cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Vote Sparks Little Controversy





Marijuana Vote Sparks Little Controversy
Posted by FoM on October 16, 1999 at 19:54:21 PT
By Wyatt Olson, Of the NEWS Staff
Source: Bankor Daily News
For Melissa Borden, a 26-year-old University of Maine student sitting in the cafe at Borders bookstore Monday evening, the answer was quick: "I'll definitely vote for it,'' she said. "It seems much more benign than some of the drugs these pharmaceutical companies are producing.''
But for a dozen others in the cafe who were asked whether they will vote for or against approval of medicinal marijuana in the Nov. 2 referendum, the question was first greeted with a quizzical pause. That may be due in part to the lack of passion this fall surrounding the subject of medical marijuana, which has been highly controversial in other states considering legalizing its use.While the Maine Medical Association's House of Delegates voted in September not to support the citizen's initiative, it chose not to aggressively oppose it, either. In its vote, the House of Delegates cited inadequate scientific studies on marijuana's safety and effectiveness and concerns about a lack of standardized preparation and sources for the drug."It's not really been an issue,'' said Walter Czerwinski, 52, of Brooksville, at Borders cafe. There's been much more talk about the issues surrounding aquaculture on Maine's coast than about medical marijuana, he said.Czerwinski, who intends to vote in favor of the referendum, said he does not believe approval will "open the floodgates'' to greater use of illicit drugs.Data from the federal government's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse published in August seem to support that opinion. According to the survey of residents in California, which legalized medical marijuana in 1996, the percentage of Californians who reported using marijuana in the past month was virtually unchanged between 1996 and 1998. Medical marijuana also has been legalized in Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Nevada.Two polls conducted in Maine in September found that about 70 percent of the 400 people polled would vote yes to the marijuana referendum question.Specifically, the referendum asks, "Do you want to allow patients with specific illnesses to grow and use small amounts of marijuana for treatment, as long as such use is approved by a doctor?''If approved, patients and doctors could freely discuss the risks and benefits of medical marijuana. Legally designated caregivers for patients using marijuana medicinally would not be committing a crime in assisting patients to use the drug.In order to legally use marijuana, a patient would have to be diagnosed by a physician as suffering from one of the following conditions:• Persistent nausea, vomiting, wasting syndrome or loss of appetite as a result of AIDS or chemotherapy for cancer.• Glaucoma.• Seizures associated with a chronic, debilitating disease, such as epilepsy.• Persistent muscle spasms associated with a chronic disease, such as multiple sclerosis.The patient would also have to be under the continuing care of a doctor. Doctors would not actually prescribe marijuana. Patients would have to buy or grow the drug.The law would limit the amount of marijuana a medical patient could legally possess without breaking the law to no more than 1ó ounces of harvested marijuana and six marijuana plants, of which no more than three could be mature, flowering plants.People under age 18 would need written consent from a parent or legal guardian to use medical marijuana. Galen Perkins, a 31-year-old car salesman from Alton, said he will vote against the referendum. Reading a magazine in Borders, Perkins sat with his wife, Christine, and one of their two young sons."If it passes, eventually you'll see it legalized so everyone can buy it,'' Perkins said. "They're just trying to get it all legalized.''That's also the stance of the Florida-based Drug Free America Foundation, which is one of the few organizations to decry the push for medical marijuana in Maine."You could use it for writer's cramp the way the law reads, as far as I can tell,'' said Wayne Roques, a retired agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency who now works with the foundation. Roques was in Maine this week as part of an anti-drug abuse education campaign intended to "give people enough information so they can make up their own minds'' about the referendum, he said."You don't determine medicine at the ballot box,'' Roques said. Whatever medicinal value is in marijuana is now available in prescription form, he said.The foundation maintains that the systematic legalization of medical marijuana is a long-term strategy being used by proponents for decriminalizing all drugs in America."I think many people are being ‘used' in that sense,'' Roques said. It is not doctors who have led the crusade for medical marijuana in each state, he said. "Most doctors I've met don't want their patients to use it.''The medical community, however, is not of one mind on the subject.While many scientific studies have been conducted looking at various effects of marijuana use, the kind of in-depth - and expensive - research required by the Food and Drug Administration for approving a new drug has not been done. That's in no small part due to federal restrictions that make marijuana unavailable for study. In addition, pharmaceutical companies, which usually fund such studies, have little motivation to develop a drug that can be obtained from an easily grown weed.Joanne, a 22-year-old biology student at the University of Maine who declined to give her last name, sees no reason to wait for drug companies to test marijuana thoroughly."If nature gives you a solution, you should use it,'' she said. Pubdate: October 16, 1999Newshawk: Allison Avingerhttp://homepages.go.com/homepages/m/a/r/marthag1/allysweb.htmRelated Articles:Reefer Referendum - 10/08/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3203.shtmlEditorial: Legalize Pot in Maine - 9/22/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2983.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by Kim on October 19, 1999 at 17:51:14 PT:
The WeeD
I think that marijuana is harmless to most adults. I think that the government will do anything to keep people from having marijuana. Firstly, because rastafari supports it. Christians fear us.Secondly, watch alcohol and cigarette sales DROP like hot potatoes!!This country is more concerned about money more than anything else. It is really too bad that "good" people turn into devil's advocates when it comes to a lickle sinsemilla.I was practically run out of an apartment house, due to the smell of weed. I always paid my rent and other bills, but I was still the unwanted neighbor. What about the neighbor who was _ _ _ _ ing the landlord, because she had no job, and nowhere else to go?!?! 
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Comment #1 posted by Chris Knestrick on October 18, 1999 at 06:50:58 PT:
More Begnin
More begini is right! A friend of mine had a PYSCHOTIC reaction to America's most popular drug, Prozac (big suprise). Long and the short of it was that he experienced several weeks of, what sounded to me like a schizophrenic episode. He say lights, heard voices, the TV and radio would talk to him directly, and for a while he thought he was Jesus. It took them a while to figure out what was wrong and to get him off the medication. The problem is that drugs like Prozac build up in the blood, and take time to build up and to deplete. So, the symptoms began to disappear when he stopped, it still took a while for them to completely stop. This is the $hit they're calling safe! I had a similar reaction to Zoloft (I was having this dizzy/fainting/panic spells and my doctor thought it was a serotonin problem). After taking the drug for a week, doubling my dosage (since it's also a step-up kind of drug), I woke up that night with visual (and I believe, auditory) hullucinations - I was seeing everything in double and it was moving back and forth!!! These chemicals screw with brain chemistry, and do it in a way that's much more serious then marijuana could ever do (especially since marijuana is out of the body in a matter of hours).
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