Pubdate: Sun, 12 Dec 2010 Source: Times-Republican (Marshalltown, IA) Copyright: 2010 Times Republican Contact: http://www.timesrepublican.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3497 Author: Randall C. Wilson Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n990/a05.html LEGISLATORS DON'T UNDERSTAND BOARD RECOMMENDATION The article (Dec. 1,Times-Republican) on local legislators opposing the legislative recommendations of the Iowa Pharmacy Board shows that people, including our legislators, do not understand what the board has actually recommended. The Pharmacy Board has asked that language that authorized it to make regulations to permit medical marijuana be removed from the code. This is not a step toward legalization. The Board is also recommending marijuana be removed from Schedule I where it was placed by politicians decades ago and placed in Schedule II along with substances like opium. According to the legislature's own scheduling criteria, marijuana belongs in schedule II which is reserved for substances and drugs that do have some recognized medical utility, but which may have a high potential for abuse. This intellectually honest change in scheduling may facilitate research into some of marijuana's amazing medical properties but it does not make marijuana legal any more than placement in schedule II made opium legal. In fact, more medical research on marijuana's medicinal properties could result in drugs that reduce the perceived need for marijuana in medical treatment. Ironically, because we have not actively developed medicines from the cannabinoids found in marijuana our society is today much more dependent on more addictive and harsher drugs developed from opiates in order to alleviate the same medical problems that drive chronically ill and dying patients to use marijuana. Law enforcement experts would tell you that the bigger problem today is the abuse of prescription drugs developed from opiates and other addictive substitutes. It is time to hold even our local legislators accountable when they attempt to legislate bad science based on knee jerk reactions. The expertise of the Iowa Pharmacy Board should at least entitle its proposals to a proper understanding and a fair hearing before the legislature. Randall C. Wilson, Des Moines - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom