Pubdate: Fri, 26 Sep 2008
Source: Petoskey News-Review (MI)
Page: Front Page, Center
Copyright: 2008 Petoskey News-Review
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/SiXqHKpO
Website: http://www.petoskeynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4115
Author: Noah Fowle, News-Review Staff Writer
Cited: ballot initiative http://stoparrestingpatients.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

MIXED BAG ON MARIJUANA

Michigan voters will decided whether or not to legalize medicinal 
marijuana in a state wide ballot initiative this November.

Although polls show there is growing support for the move, getting 
people to speak openly about the subject can be bit more difficult.

According to a September poll by the Michigan Resource Group of 
Lansing, 67 percent of voters said they would support the proposal, 
while 29 percent said they opposed it. If passed, the law would 
permit physician approved use of marijuana for patients with 
"debilitating medical conditions" including cancer, Glaucoma, 
HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, as well as other 
conditions approved by the Department of Community Health.

Those patients permitted to use marijuana would be given an 
identification card and the right to grow marijuana plants in an 
enclosed, locked facility. The last portion of the law would also 
permit care givers and patients the right to used medical reasons as 
a legal defense in marijuana prosecutions.

Joshua Snider, a 30-year-old Petoskey resident, advocated for the use 
of marijuana as medicine for a variety of medical conditions. Snider 
said his own mild temporal epilepsy was improved with occasional use 
of marijuana.

Besides working as a pain killer and an appetite stimulant, Snider 
asserted that marijuana also has antispasmodic qualities.

"It works a lot better than any other prescribed medicines," he said. 
"A lot of them can make you pretty sick, they mess with your stomach."

Snider is an outspoken advocate for marijuana and helped collect 
signatures to get the measure on the statewide ballot, he said it is 
not uncommon for people to shy away from speaking about marijuana in public.

"All of it is fear," Snider said. "Right now it's dangerous to use it 
under the current law."

While the current ballot initiative would allow patients with 
glaucoma to use marijuana, Dr. Tim Jarvi, an ophthalmologist in 
Petoskey, is not convinced that marijuana is better other 
pharmaceutical treatments already on the market. While marijuana can 
reduce ocular pressure, Jarvi pointed out that it also decreases 
blood pressure and therefore makes it more difficult to pump 
nutrients into the eye through the optic nerve.

"It's impractical," he said. "Even if it was legal we wouldn't use it."

Dr. George Wagoner, a retired obstetrician and gynecologist in 
Manistee, admitted that he had no scientific experience with 
marijuana. But during his wife's unsuccessful battle against severe 
ovarian cancer in 2007, he said they turned to the illegal drug and 
found it helped her cope with the pain better than anything else.

Wagoner said his wife developed intractable nausea and vomiting 
during her chemotherapy and that other pharmaceutical drugs were ineffective.

"When my wife inhaled the smoke twice, she said the nausea was gone," 
he said. "It took practically none to be effective. I think everyone 
in her situation should be allowed to do this legally."

However, there are those, even with a personal knowledge of cancer, 
who do not support the current ballot initiative's scope.

Bob McCullough, a 74-year-old Petoskey resident, is in remission from 
multiple myeloma and said he understands the need for medicinal 
marijuana, but was uncomfortable with people being given the legal 
right to grow it. He said that would open up the possibility of 
people selling it illegally for profit.

"There is such a strong desire for this stuff, I think it needs to be 
done through a pharmacy," he said. "I would like to see it made 
available, but only a month's supply at a time. That way a doctor 
would know if you are starting to abuse it."

Although marijuana is illegal under federal law, and classified as a 
schedule I drug, 12 states have passed medicinal marijuana 
legislation. In 2005, Traverse City passed a city ordinance to make 
the prosecution of medicinal marijuana cases the lowest priority. 
However, both the offices of the county and city prosecutors referred 
requests for comment to one another, preferring to stay mum rather 
than weigh in on the taboo subject.

Charlevoix County Sheriff George Lasater deferred a request to 
comment to his successor, Don Schneider, after admitting he was not 
familiar with the ballot language. Although Schneider had yet to read 
the language, he said his first reaction was that legalization of 
medicinal marijuana would compound the issue of prescription drug 
abuse and marijuana use further.

"I think there's always the potential for it to be grossly misused," 
he said. "There are some doctors, although they are few and far 
between, that lack integrity and will give a prescription for anything." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake