Why does Massachusetts need a medical marijuana law?
Currently, it is against the law for Massachusetts residents who are suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis, and other serious illnesses to use a safe and effective the medicine that relieves their pain, allows them to eat, or otherwise helps them live normal lives. They have to go to the dangerous criminal market or face a felony conviction to obtain the medicine which can enable them to endure chemotherapy or treat their intolerable pain. Seriously ill individuals deserve to live with dignity; they and their doctors should be free to determine the best course of treatment concerning their health.
Does marijuana have medical value?
Yes. Indeed, the Institute of Medicine concluded in its 1999 report "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base" reported “Nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting, and all can be mitigated by marijuana." You can read excerpts from the report here. Considering that an estimated 20% of all cancer deaths are caused by patients wasting away, marijuana could save hundreds of Massachusetts residents' lives.
In its resolution supporting safe and legal access to marijuana, the American Public Health Association (APHA) listed many of symptoms that studies have shown that marijuana alleviates: “reducing intraocular pressure in glaucoma; reducing nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy; simulating the appetite for patients living with AIDS …; controlling spasticity associated with spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis; decreasing the suffering from chronic pain; and controlling seizures.”
Isn’t there a pill made of marijuana that patients can take?
There is a pill that contains one of the 85 active components of marijuana. THC, the component responsible for cannabis’s “high,” is sold as the prescription pill Marinol. But people who use the pill find that it commonly takes an hour or more to work, while vaporized or smoked marijuana takes effect almost instantaneously. Scientists agree that taking THC orally is the worst way to use it, as it is absorbed very slowly and unevenly -- and taking a pill may be completely impossible for someone with severe nausea and vomiting. It is also extremely expensive.
Research has clearly shown that marijuana’s other components play a role in its therapeutic benefits. For example, cannabidiol (CBD) has been shown to have anti-nausea, anti-anxiety, and anti-inflammatory actions, as well as the ability to protect nerve cells from many kinds of damage. Marinol simply does not work for some patients.
How can you call something a medicine when you have to smoke it?
Marijuana need not be smoked. It can be eaten in food, drank in tea, administered in tinctures, or administered by a rapid-onset smoke-free vaporizer. Vaporizers have the advantage of rapid-onset delivery without requiring smoke inhalation. But even when medical marijuana is smoked, the IOM has noted that for some patients -- particularly those with terminal conditions or not responding to standard therapies -- those risks would be “of little consequence,” adding, “We acknowledge that there is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting.”
Isn’t marijuana too dangerous to use as a medicine?
In 1988, the DEA’s own chief administrative law judge ruled that marijuana is “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known.” It has never caused a lethal overdose, unlike OxyContin, Tylenol, and even water. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported in 1998 that each year there are 106,000 fatal adverse drug reactions in hospitals. Tylenol kills about 500 people per year. While all medications have side effects, marijuana’s are far less dangerous than death.
Wouldn't passing a medical marijuana law in Massachusetts send the wrong message to kids and lead to an increase in marijuana use among teens?
No. The message will be identical to message sent for drugs like OxyContin: Medicines are only to be used in accordance a doctor’s advice. In every medical marijuana state that has had a law long enough to collect data from after the law was enacted, teen marijuana use has decreased. For example, California, which passed the first effective medical marijuana law in 1996, has seen particularly large reductions in teen marijuana use, ranging from 40% to 50% in many categories.
View the full report.
How are other states' medical marijuana laws working?
The 14 state medical marijuana laws are generally working well. While California’s law has caused some controversy, it is far different from the others. It was the first state medical marijuana law, and was enacted by initiative. It’s far broader and more vague than the other 12 laws, allowing marijuana to be used for any condition and failing to provide any regulations or licensing of dispensaries. The other laws haven't created problems for law enforcement or the programs' administers and they have protected thousands of seriously ill patients. Consequently, the laws become more and more popular as time as passed.
A 2002 report by Congress' investigational arm interviewed 37 selected law enforcement organizations about the effect of medical marijuana laws in their states. It found that most of them "indicated that medical marijuana laws had had little impact on their law enforcement activities."
Especially in states with more carefully crafted laws, law enforcement is seeing that they do not cause problems. Col. James Baker of the Vermont State Police told WCAX-TV on October 18 2007, "At this point, four years into this, we're comfortable with what's happening and we believe that the people who are getting it are getting it under the true color.”