When it comes to medical marijuana, I’ve been torn.
I believe suffering patients deserve relief. I also know that powerful pain-killers are over-prescribed and tragically addictive — and that this country spends far too much money arresting and imprisoning weed-smokers.
But expanding access to any drug gives me pause. I don’t want a pot shop on every corner. Nor do I want to make it easier for kids to get drugs.
So in trying to assess Amendment 2 on next week’s ballot, I went searching for answers. I read the amendment’s fine print. I interviewed attorneys on both sides.
Here’s what I found and concluded. You don’t have to agree. Just know that, unlike John Morgan or Big Pharma, I have no dog in this hunt — and that I’ve never been a big pot proponent.
Opponents say this amendment would allow doctors to recommend marijuana for all sorts of reasons — not just cancer.
That is true. No matter what the ads say, the amendment gives doctors wide discretion with the catch-all category of any “debilitating medical condition.”
Is that unusual?
Nope. In fact, that’s how it already works for most every drug in the world. Doctors aren’t statutorily required to diagnose certain illnesses before prescribing morphine, oxycodone or other powerful drugs. Pot would be recommended the way most drugs are prescribed — by doctors who make judgment calls.
Marijuana impairs judgment.
You bet it does. So does alcohol. Yet alcohol is used by exponentially more Americans. If our concern is impaired driving — or just impairment in general — we should be leading a campaign to make booze illegal.
Marijuana can impair brain development, especially in young-adult users.
True again. Recent research has focused on this.
Will there be regulation?
You bet. This amendment has some clear regulations other states don’t — including a requirement for patients to get state-issued IDs and instructing the Department of Health to limit possession levels and register treatment centers.
Could we have pot shops on every corner?
Only if Florida’s uber-conservative Legislature wants it that way. Fat chance. The health department (which answers to the governor and Legislature) would regulate medical marijuana. And no honest broker would tell you that this Legislature will set up liberal pot laws. In fact, that’s part of the checks and balances. Now, the anti-pot folks are right that courts could overrule legislators. But the amendment spells out state control.
Would this issue be better handled through legislation?
Maybe. But legislators refused to do so — despite repeated pleas. That’s why patient advocates were forced to take the constitutional-amendment route. So people who make the argument that legislation would be preferable are either being disingenuous or ignoring reality. It’s like saying: You can either do A or B … except we won’t let you do A …. and we’ll criticize you if you do B. Now make your choice.
Medical marijuana is legal in 23 other states — and works well. (Or is a mess.)
True. (And true.) Both sides selectively choose anecdotes to make their cases. Florida’s plan is not like California’s, which is more permissive. And it’s sure not Colorado (where pot is fully legal). But it’s not as restrictive as Arizona’s either.
So where does all this leave us?
As I listened, it struck me that most of the arguments against medical marijuana could also be made against substances that are already legal — whether it’s worries about doctor abuse (oxycodone), impaired judgment (alcohol), health concerns (cigarettes) or so on.
Yet we’ve decided that the medical benefits or personal freedoms outweigh the concerns for all those things. So don’t think those worries are reason enough to deny help in the form of medical marijuana to people who are sick and hurting.
Nor is it good reason for this state to spend tax dollars arresting and imprisoning individual users.
So I’ll vote yes. I want doctors to make medical decisions. Not politicians.
Especially not politicians like ours — who repeatedly refused to find common-ground solutions, forcing this issue on the ballot, where we find it today.
