Source: Albany Democrat-Herald (OR) Contact: http://www2.mvonline.com/MV/ Pubdate: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 Author: Hasso Hering, Editor, Albany Democrat-Herald OPINION - MEDICAL EFFECTIVENESS OUTSIDE LAW'S PURVIEW If the sheriff of Multnomah County had a medical degree and had acquired experience treating patients as a doctor, what he says about the medical marijuana initiative would have some weight. Since he does not and has not, he has no standing to declare, as he did last week before the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, that marijuana would be "the least effective and most risky" medication to give to someone. On the subject of the effectiveness of various substances in treating people for illnesses, you would think sheriffs would disqualify themselves. Sheriff Dan Noelle and other sheriffs think that the medical marijuana initiative should not be approved. They believe that it would weaken the notion of marijuana as an illegal drug, that it would lead to more use of marijuana among the young, and that it would lead to more lawlessness and suffering. These are legitimate worries for law enforcement people and anybody else. Some doctors, though, among them initiative sponsor Dr. Rick Bayer of Portland, see the initiative strictly as a medical issue. They make the case that smoking marijuana does have some benefits for some patients in some situations, and they want to be able to advise patients to get it and use it without breaking the law. Logic is on their side. Morphine is addictive and dangerous. Yet doctors are able to prescribe it as needed. The same is true of other powerful pain relievers that make the patient feel wonderfully woozy for a while. (Remember getting high on the stuff the dentist gave you after your last oral surgery?) Nobody says doctors should not be able to prescribe them on the chance that their use could become epidemic among the young. Doctors could legally prescribe marijuana if the federal government reclassified it and put it in the same category as various opiates. It is instructive that in the 1930s, when marijuana was made completely off limits, the American Medical Association opposed the action. Like most sheriffs, the editor of the D-H has no professional knowledge of the effectiveness of marijuana as a medication. But at least some doctors, who should know, say it is effective. It should be legal to use if and when it can help somebody who is sick. (hh) - --- Checked-by: Rich O'Grady