Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jun 2014
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2014 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://tbo.com/list/news-opinion-letters/submit/
Website: http://tbo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Jerome R. Stockfisch

DRUG CZAR'S PAPER WARNS OF POT'S RISKS

Medical Marijuana Backers Dismiss Findings As Old News

TAMPA - The nation's top drug official has weighed in on the 
marijuana debate, publishing a paper in a prestigious medical journal 
this week arguing that the substance has been associated with 
substantial adverse effects.

The paper in the New England Journal of Medicine by Nora Volkow, 
director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, focuses on existing 
research and breaks no new ground. But the document is sure to 
influence the debate over Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment on 
this fall's statewide ballot that would allow the use of marijuana 
for certain medical conditions in Florida.

The nation's "drug czar," along with a trio of other drug 
specialists, said marijuana is potentially addictive; can affect 
brain development, particularly in adolescents; can lead to harder 
drug use; has been linked to anxiety, depression and psychoses; is 
associated with impaired school performance and an increased risk of 
dropping out of school; and impairs driving ability.

In the paper released Thursday, the authors say the THC content, or 
potency, of marijuana has been steadily increasing from about 3 
percent in the 1980s to 12 percent in 2012.

"This increase in THC content raises concerns that the consequences 
of marijuana use may be worse now than in the past and may account 
for the significant increases in emergency department visits by 
persons reporting marijuana use and the increases in fatal 
motor-vehicle accidents," the authors state.

Ben Pollara, executive director for United for Care, the 
Orlando-based group behind the medical marijuana citizen initiative, 
dismissed the Volkow review as old news.

"I don't think the document is really that relevant to the debate 
over medical marijuana," Pollara said. "We're talking about the use 
of marijuana for individuals with debilitating illnesses. We've never 
suggested that marijuana is wholly benign."

A medical marijuana citizens' initiative has been circulating for 
years. In 2013, lawyer John Morgan of the Morgan & Morgan law firm 
bankrolled the effort, and in January, organizers said they had 
surpassed the 683,000 signatures needed to place it on the Nov. 4 
general election ballot. Days after the petitions' submission, the 
state Supreme Court OK'd the ballot language.

The measure will require 60 percent approval of state voters. Polling 
has shown majorities of 70 percent of Floridians or more - one as 
high as 88 percent - support medical marijuana use.

Opponents of the pot measure welcomed the findings in Volkow's paper.

Calvina Fay, executive director of Save Our Society from Drugs, said 
the document "reinforces everything that we've been saying."

St. Petersburg-based S.O.S. is affiliated with the Drug Free America 
Foundation and is organizing opposition to Amendment 2.

Volkow's article "brings out to the public information that has just 
been building and building," Fay said. "The research keeps piling up 
that marijuana is not a harmless drug."

The higher potency of marijuana "creates a whole new set of dangers."

Volkow's report includes a section on conditions with symptoms that 
may be relieved by treatment with marijuana, including nausea, 
AIDS-associated anorexia and wasting syndrome, chronic pain, 
inflammation, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.

But in their conclusion, the authors, state, "As policy shifts toward 
legalization of marijuana, it is reasonable and probably prudent to 
hypothesize that its use will increase and that, by extension, so 
will the number of persons for whom there will be negative health consequences."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom