Sender: To: X-Original-Message-ID: <120701bf495b$e486e300$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> From: "Peter McWilliams" Subject: Good morning, America! Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 05:29:21 -0800 X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 Newshawk: Carl Olsen Source: Des Moines Register Pubdate: Wed, 16 Dec 1999 Author: R. Bruce Upchurch Iowa View / R. Bruce Upchurch Medical marijuana is bad medicine Normally when a new drug is introduced onto the market, vigorous scientific testing is required before it is allowed for public use. This process guarantees that drugs are safe and effective, that the benefits outweigh the risks and that physicians have had sufficient information to permit accurate prescription. This is particularly important for a drug with a potential for abuse such as marijuana. But proponents for legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes are not content to subject marijuana to the same high standards of scientific research as for other drugs. Instead, they are using the political process to get their way, and thereby placing the public safety, in particular our youth, at risk with their efforts. Of the medical research already conducted, there is ample evidence that marijuana causes much more harm than good. A 1997 statement from the Office of National Drug Control Policy stated: "Proponents of [medical marijuana] ballot initiatives present marijuana as a benign substance. However, the latest scientific evidence demonstrates that marijuana is not. Smoked marijuana damages the brain, heart, lungs and immune system. It impairs learning and interferes with memory, perception and judgment. Smoked marijuana contains cancer-causing compounds and has been implicated in a high percentage of automobile crashes and workplace accidents. Marijuana-related visits to hospital emergency rooms have tripled since 1990. Marijuana is also associated with gateway behavior leading to more extensive drug use. This phenomenon poses serious concerns given the significant increase in marijuana use by teenagers." History has shown that when the public perceives a drug not to be harmful as would clearly be the case if marijuana were viewed as medicine then abuse increases dramatically. Unfortunately, the marijuana legalization drive has already taken a toll on our young. The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reports nearly half of the teens and children who entered treatment in 1996 were admitted for abuse or addiction to marijuana alone. And according to a survey conducted by the Iowa Department of Education, regular or heavy use of marijuana by Iowa youth nearly doubled between 1990 and 1996. The last thing Iowa needs is further reinforcement of the view that marijuana is harmless. But do our efforts to protect Iowa's youth mean that victims of cancer, glaucoma and AIDS are condemned to suffer needlessly? No. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recently eased restrictions on Marinol, a byproduct of marijuana. Barry McCaffrey, director of national drugcontrol policy, said the capsulized form of Marinol is the "safe and proper way" to provide medical relief for sick people. Marinol allows doctors to prescribe a specific dosage, which they cannot set with marijuana use. In addition, Marinol does not pose the added concern of potential lung damage from smoking marijuana. There are other safe alternatives to smoki=ng pot as well. In an Aug. 4, 1997, letter to thenGov. Terry Branstad, McCaffrey wrote that "researchers have shown that the main active ingredient in marijuana has precisely the same impact as heroin on a key brain site that influences addiction to many drugs. The same researchers also found that abrupt cessation of longterm marijuana use causes the same kind of cellular withdrawal reaction in lab rats as that produced by other major drugs of abuse." Given the danger poised by marijuana, it isn=92t surprising that the advocates of "medicinal marijuana=94 would select politics over the longestablished process of rigorous scientific scrutiny to get their way. R. BRUCE UPCHURCH is Iowa's Drug Enforcement and Abuse Prevention coordinator. He previously served as a druginterdiction agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.