Pubdate: Wed, 20 May 2015
Source: Middletown Press, The (CT)
Copyright: 2015 The Middletown Press
Contact:  http://www.middletownpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/586
Author: Kathleen Schassler

LACK OF RESEARCH CLOUDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA DEBATE

Yale Professor: Safety, THC Content, Expanding Use at Issue

MIDDLETOWN - Since the federal government historically has obstructed 
scientific research of marijuana, there's an absence of highquality 
evidence, just as many states, including Connecticut, already have 
rolled out the red carpet to the fast-growing medical marijuana industry.

It's a Catch 22, according to Dr. Deepak C. D'Souza, a Yale 
professor-psychiatrist and member of the Medical Marijuana Board of Physicians.

"In the absence of gold-standard evidence, what is the bar for 
legalization?" D'Souza asked Tuesday at the Middlesex County 
Substance Abuse Action Council's spring forum.

D'Souza believes that the state's medical marijuana program is a 
"runaway train," according to the event invitation sent by Betsey S. 
Chadwick, director of MCSAAC.

While the consumer protection commissioner claims that the medical 
marijuana program is in a race against time to bring relief to more 
patients, one panel member physician (D'Souza) keeps championing the 
scientific method and voting down a quick expansion of marijuana use, 
the email said.

As a new round of diseases were considered by the state's board of 
physicians, ultimately two conditions, including ulcerative colitis 
and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the latter better known as ALS or 
Lou Gehrig's disease, have been approved for MMJ.

Those recommendations were approved recently by consumer protection 
Commissioner Jonathan A. Harris.

D'Souza has often cast the sole dissenting votes in the state's 
search to approve new, qualifying medical conditions under the 
medical marijuana statute.

During the hour-long talk Tuesday, the doctor at times lightly 
scratched the surface on a few highly technical, scientific details 
about the plant, existing studies and complication of its study based 
on its 483 separate constituents, or components, D'Souza said.

"There is no single drug that can treat all approved conditions," 
which are very diverse ailments with no "common pathophysiology."

Though many advocates of medical marijuana claim that stringent 
regulations will better control society's use or legalization will 
reduce discriminatory punitive damages against an enormous number of 
drug offenders tying up the nation's judicial and prison systems.

"It's unstudied. Marijuana has more than 400 constituents. Most 
available drugs have one or two," said D'Souza. "The cannabis you get 
in Middletown may be different than what you get in New Haven."

Plants now are engineered to produce more or less of certain 
components that are believed to help people suffering from chronic 
ailments and diseases. No one can compare the safety of marijuana 
fromthe 1960s to today, D'Souza said.

"The THC content is rising, from ditch weed to skunk and sensimilla," 
said D'Souza, adding that higher numbers of serious adverse events 
occur today from pot use, and related visits to the emergency room are up, too.

Why use something that has not been tested, D'Souza asked. Since any 
existing studies are not well-documented, "What are the risks?"

It's been determined that tolerance, dependence and withdrawal 
symptoms are all connected to long-term marijuana use, he said. 
Though marijuana's effect may "reduce anxiety and distress," it may 
not actually affect the disease process.

"We need to establish clear, transparent, scientific studies to 
validate why one condition gets approved and another is not approved."

Voting no to use it for Tourette syndrome and yes to ulcerative 
colitis shows an inconsistent response, according to D'Souza. Doctors 
need to be educated, he said.

"I'd argue there's a lot of money to be made here by growers, the 
state and doctors that prescribe," D'Souza said. "I wish it weren't 
about money."

In its first year, Colorado saw a tax revenue bump of $60 million 
through marijuana legalization, according to a report by Politifact.com.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom