Medical marijuana is bad presciption

October 12, 1998 - Tacoma News Tribune - leted@p.tribnet.com

Initiative 692, authored by Tacoma physcian Rob Killian, is a new and improved version of a "medical marijuana" measure voters soundly rejected last year.

Although the version that faces voters Nov. 3 is far less objectionable than the wildly irresponsible proposal Killian wrote last year, it is still bad medical and social policy - and voters should say no again.

Killian insists his motives are purely compassionate, aimed at allowing people suffering from "terminal or debilitating illnesses" to relieve pain by legally using marijuana. Indeed, it is hard not to be swayed by emotional testimonials from cancer patients and others who say smoking marijuana eases their suffering.

To that end, Initiative 692 would allow patients suffering from cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis, seizure disorders and other conditions involving intractable pain to use marijuana on the written recommendation of a physician.

The initiative forbids the use of "medical marijuana" in public, says health insurers can't be required to pay for it, and says neither the patient nor a designated "primary caregiver" may possess more than a 60-day supply of marijuana. But what constitutes a 60-day supply isn't defined in the initiative - a loophole that could open the door to abuse.

Let's grant that of all medical marijuana initiatives that have surfaced around the country, including measures voters approved in Arizona and California, Initiative 692 seems the most tightly written. There's nothing that would allow California's notorious cannabis clubs, nor would it drama-tically change drug laws, as Arizona's now-repealed statute did.

But the national and state medical establishment - in-cluding the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute - remains staunchly opposed to legalizing marijuana as medicine. The evidence for marijuana's value as medicine is not grounded in the kind of solid scientific research that is required for all legally prescribed medicines.

If marijuana is a medicine, it is an exceedingly crude one; there is no practical way to control its quality or regulate the dosage of the active ingredient or ingredients that alleviate pain or nausea. In addition, smoking marijuana is known to have adverse effects on lungs and other parts of the body. A National Institutes for Health study last year, for example, noted that marijuana smoking increases the risk of poten-tially fatal pneumonia for HIV-positive patients and weakens some parts of the immune system - a special concern with cancer and AIDS patients.

We are realistic enough to believe that cancer victims and others who think they truly need marijuana will find ways to get it. We also believe prosecutors are not going to go out of their way to throw dying and sick people in jail for using it.

There is no need to legalize medical marijuana, nor is it wise to deliberately bypass all the protections and protocols that ensure any medicine is safe and effective. Initiative 692 is bad policy and bad medicine.

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