cannabisnews.com: Marijuana as Medicine 





Marijuana as Medicine 
Posted by FoM on March 31, 2001 at 17:34:30 PT
By Adrienne Drell, Legal Affairs Reporter
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
When Stephen Komie's mother was undergoing chemotherapy for terminal lung cancer, her doctor suggested marijuana to alleviate nausea and appetite loss.The 83-year-old grandmother was not about to start breaking the law to obtain the illegal weed and suffered for four months before dying in December 1997. Her son still feels bad that more relief was not available.
"Her last days could have been better if she had been allowed access to marijuana. She could have kept her food down, and it would have given her a sense of security and well-being," Komie said.Komie is not alone in his frustration. Several area physicians, legal authorities, desperately ill patients and those suffering from glaucoma also wonder why marijuana is not a prescription drug.So they paid strict attention to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday as it heard arguments for the first time on the medical use of marijuana.Government attorneys asked the justices to overturn a federal appeals court ruling allowing an Oakland, Calif., cooperative to distribute marijuana to seriously ill patients.The case has ramifications for at least three other states looking at ways to make marijuana legally accessible to patients. It also could open the door for states such as Illinois, where voters can put an advisory referendum on the ballot, to make marijuana available as a medicine.The issue has been approved by voters in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.Several justices Wednesday appeared skeptical of marijuana as a medicine and of the notion that marijuana distributors such as the cooperative have a so-called medical necessity defense, where someone's need for the drug exempts them from federal drug laws.If that is so, suggested Justice Antonin Scalia, shouldn't that someone be an actual patient, rather than a business organized to dispense or sell drugs?"That's a vast expansion beyond any necessity defense I've ever heard of," Scalia said.A ruling against the cooperative would mean the government could prosecute distributors in federal court, regardless of whether states have approved medical marijuana use. That would force providers underground or out of business altogether, say advocates of medical marijuana.The significance extends to whether states can make their own rules governing controlled substances, even when they conflict with federal statutes, DePaul University law and philosophy Professor Donald Herman said."What about the people who drive north and go over the border to obtain drugs for cancer treatment or gastrointestinal diseases? Does the [Food and Drug Administration] have single control over these matters, or do individual states?" Herman asked.Doctors who treat terminal cancer or AIDS patients say a huge percentage are obtaining marijuana somewhere."My concern is if it is illegally obtained, marijuana carries the risk of bearing a fungus which causes an infection or certain kinds of hematological malignancies," said Dr. Roberta Luskin-Hawk, chairwoman of the Department of Medicine at St. Joseph's Hospital.Doctors can prescribe Marinol, which contains a synthetic version of the active ingredient in marijuana and is available for nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and as an appetite stimulant for AIDS patients."But some of my patients who have tried both say they don't get the same benefits from the pharmaceutical drug as they do from smoking marijuana," said Dr. Frank Palella, associate director of the AIDS outpatient clinic at Northwestern University Medical School.About 1,200 patients are in the program. Palella estimates that more than 30 percent have obtained and used marijuana."So here a drug that has the potential to be very beneficial--but is being distributed in an uncontrolled fashion--could be more harmful to the patient because of impurities," he said.Komie is a criminal defense attorney who has represented five cancer or AIDS patients who were arrested on state charges when they arrived at a U.S. post office to pick up marijuana mailed from a state where it was legal to distribute it for medical reasons."Usually the dogs were able to sniff it out in the mailed package," said Komie, who added that all of his patients died before their cases could go to court. National advocates for legalizing the medical use of marijuana concede they have written Illinois off the list of battle sites for securing legislation or ballot initiatives."No one right now is trying to bring the battle to Illinois. It is very expensive to do media research and gather voter petitions, so we feel our time is better spent in states with a better political climate," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.In the past, ground swells of public opinion resulted in funding research on other narcotic drugs, such as morphine.Jamie Von Roenn, clinical practice director of the division of hematology and oncology at Northwestern Medical School, said morphine finally became more available to suffering patients when studies showed usage "leads to control rather than addiction."Marijuana, though, faces a more uphill battle, she said."I think there is a lot of judgment related to this drug," she said.Pros and Cons: Arguments for legalizing marijuana for medical use:* Benefits seriously and terminally ill patients who have tried other medications and only find relief with marijuana.* Reduces risks to patients who now go to underground supply sources and are subjected to impurities.* Could reduce demand on black market through government regulation.* Makes every treatment option available to physicians.* Removes fear of criminal prosecution.Arguments against legalizing marijuana for medical use:* Sends the wrong message to society.* Chemical substitutes are available.* Insufficient data on its known medical value.* Illegality is a deterrent to those in drug trade.* If available as prescription, could be too accessible to children.Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)Author: Adrienne Drell, Legal Affairs ReporterPublished: March 29, 2001Copyright: 2001 The Sun-Times Co.Address: 401 N. Wabash, Chicago IL 60611Contact: letters suntimes.comWebsite: http://www.suntimes.com/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by Rambler on April 01, 2001 at 06:16:52 PT
let's get real!
It's so true.The arguments against Marijuana ore so utterly lame,that they are tragically silly.If we compare it to some other distorted priorities of late,I like tohate the following paradox; The urgent "concern",that the first ammendmentto the Constitution will be compromised by campaign finance reform,as comparedto the basic freedom to use an herb.absurd!
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on April 01, 2001 at 05:25:14 PT:
Every Con is Fallacious
"Arguments against legalizing marijuana for medical use:* Sends the wrong message to society.* Chemical substitutes are available.* Insufficient data on its known medical value.* Illegality is a deterrent to those in drug trade.* If available as prescription, could be too accessible to children."Every one of these arguments are fallacious. What is the message: It's okay for patients to suffer in agony for want of an effective medicine? The "chemical substitutes" do not work, or work as well, for many patients. What deterrence? It is a well demonstrated fact that illegality has no relation to incidence of drug use: See true data from Amsterdam, not McCaffrey's propaganda. See also figures showing cannabis use essentially unchanged in California since Prop. 215. The children, huh? They do what they want unless convinced to do otherwise. Any reasonable adult can explain the difference between medicine and recreation. Again see data from Holland.All of these arguments are addressed and deflated in Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts.
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