Pubdate: Tue, 04 Mar 2014
Source: Morning Sun (Mt. Pleasant, MI)
Copyright: 2014 Morning Sun
Contact:   http://www.themorningsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3938
Author: Dr. Robert Townsend
Note: Dr. Robert Townsend is president of Denali Healthcare in Mt. 
Pleasant, a pain management clinic. He uses cannabis certifications 
as a tool to reduce the use of more dangerous narcotic pain medicine. 
He is not a card holder and has never personally used marijuana.

PHYSICIAN RESPONSE TO DANGERS OF DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA

I read with interest the 'Guest Voice' Article on the 'Dangers of 
decriminalizing marijuana' by Michael Covarrubias. Despite my concern 
about retribution I felt the need to respond to the outrageous claims 
made in the article.

It seems drug enforcement officers such as Mr. Covarrubias seem to 
have an outline for these articles. I'd like to respond to several of 
their 'talking points' about the evils of medical marijuana.

Big Cannabis has duped the voters

A common theme used by those with a vested interest in the 'War on 
Drugs' is that there is a hidden hand at work - Big Cannabis. Big 
Cannabis is a 'tool' of the drug cartels and a danger to truth, 
justice and the American Way. They talk about the 'intent' of the 
voters to help terminal patients. They talk about marijuana financing 
heroin and cocaine.

The truth is voters are not as stupid as they would like us to 
believe. They knew EXACTLY what they were voting for. My 75-year-old 
mother wanted to help cancer patients AND those with chronic pain 
when she voted for the Act. I suspect many others did as well. As for 
financing drug cartels, marijuana does not do that. The fact that 
marijuana is illegal and people are forced to buy it from criminals 
does. Fortunately, we have medical marijuana in this state, so people 
can grow it themselves or buy it from their licensed caregivers.

Marijuana Patients are Poor Parents

All this nonsense about children being kicked out of their bedrooms 
so people can grow marijuana is designed not to show the danger to 
children, but to show their marijuana smoking parents are incapable 
of caring for them properly. Good parents would never do such a 
thing, so 'weed' smoking parents must by definition be bad. We see 
this angle constantly being exploited by CPS, vindictive ex-spouses, 
and the courts, despite the protections built right into the Act to 
prevent such assumptions. Sen Rick Jones is even attempting to ram 
through a bill forcing parents to choose between children and 
medicine to formalize the mindset.

Children and College Kids

A common theme is to associate marijuana use with children. Actual 
state statistics show that of 130,000 medical marijuana patients in 
this state, only 44 are minors. Having certified about 1/3 of them, I 
can assure you that most will not live long enough to be majors and 
all are gravely ill. They are exactly the 'terminally ill' patients 
the voters were 'duped' by 'Big Cannabis' about, yet because the 
image of a toddler with a bong is what you are trying to project, you 
conveniently leave out the 'duped voter' angle. In my practice the 
average age is 51 with well documented medical conditions. Fewer than 
17 percent are under the age of 30.

Cannabis is different now... and dangerous

Your study suggests that there is THC on the surfaces of homes of 
medical marijuana patients, and that somehow this is so dangerous 
that you need to wear protective gear as if you were cleaning up a 
meth lab (note the association of cannabis with meth to control the 
mindset of the reader). Yet THC is harmless, and in fact there are 
literally thousands of studies showing medical benefit. Meth is not. 
Unlike cannabis, cocaine is legal, far more dangerous and addictive, 
and is schedule 2 and available for medical use. I wonder what the 
risk of even nanogram levels of marijuana on a coffee table will have 
any adverse effect with transdermal absorption. But if you are 
worried, please feel free to wear your bunny suit.

Cannabis hurts performance and makes you stupid

Last I checked, cannabis was not used as a performance enhancing 
drug. We all know how it hurts athletic performance in people like 
Michael Phelps. You would be amazed at how many very smart people at 
companies like Microsoft or Google actually use cannabis yet still 
manage to muddle along and turn their companies into Fortune 500 operations.

Cannabis is a Gateway Drug

Mr. Covarrubias discussed his interviews with college students and 
how they claimed cannabis was the cause of their woes. Let's get this 
clear. He wasn't interviewing them for a term paper, or a newspaper 
story. He was ARRESTING them. They were sitting there, in handcuffs, 
facing a charge that likely would ruin their lives-impacting their 
employment, student loans, even military service. I am sure they told 
the authority figure with the badge anything he wanted to hear.

The gateway drug for heroin is prescription pain killers-more than 51 
percent started their habit at the doctor's office. The vast majority 
of people get their first exposure to 'illegal' drugs with alcohol 
and underage drinking.

In closing, as a citizen, a voter and a member of the medical 
community, I wish to personally thank Mr. Covarrubias and his brother 
law-enforcement officers for the job they do keeping us safe from 
dangerous drugs. I just want to very clearly tell him that Marijuana 
is NOT one of them. The major adverse side effect of marijuana is 
exposure to the criminal justice system.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom