IT'S TIME IOWA LEGALIZED USE OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

With the Vermont governor's signing of a bill this month to legalize
medical marijuana, eight states have now approved the sale and use of
marijuana for medical purposes. But today in Iowa, a person who is
found to possess even small amounts of marijuana that they might use
for bona fide medical problems is subject to arrest and time in jail
- -- not to mention the costly legal expense to hire an attorney, take
time off from work and possible jeopardy to a career.

In my own practice as a physician and psychiatrist, I work with
persons who suffer from such maladies as chronic pain, cancer, nausea
and neurological disease -- who use marijuana to help relieve their
symptoms. Some find that marijuana augments the effectiveness of
prescribed medicines. Patients tell me how marijuana helps with
spastic muscles, difficulty sleeping, headaches, and even relaxation.

I caution them regarding the laws and the seriousness with which many
law enforcement officers take their job to stop the use of this
currently illegal substance. Those who continue to use marijuana, in
spite of my concerns for their legal safety, do so because traditional
medicine may not have helped or may have caused uncomfortable side
effects.

A longtime advocate for medical marijuana in Iowa has been Dr. Ed
Hertko, a retired internist and founder of Camp Hertko Hollow, a
residential camp for children with diabetes. Dr. Hertko is no
knee-jerk liberal. He has spoken for at least the last 30 years
regarding his conviction that marijuana is safer and less addictive
than many prescribed medications. At an August 2009 hearing before the
Iowa Board of Pharmacy, Dr. Hertko reported that medicalizing the
currently illegal substance "has nothing to do with drug users who
simply want to get high. The people who want recreational marijuana
already know how to get it."

In February of this year, our Board of Pharmacy in Iowa voted
unanimously to officially recognize the medical value of marijuana and
further recommended that the Legislature re-categorize it to Schedule
II, giving physicians the right to prescribe it. And while the members
of the Board of Pharmacy could have made the change in schedule
themselves, they chose to delegate the controversial matter to our
Legislature.

While in my native Colorado on vacation last summer, I took the
initiative to visit two marijuana dispensaries, where patients with
approved medical cards can obtain their legal substance in a variety
of forms. One was in Breckenridge, where possession of small amounts
of marijuana is now legal for any reason. In Durango, two young women
were the sole sales crew at a dispensary. I introduced myself as a
physician and asked for a tour.

As I do not have the required medical card, I was not allowed to enter
the room where they dispense the products, but was allowed to poke my
head in as they gave me a tour from a distance. One of the young women
stood behind a glass counter and pointed out the traditional marijuana
flowers, as well as soft drinks, suckers, dips and a variety of other
forms to consume the product. It struck me as strange how friendly and
low-key the whole operation was.

Dispensaries such as this are now scattered throughout Colorado and
other states -- having received legal approval by the respective
states, while bucking federal law. In 2009, U.S. attorneys were
advised not to go after anyone who was in "clear and unambiguous
compliance" with state law.

With medical marijuana we can tax the industry and control the quality
and purity of the product -- making it safer and more predictable for
those whose doctors have chosen to prescribe it for them.

The time has come for the Iowa Legislature to approve the use of
marijuana for legal medical purposes. Debate continues about how
effective marijuana is for certain disease states. Regardless of your
view on marijuana for so-called "recreational" purposes, people with
medical problems that respond to marijuana should not be kept waiting.
Those who now use it to treat real medical problems should not have to
fear facing arrest.

Let physicians and their patients decide.