? What are the side
effects and long-term risks that doctors are required to counsel
patients about? Will there be warnings provided by distributors
regarding possible pesticides and herbicides that have been linked to
leukemia and lymphoma, microbes that could be deadly to
immune-compromised patients, and other carcinogens in the marijuana
plant? Who will be in charge of quality control? How does a doctor
choose the appropriate plant species for the condition being treated?

Beyond the unanswered medical questions, states that have passed such
laws have the highest rates of teen marijuana use. Treatment
admissions for marijuana now exceed alcohol at public-funded centers
in Los Angeles. Illinois employers would face major problems with
workplace drug policies because the proposed legislation requires that
impairment be shown if someone has a medical marijuana card.
Impairment has never been the standard used by employers, who now
would have to wait for an accident to happen before they could act.
And at a time when the state budget is in crisis, the bill would add
new administrative, law enforcement, treatment and health care costs
to state and local budgets.

The president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police called
this bill "an enforcement nightmare." Marijuana laced with the
pesticides used by drug cartels in Mexico has already surfaced in Los
Angeles County dispensaries. Former Chicago Police Superintendent Phil
Cline cautioned that "street gangs will open up marijuana dispensaries
and use the profits to buy guns, heroin and bail out fellow gang members."

This bill allows six plants per patient that can produce 13,000
marijuana joints annually. Who could use 30 joints a day? This places
the dosage of a drug in the hands of the users and increases the
likelihood that marijuana will be passed on to patients' friends and
families, or sold on the street.

There would be no restrictions on the location of dispensaries (except
500 feet from a school), so they could be anywhere - next to a park or
in a shopping mall. As with other laws, we must consider the greatest
public good. Let's support existing research and science and make sure
we have safe and effective medicine, following good public policy.
This bill is neither.

Dr. Dora Dixie is medical director of The Women's Treatment Center
in Chicago. Peter Bensinger is president of Bensinger, Dupont &
Associates, a Chicago-based consultant on substance abuse, drug
testing and gambling addiction.