Island Voices
Real buzz on medical marijuana: toxic, bad
By Jeanette McDougal
A registered public health worker
Ellen Goodman's Aug. 7 "Reefer Madness" article illustrates perfectly Von Goethe's remark, "Nothing is more dangerous than active ignorance." Goodman instructs us to copy our Canadian neighbors by legalizing marijuana cigarettes as medicine. I think not. Their chief legalizer, Minister of Health Canada Allan Rock, is a self-admitted pot smoker (Chicago Tribune, Aug. 31).
Goodman doesn't tell us that:
• We've been there, done that. From the Mayflower landing until the Harrison Act of 1914, drugs in the United States were legal and unregulated. The United States was one of the few countries in the Western world to allow unregulated drug use. We regulated only when drug-use behavior got out of hand.
• What is being called "medical marijuana" are toxic and tar-laden in any form (cigarettes, bowls, bongs and brownies). "Patients" generally are seeking the "high" producing chemical, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), one of the 66 bio-active chemicals (cannabinoids) found only in marijuana. Do we need a THC cigarette when a THC pill is legal and medically available?
Smoking weed for medicine is the pharmacological equivalent of eating moldy bread for penicillin or eating poppy seeds for morphine.All contain contaminants; none in their raw form is approved by the Federal Drug Administration.
• Physicians worldwide — in the United States, Canada, England and Holland — are concerned about their liability, should harm result to their patients if they recommend (prescribing is illegal) marijuana.
• There already has been "medical marijuana" fallout in this country. Several homeowners insurance companies in California have paid claims for "medical marijuana" plant theft. A mother in California has given her 7-year-old son "marijuana muffins" for a mental problem.This case now is in the hands of Pacer County Child Protective Services. One heavy equipment operator is suing to be able to use his "medicine" on the job.
When the Hawai'i Legislature legalized "medical marijuana" they bypassed the FDA processes for approving medicine. Might the state (or its doctors) be held liable for harms caused to citizens by the non-approved "medical" cigarettes?
How will children others be protected from second-hand marijuana smoke?Will "patients" be able to drive vehicles after having smoked? Could the belief that what is "medical and legal" is "healthy and good," soften children's attitude toward recreational marijuana?
The known and potential hazards are too great.We U.S. citizens aren't copycat lemmings.We want safe and effective medicines, not toxic remedies.
