GIVE US OUR MEDICINE

I have resisted writing about medical marijuana because I used to smoke and I didn’t want to come off like one of those idiots who simply wants an excuse to legally “burn one.” Let’s be honest: most of the people getting prescriptions to smoke medical marijuana in California have no actual need for those prescriptions.

But I have changed my mind recently and here’s why: There are people who are making actual medicine out of it.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta went on CNN in a Documentary called, “Weed” (1). In it, he talked about Charlotte, a little girl who was suffering from 300 seizures a week and now has that number down to an incredible two per month with the help of a new strain of marijuana called cannabidiol (2). The thing about cannabidiol, or “CBD,” which makes the government’s position on the legalization of medical marijuana so asinine, is that this is a true “medical” marijuana: it has virtually no tetrahydrocannabinol (commonly called “THC”), the substance that “gets you high.” It is, for all intents and purposes, “medicine.” They are calling this drug, “Charlottes Web.”

Right now there are epileptic “refugees” moving to Colorado to use “Charlottes Web” because the early tests are so promising. These people have seen results and believe in the power of this drug so much that they are willing to uproot their lives just to have that relief. These are not college kids or thirtysomethings but adults with CHILDREN with epilepsy (3). How uncaring do politicians have to be to allow their voters to flee their districts and take their children to other areas just to get them the medicine they need?

But with voters leaving Florida to move to Colorado to get their medicine, Florida politicians have drafted a bill to legalize medical marijuana (3). The citizens of Florida will get the chance to vote on that bill this fall.

Consider this: Heroin is one of the worst of our illegal drugs, made from the poppy plant. The substance used to make heroin (the dried “latex” that is derived from the opium poppy) is referred to as “opium.” Heroin itself is not legal, but on the current list of legal schedule two drugs (legal with a prescription) there were 48 opiates (4). That means that opium is legal with a prescription. Codeine, opium fluid, hell – RAW OPIUM (which can be used to make heroin – (5)) can be dispensed for you to take at home. Clearly, opium has recognized medical potential.

Cocaine is illegal and yet doctors can, in fact, use it. It is a potent anesthetic and also a vasoconstrictor (which means it makes veins smaller) making it very useful in nasal surgery (6). It lowers the pain for the patient after the surgery and lessons the bleeding during the surgery. The same has been said about cocaine and eye surgery (7). According to the information I found, a company called “Stepan” is legally allowed to import coca leaves into the United States (8). Interestingly enough, Coca Cola still buys coca leaves from Stepan and Coca Cola still contains coca leaves (ibid.) Coca Cola says they have simply “decocainized the flavor essence in the coca leaves.”

The point is this: A doctor can give out opium. A doctor can at least use cocaine. But there is just something so horrible about marijuana that it must be kept illegal? Even when it is used in only the most pharmaceutical manner?

Despite what the marijuana advocates will lead you to believe, two and a half million people in the United States do carry valid cards that allow them to receive prescription marijuana in nineteen states (9). So some state governments have clearly recognized the medical benefits of medical marijuana. But nineteen states is not enough. Epileptics should not have to change states to get the medicine they need.

If marijuana is so good why did it become illegal in the first place?

It’s not our fault. We have been bombarded with propaganda since the days of Harry Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics who said the main reason to outlaw marijuana was “it’s effect on the degenerate races (10).” He said that marijuana smokers were “…mostly Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”

Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council of the American Medical Association, disagreed with Anslinger. In 1937 the American Medical Association was the voice of reason. He attacked Anslinger in a session of Congress for distorting AMA facts and for using the word “marijuana” as a sensationalist word (at that time “cannabis” and “hemp” were very popular crops. “Marijuana” was a new word, used to describe a drug Mexicans were smoking). He made a speech that implied that no one had, in fact, seen any of Ansliger’s “evidence” on marijuana. But Congress did not listen to Woodward and Anslinger got his bill through. (11)

Dr. Gupta summed it up best when he was asked that same question (“Why did you change your mind?”) after his CNN special. From the CNN’s website (12): He said, “When I started to look at the studies in the United States very, very carefully and realized the mass majority of them were designed to find harm, I realized that was sort of painting a distorted picture.” His research has led him to believe that it has “very legitimate medical applications.”

I don’t care about the legalization of marijuana. That’s a case for someone else to make. I just want epileptics to be able to get their medicine. There needs to be more research, because there simply does not seem to be the data available to support the continued ban on medical marijuana. People like Charlotte and I are probably still going to have seizures, but please give us the ability to make them happen less frequently. Because falling down really sucks.

1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3IMfIQ_K6U
2 – http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/01/16/262481852/florida-bill-would-allow-marijuana-extract-for-child-seizures
3 – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/21/medical-marijuana-pediatric-epilepsy_n_4137260.html
4 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Schedule_II_drugs_(US)
5 – http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86080
6 – http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/01/cocaine-medicine.html
7 – http://doctoor.blogspot.com/2007/03/medical-use-for-cocaine.html

8 – http://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci590/9_3%20The%20Legal%20Importation%20of%20Coca%20Leaf.htm
9 – http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001199
10 – http://www.alternet.org/drugs/dont-believe-marijuana-hype?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark
11 – http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/
12 – http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/08/health/gupta-changed-mind-marijuana/