Legal-pot supporters just want to get high

JANET BLANK
Before medical-marijuana legalization comes to the ballot again, some facts need to be highlighted.

The active ingredient in marijuana, THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, is already available. The prescription drug known as dronabinol — brand name Marinol — contains THC in a standardized, tested and FDA-approved pill form.

It has little demand. Why? Because there are better prescription drugs available for the indicated health problems. In other words, patients have not shown significant benefits from Marinol, especially when taking into account its side effects, which include dizziness, drowsiness, confusion, hallucinations, mood and mental changes, rapid heartbeat, anxiety, paranoia, an exaggerated sense of well-being, nausea, vomiting and stomach and abdominal pain.

So why are people still proposing its legalization despite its availability in prescription form? Why would most proponents of medical marijuana rather use and support the use of marijuana, a plant, which yields variable and unpredictable blood levels?

Because the pot users love the delivery system — inhalation or ingesting a food with pot in it. They think if medical marijuana is legalized, they will have easier access to recreational marijuana. In California, a state which has passed marijuana for medical use, the overprescribing and overuse is well-documented.

The proponents have no real interest in the pill form. They much prefer smoking and eating their way into euphoria and drowsiness, while not acknowledging marijuana’s detrimental effects on our society, such as being a “gateway” to other illegal drug usage; increasing law enforcement’s burden because of the difficulty of measuring marijuana blood levels and its effects; being easier than alcohol to use in a car; increasing the number of emergency-room visits as a result of children eating food containing marijuana; and inhibiting motivation.

Michael Botticelli, National Drug Control Policy director, says that the very “legalization of marijuana gives the wrong message … the message that there is no harm to it.”

Medical marijuana is a road to recreational marijuana. Do we really need another recreational drug besides alcohol? Alcohol is here to stay. Dead issue. But marijuana is the issue today that we have before us.