Swifter progress needed on cannabis as medicine
Last Friday, Lezley and Mark Gibson received suspended sentences for supplying cannabis chocolate to MS sufferers. From the steps of the court, a tearful Mrs Gibson, herself an MS sufferer told reporters, 'I don't know what I did wrong'.
From the legal point of view, what she did wrong was clear; she illegally supplied a Class C drug (the lack of profit motive being irrelevant as far as the letter of the law is concerned) and those who received the chocolate bars could have been charged with possession. But should such prosecutions be brought? Is there another way for MS patients, convinced of the efficacy of cannabis to allieviate the symptoms of their condition, to have access to cannabis without risking a criminal charge, but without legalising cannabis for everybody? Maybe.
Most people are familiar with the ABC classification of drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act where drugs are classified according to their perceived danger to society. But there is a lesser known set of schedules which sit alongside the ABC list, regulating the same group of drugs according to their medical value. So cannabis is a Schedule 1 drug, reserved for that group of drugs with no recognised medical application while diamorphine (heroin) is a Schedule 2 drug. Drugs in this category can be made available through a doctor's prescription - hence morphine can be used to treat chronic pain in cancer patients.
The history of cannabis for medical purposes goes back many centuries and the clinical evidence has been growing over the past thirty years. The House of Lords, the BMA and politicians such as David Cameron have all backed medicinal use of cannabis. GW Pharmaceuticals have a Home Office licence to produce cannabis for medical research and the company have launched a cannabis product in Canada.
But the whole process is extremely slow. Meanwhile there are many ill people who claim that cannabis in its natural state is better at controlling painful symptoms than standard treatments. Medical opinion is divided and the MS Society does not support use of non-pharmaceutical products. But the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. It seems most unlikely that a group of patients, most of whom are as far removed from rebellious, risk-taking youth culture as you could imagine, would willingly add to the stress of their condition, by stepping outside the law to obtain medication if they weren't both desperate and convinced of its efficacy.
So how could these people be helped in the short term? There should be some investigation as to whether cannabis could be rescheduled from 1 to 2. If this were possible, of itself it would assist research into legitimate cannabis products, which ultimately is the best option.
But as currently there are no legitimate compounds to prescribe to aid MS patients. there might be an option of amending the Schedule such that you would not be charged with cannabis possession if you could produce a medical note confirming a diagnosis of MS. And if every MS patient was offered such a note on first diagnosis, then they could later make a choice whether or not to try and obtain cannabis which would avoid any doctor being charged with conspiracy. And anybody wishing to supply the drug, would have to demonstrate that they were not trading for profit and may be required to keep a register. In fact this is what the Gibsons did; they only supplied to those who could produce medical proof. Any commercial cannabis dealer would face prosecution irrespective of whether or not they were dealing for medical purposes.
So not a 'backdoor for legalisation' or a 'pot smokers charter' [add your own headline here], but an interim, pragmatic and humane response to a medical and legal dilemma. After all, imagine the outcry if morphine was denied to cancer patients because an illegal equivalent was being sold on the streets.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6302409.stm
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/
ldselect/ldsctech/151/15101.htm
http://lifestyle.aol.co.uk/health/cameron-in-promise-over-cannabis/article/20070120210809990009
2 comments:
http://druglink.blogspot.com/2007/01/swifter-progress-needed-on-cannabis-as.html
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By Molly Shen
August 7, 2009
Less than three months into his job as the nation's Drug Czar, and former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske found himself under fire, quoted as saying "marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit."
Back in Seattle for a roundtable discussion on drug policy, Kerlikowske sat down with KOMO News and addressed the comment.
"I certainly said that legalization is not in the president's vocabulary nor is it in mine," Kerlikowske said. "But the other question was in reference to smoked marijuana. And as we know, the FDA has not determined that smoked marijuana has a value, and this is clearly a medical question and that's where I've been leaving it."
Asked if he regretted what he said, Kerlikowske said, "Sometimes you make a mistake and you work very hard to correct it. That happens. I should've clearly said 'smoked' marijuana and then gone on to say that this is clearly a question that should be answered by the medical community."
Kerlikowske's stand on legalizing marijuana for everyone is more clear-cut.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy, by law, actively works against legalizing drugs.
"You know from the University of Washington, the number-one call from young people for treatment here, after alcohol, is marijuana. So I'm not seeing the benefit to society with legalization at all."
And Kerlikowske sees an even bigger problem with prescription drug abuse.
"Young people look at all this and say, 'Gee, I'm not buying it from behind a convenience store, it's not in a piece of tin foil.' They're pharmaceuticals. Well, these pharmaceuticals can be just as deadly," Kerlikowske said.
Kerlikowske calls Michael Jackson's death a wake-up call. The toxicology report is expected to show the music icon died of a prescription drug overdose.
And the former cop knows, more people die from drug overdose than from gunshot wounds.
"I think people can do something about it," he said. "One, we need a law about how to dispose of drugs safely."
As Seattle's top cop, Kerlikowske was known for his 70-hour work weeks.
That hasn't changed.
"There hasn't been a lot of breaks so far," he said. "But you know, the job is challenging, it's exciting and the responsibilities of trying to address this issue in a much more balanced way is what keeps me energized."
And keeps him busy.
Kerlikowske is travelling the world, shaping the president's national drug control strategy, to be rolled out after the first of the year.
His roundtable this weekend includes U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, as well as law enforcement and health care providers.
He'll attend a total of eight roundtables across the country. His job also takes him to Mexico next month and Afghanistan in the fall.
I would like to ask why is alcohol legalized?
Is it more respectable than pot?
would legalized marijuana compete with the wine sales? is that what they fear
the war on marijuana is just plain silly
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