cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Remains Contentious Issue!





Medical Marijuana Remains Contentious Issue!
Posted by FoM on February 15, 1999 at 07:06:09 PT

For many marijuana smokers, it's not a matter of getting stoned -- it's a matter of getting through the day. Ask Casey Wilbanks, who has suffered from AIDS and hepatitis for many years. Wilbanks, 44, smokes marijuana for a number of ailments -- insomnia, depression, nausea, arthritic pain and as an appetite stimulant. 
Then there's Linda Coughlin, a hearty-looking 40ish woman, who began using marijuana two years ago, first for joint pain from lupus. Soon afterwards, she developed breast cancer and had a bilateral mastectomy, which required a year of chemotherapy. "The marijuana helps with the lupus as it seems to relax the muscles," said Coughlin. "And if I didn't have it, I would have quit chemotherapy because it made me feel so sick." For such people, the passing of medical-marijuana Initiative 692 in November was a real breakthrough. And though the initiative, which was also approved in several other states, is a potential step toward nationwide legalization for medical use, a number of unresolved and ambiguous issues remain. Distribution is limited -- patients or their designated primary caregivers are allowed to grow a 60-day supply for one individual. But for those who can't grow it on their own or have nobody to help, the alternative is a buyer's cooperative, which remains illegal. In Seattle, the only co-op is Green Cross, active since 1992. Although local authorities have not given it formal permission to operate, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng has said it would handle any cases on an individual basis, according to Green Cross founder Joanna McKee. "If any growers get into trouble, they might be helped because they have a contract with Green Cross, but there's no guarantee," she said. Other counties are not as receptive, according to the sponsor of the state initiative, Dr. Rob Killian. "I worry about Yakima and Thurston county," he said. "They don't recognize the will of the people and will be looking for abuse." Patients with terminal illnesses or certain chronic diseases may use and possess marijuana once they receive physician consent forms. Although the law allows doctors to discuss and recommend marijuana for qualifying patients, few doctors are willing to publicly advocate it. The Washington State Medical Association is now working with member physicians to develop forms that will make them feel further protected against liability. Even Killian, who comes from a hospice background, holds very strict views. "Marijuana is not the best medicine for most patients," he said. "Because the delivery/supply system is less than perfect ... I only recommend it when everything else has failed -- thus not very often." Killian is also critical of buyers' clubs, despite their singular status. "I don't like the drug culture where people go to marijuana clubs and smoke pot like at a party," he said. "Green Cross is a drug culture where people wear tie-dye and look like kickbacks from the 60s." However, he admits that Green Cross seems dedicated to only supplying patients, unlike certain cannabis clubs in California, now closed because they "were brazenly challenging the government and abusing the law." Although the staff at Green Cross, located at a modest house in West Seattle, might come across as counterculture, not a whiff of the weed can be detected. McKee and co-founder Stitch Miller deny that any social smoking goes on. To qualify, patients all require doctors' notes and "nobody gets in the back door," stressed Miller. Since November, there has been at least a 25 percent jump in its membership, which now totals about 500. Growers under contract to Green Cross have committed to not selling their product elsewhere. As a nonprofit organization, Green Cross charges up to 25 percent less than street value -- $3,000 to $4,000 per pound -- but will often arrange pricing on an individual basis or a barter arrangement. Patients' dosage can vary from a few tokes a day to more than a quarter ounce a day. Green Cross suppliers also grow several varieties of weed, which is important as patients shouldn't always smoke highly potent buds, said Miller. Marijuana is professionally bred for different attributes and certain varieties don't work for some patients. "It's like medicine. You need different kinds," he said. Because there are 421 other chemicals in cannabis that work in conjunction with the main active ingredient THC, the plant is said to work better than a single synthesized chemical. Smoking is the preferred method of ingestion due to the immediacy of its effect, but because of medical concern about marijuana's effect on lungs (which research has linked to cancer risks), other methods will likely be developed. Although Marinol, a synthetic THC pill, has been available since 1985, the complaints are that dosage can't be controlled as easily as smoking, it's not effective for nausea and the psychological effect can be unpleasant. Marinol pills can be in a patient's system for two hours before the effects kick in. The other problem is that "people stay dumb too long," said Miller. "Marinol works like a bullet. It made me paranoid because it wasn't balanced by the other ingredients in the plant form," said Wilbanks. It's also more expensive than smoking marijuana -- $5 to $10 per pill, though this is usually covered by insurance companies. Improved solutions might include inhalers (similar to those used by asthma patients), skin patches or even suppositories. Though in its synthetic form THC doesn't require a marijuana-growing operation for its production, manufacturing the new methods "may be more hassle than it's worth -- drug companies would still have to fight with the issue of scheduling and getting permission for a research permit," said Donald H. Williams, executive director of the Washington State Board of Pharmacy. "I'm not seeing the pharmaceutical industry going out on a limb on this." Killian said he has been contacted by some small companies interested in growing and distribution. He also heard from representatives from Roxane Laboratories, the manufacturers of Marinol, that their efforts last year to work on gum and nasal spray using synthetic THC had been hindered by research costs. Ideally, research would study methods of extraction from the whole plant, believe proponents. But this would depend on being able to grow a supply for research, another obstacle course. In 1996, Washington State University, funded in the state supplemental budget for $70,000, did a study to determine a tamper-proof means to cultivate and distribute marijuana for medicinal purposes. "It was a big disappointment, as WSU did not do what was directed to be done by the Legislature," said state Sen. Jeanne Kohl, a Seattle Democrat. "Instead, the report indicated this shouldn't be done, that Marinol is available and works just fine." Obtaining marijuana needed for studies is a complex effort. The Food and Drug Administration will recognize a study only if the marijuana comes from the federally funded pot farm. But access to the crop is controlled by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, (NIDA) which reviews all cannabis study proposals and is said to be uncooperative. However, in 1997 an AIDS specialist at the University of California in San Francisco, Dr. Donald Abrams, was granted approval for the first federally sponsored study of the medical effects of marijuana in AIDS patients, who are known to waste away due to lack of appetite. In other studies using THC, the National Institute of Health found it to be a potent anti-oxidant which can prevent brain cell death and protect the brain from damage caused by injuries and stroke. And last September, lab research by Dr. Ian Meng at the University of California in San Francisco showed that synthetic THC can reduce pain in a manner similar to morphine but without causing nausea, addiction and other side effects. Future treatment might examine combining morphine and THC in low doses. For now, Sen. Kohl is drafting a bill that would require the state Department of Health to develop regulations, and another that would petition Congress to reschedule marijuana. "Apparently a number of states are doing this," she said. "I believe NIDA approval is more likely than congressional approval, at least in the short term. The main obstacle appears to be President Clinton and his drug czar, Barry McCafferty." Nationwide, about 60 to 65 percent of people support legalization of medical marijuana. The group Americans for Medical Rights is going to campaign state to state over the next two years. "In the ideal scenario, the federal government would move medical marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 with a stroke of a pen," said Killian. "This would acknowledge that although it is dangerous and addictive, it would be allowed to be used medicinally. If Congress got enough guts and listened to doctors, patients and science, marijuana could be legalized very quickly." 
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Comment #1 posted by krystal on March 15, 2000 at 12:52:05 PT
Lupus
I am 22 years old and I have SLE. Smoking marijuana once a day makes it so I can make it through my day with out severe joint pain. I teach school so I need to be able to use my hands and be able to deal with 350 high school students daily problems. I feel bad that I smoke and then have to teach the students that marijuana is nothing but bad for you. I can only hope that one day it will be made legal. I don't want to break the law just to try to live a pain free life. 
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