AS DANGERS BECOME CLEAR, STATES SHY AWAY FROM MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Now that the smoke has cleared, the state of Montana voted Thursday
to repeal the state's six year old medical marijuana law. According
to Montana's House Speaker Mike Milburn, "we were duped" and "the law
has been a pretext for encouraging recreational use and creating a
path to full legalization of marijuana."

In addition, two new reports out this week clearly show that
marijuana is not the safe and harmless drug that most people believe
it to be. A new study published in the Achieves of General Psychiatry
shows that using marijuana may cause psychosis to develop sooner in
patients already predisposed to developing it, and in other patients
the drug may even cause psychosis. Not one medical marijuana program
in the country does a mental health evaluation before giving a
prescription for medical marijuana. How will we ever know the mental
status of those attempting to get medical marijuana?

Another report in this months Journal of Sexual Medicine says that
marijuana use by male smokers could be causing sexual dysfunction.

Whether you believe these studies or not, at the very least, the
state of Maryland should wait until the Food and Drug Administration
has had time to study the medical use of marijuana before approving
any medical marijuana program here in Maryland. If marijuana does
have medical value, it's best to make sure that we offer the
medication through a legitimate outlet while also protecting the rest
of the public.

Mike Gimbel, Towson

The writer is the former Baltimore County drug czar.