Pubdate: Fri, 04 May 2012
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2012 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs.
Author: Bruce D. Grant
Note: Guest columnist Bruce D. Grant is former director of the 
Florida Office of Drug Control.

ADVOCATES DECEIVE PUBLIC BY PEDDLING POT AS MEDICINE

Legalization would lead to abuse by an even greater number of youth and adults.

There is a dangerous and growing movement to make the use of cannabis 
for medical purposes legal in Florida. It seems that every few years 
the vocal marijuana advocates seek a way to normalize their drug of 
choice to the rest of us. It appears they somehow forget the terrible 
human toll exacted by drug abuse.

We have to look no further than our own friends and families, 
addiction treatment centers, and local hospitals to see the tragic 
consequences of drugs - a misery that would only be compounded by 
allowing medical marijuana.

Smoked marijuana is not medicine. Pot smoke contains more tar, 
ammonia and carcinogens than cigarette smoke and is simply not 
healthy for you. Inhaling toxic chemicals from the burning of a crude 
weed is not recommended by any reputable medical authority.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration routinely tests new drugs 
according to a rigorous protocol to prove their safety before they 
are allowed to be sold to the public as medicine. Marijuana has 
passed no such test. Science, not popular vote, should decide on our medicines.

Is there potential use for some form of cannabis in medicine? 
Probably. But let the scientists conduct the research, isolate the 
best therapeutic chemicals, have them tested and approved by the FDA, 
and packaged in a synthetic pill form as medicine. Why, in a culture 
obsessed with good health, would we want to legalize and encourage 
the use of a carcinogenic substance?

By the way - it's not harmless. Cannabis on the streets - and medical 
outlets - is not your grandfather's marijuana. No longer the "benign" 
drug of the Woodstock era, it has progressed in potency from beer to 
grain alcohol. In fact, we have solid medical evidence that youth who 
smoked pot were nearly twice as likely to develop psychosis. Most of 
our youth in treatment centers are there for marijuana abuse.

Let's look at the California experiment with medi-pot. People there 
have been using medical marijuana as a convenient cover for the 
illegal recreational use of the drug. In one clinic in San Diego in 
2006, the Deareported that only 2 percent of the patients received 
their prescriptions for serious conditions like AIDS and cancer, 
while the other 98 percent received marijuana to treat back spasms, 
headaches, anxiety and other such maladies. Marijuana outlets have 
exploded and more people than ever are legally getting high. Is this 
the kind of "medicine" we want in Florida?

The case for medical marijuana is a wolf in sheep's clothing. By 
peddling cannabis as medicine, advocates seek to reduce the 
perception of harmfulness, deceiving the public into full 
legalization. The hucksters behind this charade stand to make a 
financial killing if - God forbid - it is legalized. Falsely hyping 
marijuana as medicine is pure trickery designed to empower marijuana 
interest groups to achieve their ultimate goal of marketing this 
intoxicating substance to the entire population - sick or not.

Legalization would lead to abuse by an even greater number of youth 
and adults. Just look at our problem with legal prescription drugs. 
Florida is reeling from the diversion and abuse of painkilling drugs 
- - replete with overdose deaths and addicted babies - to a degree that 
rivals the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s. Marijuana 
legalization would only multiply this misery. Substance abuse 
inflicts staggering monetary costs reflected in crime, incarceration, 
property damage and adverse health outcomes.

Smoked marijuana is not safe, not healthy and not medicine. It is an 
illegal drug with potential for abuse. Approving medical marijuana 
would embolden those who would use the plight of the sick as a clever 
subterfuge for drug legalization with tragic ramifications for our 
citizens. We support medical progress and relieving pain in the sick 
and dying, but allowing medical marijuana would cost us all more than 
we can pay.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom