Pubdate: Tue, 28 Aug 2012
Source: Grand Rapids Press (MI)
Copyright: 2012 Grand Rapids Press
Contact:  http://www.mlive.com/grand-rapids/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/171
Author: Jon Weeldreyer
Note: Jon Weeldreyer is a limited licensed psychologist and certified 
advanced alcohol and drug counselor. He is the manager of the Pine 
Rest Kalamazoo Clinic.

MARIJUANA: FRIEND OR FOE? HOW CAN WE EVALUATE MEDICAL POTENTIAL 
WITHOUT ENABLING ADDICTION?

With National Recovery month beginning in September, Jon Weeldreyer, 
an addictions counselor at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health 
Services, looks at the ways attitudes toward marijuana have evolved 
since the 1980s.

Although medical marijuana has provided relief to some patients' 
medical disorders, he sees challenges with the growth in medical 
marijuana laws.

Weeldreyer, a counselor and manager of the Pine Rest Kalamazoo 
Clinic, explores these questions and challenges in the following column:

As an addictions counselor since the mid-1980s, I've seen many 
changes in how the American public views marijuana.

These patients fall into two general groups: 1) those externally 
motivated, forced to come to counseling, and 2) those internally 
motivated who realize they have a problem.

Those forced into treatment by courts, schools or family members 
usually are frustrated being in my office. They defend their cannabis 
use with passion. They often see marijuana as natural, harmless and 
as a benefit for a host of discomforts.

Those seeking help on their own have become mentally or physically 
dependent on the drug and are unable to stop with willpower alone. 
They see it has caused legal, financial, medical and social problems 
in their lives. They have the love/hate, obsessive-compulsive 
relationship that all addicts have.

Both of these reactions have the same cause. Marijuana is a powerful, 
mind-altering drug. Simply put, many people tend to feel very good, 
physically or emotionally, when they use marijuana. That equation is 
all it takes for some to develop a harmful relationship. People often 
stop linking their using from the problems it is causing.

Still, it might be the case that in some circumstances, marijuana 
could have beneficial properties.

Opiates are one of the most addictive drugs available, yet who among 
us would want to face a broken bone without serious pain killers? 
Some of the compounds in cannabis may be helpful with a narrow range 
of serious disorders. I have patients who have great relief by using 
cannabis. Since 1996, we have seen 18 of our 50 states, including 
Michigan, pass laws to decriminalize marijuana for medical use. We 
now have 16 years of experience and data from this experiment. Many 
are beginning to rethink these laws.

An article by Dr. Kevin A. Sabet, University of Florida, examined Los 
Angeles' recent "buyer's remorse" as the city council unanimously 
agreed to close all 900 locations selling marijuana for "medical purposes."

What was intended to be a compassionate medical response to cancer 
and AIDS patients turned into a shady business practice involving 
storefronts, staffed with bouncers and "on-call doctors" who 
facilitated the process. Sabet cites a recent study finding the 
average California marijuana card holder as a "32-year-old white male 
with no life-threatening illness."

The societal impact of current medical marijuana laws is becoming measurable.

Teens are sensitive to the media. The prevailing media message is 
that tobacco is very bad, while marijuana is portrayed as a harmless 
"medication" with the supposed support of the health care industry.

In 2011, for the first time, high school seniors reported smoking 
more marijuana than tobacco -- 23 percent versus 19 percent. In 
Colorado, a study of teens in treatment found that 74 percent had 
used marijuana diverted from legal medical prescriptions.

Drs. Dina Miller and Annette Hanson are Baltimore, Md., psychiatrists 
who say marijuana "should undergo the same study, scrutiny and 
prescription monitoring as every other prescribed medication. What 
other medication do we authorize for a year, with no stipulation as 
to frequency, dose or certainty that there has been a positive 
response without side effects?"

Addiction counselors, pharmaceutical manufacturers and others in many 
branches of society must find a way to evaluate the medical potential 
of marijuana for possible benefit, without enabling people down a 
road of medical, social, legal and addictive harm.
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