Pubdate: Fri, 21 Feb 2014
Source: Creative Loafing Atlanta (GA)
Copyright: 2014, Creative Loafing
Contact:  http://www.atlanta.creativeloafing.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1507
Author: Paul Cornwell

POT ACTIVISTS: DON'T GET FOOLED BY GEORGIA'S 'MEDICAL MARIJUANA'
REFORM EFFORT

State lawmakers are currently debating an update to the state's
long-dormant "medical marijuana" law to make cannabis oil available to
children suffering from epilepsy and other conditions. But Paul
Cornwell, a longtime marijuana activist and founder of the Great
Atlanta Pot Festival, argues that what's happening under the Gold Dome
doesn't involve "medical marijuana" at all - and could set back the
actual movement to make the plant widely available. Cornwell is the
national coordinator of the Coalition for the Abolition of Marijuana
Prohibition, or CAMP.

Last year was a remarkable one for cannabis reformers. Documentary
programs such as "Weed Wars" and "Weed Country" helped the public
become aware that there was more to the War on Drugs than they'd been
led to believe.

Then came the announcement from CNN chief medical correspondent and
Grady Memorial Hospital neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta that cannabis
did indeed have a medical use. On TV, he said the federal government
had misrepresented the facts for more than 70 years. The public began
to listen.

Over the past 20 years, just as many states and the District of
Columbia have changed their laws to allow the medical use of cannabis.
There's now a process for distribution of cannabis products to treat a
myriad of ailments such as nausea from chemotherapy, glaucoma,
rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's Disease, and more. Two states have
chosen outright legalization. Others are soon to follow.

In Georgia, we're hearing whispers of "medical marijuana reform." But
things couldn't be farther from the truth. Not many people are aware
that the Georgia General Assembly unanimously passed the "Medical
Marijuana Necessities Act" in 1980 to create a research program and
allow "compassionate relief" for patients suffering from glaucoma and
nausea caused by cancer chemotherapy.

The law contained no mechanism for funding. Not long after, the state
abandoned the program when the feds stopped supplying cannabis to all
but a handful of patients. It has remained dormant for 34 years.

In 2010, the law was renamed the "Controlled Therapeutic Substance
Act" and revived the program by calling for applications from the
medical community to establish a Patient Qualification & Review Board
(PQRB), that would rule on whether applicants would qualify for
treatment, authorize their doctors, and maintain research records for
medical marijuana treatments. Under the law, cannabis could be
provided by the state's pharmacies under the supervision of the
Georgia Pharmacy Board. The cannabis could even be grown,
manufactured, and distributed by a state-approved pharmacy.

If fully implemented, the law would have revealed that cannabis is an
effective therapy for many ailments. Under House Bill 885, there is no
qualified board of medical professionals there to approve the people
who would be treated. Nor is there anyone responsible for maintaining
a research program to study the benefits of cannabis therapy. Under
the 2010 rewrite of the medical marijuana program there was at least a
glimmer hope, that once the PQRB was established and funded, the
program and the number of ailments to be treated could be expanded.

None of that happened. Even now, the state pharmacy board and the
Georgia Drug and Narcotics Agency are impeding cannabis medicine that
could be made legally available for a research program. The latter, as
required by law, refuses to make recommendations to the General
Assembly to reschedule Dronabinol to a Schedule III status, which
would allow it to be made available to such study programs. The
organically derived medicine is a generic form of Marinol, or
synthetic THC, a legally prescribed drug in Georgia. This drug would
benefit hundreds of patients in Georgia right now.

What's gone missing from most of the press coverage here is the fact
that CBD-rich hemp oil is already legal without prescription and
remains available in Georgia.

The recent attention to cannabis as a treatment for childhood seizures
has amplified a discussion among hundreds, if not thousands, of
parents looking for a successful treatment for their children's
conditions. Multiple states have started a process to approve
legislation enabling this "CBD-rich cannabis oil," or cannabidiol, to
become legally available. The oil contains little or no THC, the
psychoactive ingredient that gets a person "high," and has a
miraculous effect on the quality of life for hundreds of children 
nationwide.

Now comes an emotional lobby by parents who support House Bill 885,
known as "Haleigh's Hope Act." Named after one of the children who
would've benefitted from the treatment, the measure allows medical
cannabis to be used to relieve suffering of the state's most innocent
and vulnerable citizens. Though well intended, this bill falls into
the same bureaucratic snafu as the 1980 law creating the medical marijuana.

The law intends to provide a cannabis remedy to children by way of a
bill that has no mechanism for funding. It provides no legal source of
the drug and no allowance for a state pharmacy to participate in the
production of the CBD-infused oil.

At the last minute, language was added to the bill to include the
prior approved ailments of nausea relief and glaucoma. But this bill
is still inadequate. The legislation fails to mention anything about
having a doctor's advice regarding to best treatment for patients and
their ailments.

There's a chance the law will never succeed in providing even one
patient relief from the deleterious condition of epilepsy. The state
sat on its hands for 34 years while thousands of patients entitled to
"compassionate relief" suffered. Most have died without any relief at
all. What makes anyone think this bill will be any different?

The application of cannabis therapies should be in the hands of
physicians and their patients, not the drug and narcotic agency - or
whoever else has been tasked with oversight. The existing program
provides legal immunity for patients, doctors, and should be expanded
to treatment of the larger number of ailments that could benefit from
cannabis. That research protocol should provide an educated and
documented record for such treatments that would be available to make
recommendations to the General Assembly. Cannabis in all its forms
should be available to "patients out of time."

Optimism abounds in the media and by many well-meaning cannabis
activists. But there are only a few voices for lessening criminal
penalties for cannabis possession under the Gold Dome. As the American
Civil Liberties Union points out, Fulton and DeKalb counties are the
worst offenders in the country for discriminatory arrests and
imprisoning of minorities for possession of cannabis. There's strong
resistance from proponents of this bill to even consider other
cannabis reform efforts.

Everyone wants to save the children. But what about your mom, your
father, your family or friends - people who could also benefit from
medical marijuana? Or from unnecessary legal repercussions that could
be solved with simple decriminalization?

The realization is that the parents and legislators are coming to ask
for the benefits of a miracle medicinal plant, cannabis. All the
misdirection in the world won't negate the fact that 'she' - cannabis
- - will grant what they seek.

CAMP, the Coalition for the Abolition of Marijuana Prohibition,
opposes implementation of HB 885 as written.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt