PANEL ADDRESSES DANGERS OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

A panel of marijuana experts addressed addiction counselors
Wednesday, describing the dangers of medical marijuana in Florida.

The 9th Annual Conference on Addictive Disorders at the Harborside
Event Center in Fort Myers brought together counselors in workshops
on mental health treatment, gambling compulsion, domestic violence
and the use of prescription drugs.

According to Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America
Foundation and St. Petersburg-based Save our Society from Drugs
lobby, the movement to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes is
being carried out by the same groups who've tried legalizing the
drug for decades.

Fay expects a proposal legalizing medical marijuana to make its way
on a Florida ballot by 2012.

"The groups who have funded these initiatives across the country are
groups with a long history of drug legalization," she said.

The use of medicinal marijuana has been passed in 15 states and the
District of Columbia, she said. Seventeen other states had bills
introduced but never passed and five other states - Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois and Delaware - have bills pending.
Florida has not legalized medical marijuana.

Marijuana is regularly prescribed for patients with cancer, HIV/AIDS
or glaucoma, said Fay, but according to statistics from states where
the drug is legal, those taking it report they use it for "undefined
pain," which leaves officials like Fay apprehensive of why they are
prescribed marijuana in the first place.

"You can clearly see we have a scam going on here in the country,"
she said.

Another panelist, Lt. Chris Reeves with the Lee County Sheriff's
Office, said he is concerned about regulating medical marijuana if it
is legalized. He said officers already have a difficult time reigning
in abuses with legal prescription drugs.

Rather than purchasing illegal drugs off the street like cocaine or
crystal meth, more people are turning to their medicine cabinets for
prescriptions which contain narcotics.

"We can't get a grip or stronghold on our prescription monitoring
plan," he said. "How can we get a grip on marijuana legalized in our
community if we can't get our prescription drugs that are legal drugs?"

Reeves said another concern for officers is how to detect people who
are driving while under the influence of marijuana. Finding if a
person is under the influence of this drug is more difficult than
holding a field sobriety test to detect if a driver has been
drinking alcohol.

Pat Barton, a member of DrugWatch International and a legislative
appointee to the Florida Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Corporation, said she is worried that no oversight exists for medical
marijuana.

Most prescription drugs have to go through a rigorous approval
process with the Food and Drug Administration or other equivalent
agencies, she said, but there is no such agency examining marijuana
prescriptions in states where it is legal.

The panelists each stressed that people in the community need to be
educated about the real effects of marijuana.

"We have very little time to get ready for this. We think there are
some things that can be done in advance in order to fend this off -
teach the community and families that marijuana is not medicine and
to educate and inform our state legislators," said Barton.