MARIJUANA VOTE NOT ABOUT MEDICAL VALUE

There are few universal truths, but this is one: People like to get
high.

I don't mean high as it is commonly understood -- created through the
abuse of some legal or illegal drug. I mean any state of pleasurably
altered consciousness, whether it be from drugs, skydiving, a perfect
report card ... whatever.

The means by which we seek our highs vary from person to person, but I
have no doubt the urge is universal.

It's from this perspective that I come at one of my major personal
irritants: medical marijuana.

This Tuesday, residents of Dane County will vote on an advisory
referendum that asks if "the Wisconsin Legislature (should) enact
legislation allowing residents with debilitating medical conditions to
acquire and possess marijuana for medical purposes if supported by
their physician."

I urge a "no" vote, not because marijuana doesn't have medicinal
effects, but because so much of the medical marijuana debate misses
the point.

First, some disclosure. I am not related to Jacki Rickert, a Mondovi
woman who suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and is the namesake of a
medical marijuana bill that failed to pass the state Legislature
earlier this year. I am, however, fairly well acquainted with
marijuana, having spent a good chunk of my teens giggling and eating
Cool Ranch Doritos through a cloud of smoke.

So what's wrong with the medical marijuana debate?

For starters, doctors already have the ability to prescribe a range of
medications to treat anxiety, nausea, glaucoma and other conditions
medical marijuana users most often complain of. And they won't impair
your decision-making abilities, make you want to eat an entire gallon
of butter pecan ice cream or ruin your lungs.

Further, the chemical in marijuana has long been legally available in
a capsule called Marinol for the treatment of nausea. Another
marijuana-derived drug, called Sativex, has been approved for treating
neuropathic pain in Canada and Great Britain and is under review in
this country by the Federal Drug Administration.

Still, I'm sure there are cases where smoking marijuana or using it in
some other home remedy -- a brownie, a tincture -- makes sense,
medically speaking. And in those very few cases, I'm all for it.

But so far the medical marijuana movement is not about those cases.
It's largely about creating a dispensary -- and grow-your-own-based
system like the ones in Oregon, Colorado, California and 11 other
states where just about anyone with a flexible doctor can get a
prescription to buy marijuana with names like Purple Diesel and
Gangster Purps.

Purple Diesel and Gangster Purps are not medicines. They are
entertainment products. And the dispensaries frequently are not about
health care. They are about legalization.

"I think what concerns me is the explosive use of marijuana (in the
states) that have made it 'legal,'" said UW-Madison pharmacology
professor June Dahl. "It does divert attention from things we really
need to be working on" -- such as investigating evidence-based medical
uses for marijuana and determining how best to deliver them.

Medical marijuana advocates like Gary Storck, of the Madison chapter
of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws,
contends that the long-standing criminalization of marijuana has
stymied legitimate research into the plant.

Indeed, despite marijuana's growing acceptance, it's still classified
- -- ridiculously -- by the federal government alongside much more
harmful drugs like heroin and ecstasy.

So for some medical marijuana advocates, Storck admits, the medical
marijuana movement is just one step toward the broader goal of
legalization.

"Right now, we're not ready to end (marijuana prohibition)
completely," he said. Put another way, the movement is disingenuous by
necessity.

It's going to take a lot of cooperation among groups such as NORML and
law enforcement if marijuana is to become part of the evidence-based,
regulated health care system -- and not an ad hoc, ripe-for-abuse
system onto itself.

Maybe, to put them in the proper mood, they should all smoke a joint.
Then they might be able to admit that getting high is one thing and
treating illness is another, but both are going to be with us for as
long as we live.