should medical marijuana be legalized

Proposition 215Medical Marijuana Initiative Section
1. Section 11362.5 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:
11362.5. (a) This section shall be known and may be cited as the
Compassionate Use Act of 1996. (b) (l) The people of the State of
California hereby findand declare that the purposes of the
Compassionate Use Act of 1996 are as follows: (A) To ensure that
seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for
medical purposes where that medical use is deemed appropriate and has
been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person's
health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer,
anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or
any other illness for which marijuana provides relief. (B) To ensure that
patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for
medical purposes upon the recommendation of a physician are not
subject to criminal prosecution or sanction. (C) To encourage the federal
and state governments toimplement a plan to provide for the safe and
affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of
marijuana. (2) Nothing in this act shall be construed to supersede
legislation prohibiting persons from engaging in conductthat endangers
others, nor to condone the diversion of marijuana for nonmedical
purposes. With standing any other provision of law, no physician in this
state shall be punished, or denied any right or privilege, for having
recommended marijuana to a patient for medical purposes. (d) Section
11357, relating to the possession of marijuana, and Section 11358,
relating to the cultivation of marijuana, shall not apply to a patient, or to a
patient's primary caregiver, who possesses or cultivates marijuana for the
personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral
recommendation or approval of a physician. (e) For the purposes of this
section, "primary caregiver" means the individual designated by the
person exempted under this act who has consistently assumed
responsibility for the housing, health, or safety of that person. Sec. 2. If

any provision of this measure or the application thereof to any person or
circumstance is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions
or applications of the measure which can be given effect without the
invalid provision or application, and to this en d the provisions of this
measure are severable. On November 5th, Californians approved Prop.
215, allowing patients to use medical marijuana. Voter support of this
historic new law was 55.7% in favor verses only 44.3% opposed, a
spread of 11.4 points. The passage of Proposition 215 would give the
people of California legal access to a remarkably safe, highly versatile,
and potentially inexpensive medicine. Patients find marijuana helpful for
nausea and vomiting, for glaucoma and as an appetite stimulant. It is
used for the relief of muscle spasms and seizures, as well as
osteoarthritis, menstrual cramps, migraine and other forms of chronic
pain. It is safer than most prescriptionmedicines and often works better,
with less serious side effects. If marijuana were not prohibited, it would
also be less expensive than most conventional medications. The cost of
medical marijuana would be $20 to $30 an ounce, or about 30 cents per
cigarette. Once cigarette usually relieves the nausea and vomiting
produced by cancer chemotherapy. So does a standard dose of Zofran,
the best legally available treatment, which costs $30 to $40 - at least 100
times the price of marijuana. According to a 1995 poll conducted by the
American Civil Liberties Union, 85 percent of Americans think marijuana
should be available as a medicine. Interest in medical marijuana is
becoming so great that physicians in California and elsewhere may soon
be asked to assume responsibilities for which they are unprepared.
Nineteenth-century doctors were more sophisticated about marijuana
than contemporary ones. Between 1840 and 1900, more than 100 articles
on the therapeutic use of the drug then known as Indian hemp were
published in European and American medical journals. When medical
use in the United States was effectively outlawed by the Marijuana Tax

Act of 1937, the American Medical Association, to its credit, opposed the
ban. Since then, unfortunately, the medical community has become
largely ignorant about marijuana and has been a victim and an agent in
the spread of misinformation. This situation is finally beginning to change.
Doctors are learning about marijuana in an unusual way not from articles
in medical journals or from drug company advertisements, but from their
patients. There have been many cases observed that many patients who
use marijuana to relieve symptoms from muscle spasms to severe
depression. Their doctors respond in different ways. A few condemn
marijuana use, and some pretend to ignore it or profess indifference, but
most offer some encouragement or moral support despite the fact that
marijuana is classified under federal law as "unsafe for use under medical
supervision."Obviously doctors confronted with medical need can
recognize the foolishness of this law. But most are either afraid to do
anything more or unable to provide further help because they know to
little. Physicians will find that more and more patients are approaching
them with questions about marijuana. They will have to learn
whichsymptoms and disorders may be better treated with marijuana than
with conventional medications. They will also need to instruct patients
who are unfamiliar with marijuana in the best ways to use it. To
accomplish that, they must listen more carefully to their patients and
educated themselves and one another about this medicine.Physicians
have long recognized the need for continuing medical education (CME) to
keep themselves up to date on new drugs and techniques. As Proposition
215 comes to California, physicians should do their part in fulfilling its
promise by organizing CME courses on the medical use of marijuana.