Jeff DeMoss
The Utah Legislature has until March 8 to take up a bill regarding
medical marijuana in the state, but many people who support legalization
aren’t holding their breath.
Count local farmer and Box Elder County Commissioner Stan Summers among them.
Summers
has become an outspoken supporter of medical marijuana after learning
that the drug could help his 26-year-old son, Talon, who has an
inflammatory condition that leaves him in a state of chronic pain. The
medications that doctors are allowed to prescribe in Utah haven’t been
very effective in helping manage Talon’s pain, and a growing body of
research suggests that marijuana could be the best answer, Summers said.
Recent
studies show that marijuana can be an effective pain management
solution for people in a similar situation as Talon, and Summers’
frustration at the Legislature for its failure to act on the issue thus
far is growing with each day he has to watch his son suffer.
“You
don’t want to hold someone’s hand and tell them there’s nothing you can
do for them,” he said. “If this is going to help him, let’s make it
legal someway. Just make something legal so I don’t have to look behind
my back when I’m trying to get him what he needs.”
Utah already
has a provision allowing a narrow population of people with certain
types of seizures to use oil infused with cannibidiol, a
non-psychoactive compound found in marijuana that has demonstrated
medicinal value. But Summers said that leaves out the vast majority of
people who need marijuana to alleviate the symptoms of their illnesses,
and it doesn’t allow for the use of THC, the ingredient in marijuana
that produces the high, and also provides pain relief.
“There’s
probably 100,000 people in the state who don’t fit the hole,” he said.
“(The current law) doesn’t even come close to reaching everyone who
needs it.”
Summers is not holding out much hope for progress on
the issue this session, even though there are likely to be several
proposals floated over the next five weeks. No one seems to be willing
to take up the mantle, he said, ever since Utah County Senator Mark
Madsen left the Legislature in 2016 following an unsuccessful attempt at
legalization.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to take that
problem,” Summers said. “It’s one of those things where no one wants to
put their name on it, even though everybody wants it.”
The most
recent polls suggest widespread public support for medical marijuana
across the political spectrum in the state. Results released last week
from a joint poll by The Salt Lake Tribune and the University of Utah’s
Hinckley Institute of Politics show that 76 percent of Utah voters are
in favor of medical marijuana – about the same level of support
indicated by similar polls conducted in 2017.
Those poll results include
64 percent of Republican respondents showing their support, as well as
majorities of voters who aren’t necessarily affiliated with a political
party, but identify themselves as “conservative” or “very conservative.”
Also,
a recent poll by Dan Jones & Associates found that 76 percent of
voters who identify as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints support the legalization of medical marijuana.
“Then you’ve got just a couple of naysayers,” Summers said. “
Summers
said that based on conversations he has had, the Legislature will most
likely wait and see what happens in the fall, as it appears likely there
will be a ballot initiative put forth to voters in November of this
year.
If the ballot measure were to pass, adults in Utah (or
minors through a parent or legal guardian) would be able to receive a
card to legally use marijuana from the Utah Department of Health based
on a physician’s recommendation. The health department would start
issuing the cards by March 1, 2020.
The initiative would also
allow for the licensing of growing operations, testing laboratories, and
dispensaries. The number of dispensaries allowed in a given area would
be based on a population density formula, so patients in rural counties
might have to travel to the Wasatch Front to obtain marijuana. Based on
the current formula, one dispensary would be allowed in Box Elder County
and up to eight in Salt Lake County, the state’s most populous county.
Dispensaries
would be allowed to sell marijuana to card holders, and there are
limits on the amount any one patient could buy in a given two-week
period.
The measure also includes a provision that would allow
card holders to grow up to six plants for personal use starting in 2021 –
but only those who live more than 100 miles from the nearest
dispensary. Other provisions would include bans on smoking marijuana,
driving under the influence of the drug, or using it in public view
except in medical emergencies. Marijuana would also be exempt from state
sales tax.
Local governments would be limited in their ability to
restrict medical marijuana-related activities, as they would be
prohibited by the state from banning cultivation, processing, testing
and dispensary facilities on the basis that marijuana remains illegal
under federal law. They would be allowed to regulate times, locations
and procedures for dispensing marijuana, and related businesses wouldn’t
be allowed within 600 feet of schools, public parks, playgrounds,
churches or libraries, or within 300 feet of residential areas.
A
group called the Utah Patients Coalition is behind the effort to put the
issue before voters.
According to DJ Schanz, director of the coalition,
the petition is on track to receive the nearly 113,000 signatures
needed within a couple of weeks -- about two months before the April 15
deadline.
Republican Rep. Scott Sandall of Tremonton isn’t
planning to sponsor a bill on the issue, but said he supports
legalization under the right conditions.
“I
am very much in favor of medical marijuana if we can get it into a
dosable form,” Sandall said.
“It’s time for us to get into labs, break
down the THC and cannabidiol (the compounds in marijuana on which most
research is focused), get it into a pill or something else with so many
parts of this and so many parts of that, and figure out how that affects
a person of a certain weight. Otherwise, it’s a crap shoot on what a
patient’s response will be.”
He said the Legislature approved some
funding last year for marijuana-related research at the University of
Utah, but their hands are tied because the substance is still illegal at
the federal level.
Sandall would like to see a solution go
through the Legislature, as he said ballot initiatives can be
problematic. If voters approve the initiative, he said legislators would
still have to go back and deal with the many specific provisions
included, as the issue is still fraught with potential legal problems
and other ramifications.
“Ballot initiatives are troublesome
because they tend to be very narrowly focused,” he said. “If it passes,
the legislature has to respond after its passing.”
While he
remains frustrated with the slow pace in the Legislature on the issue,
Summers sees plenty of reason for optimism as well, as he says he is
witnessing a gradual change in attitude at the federal level as well. He
has made trips to Washington, D.C. to testify and share his family’s
experience, and believes that effort is helping to make an impact on
policymakers.
“Eighteen months ago, Senator Hatch got on the
Senate floor and talked about marijuana as a gateway drug, and after our
interaction, he put in a bill to start federal trials (on marijuana
research),” Summers said.
Meanwhile, he’s trying to make progress
at the state level as well. He said he’s met with lobbyists for the LDS
Church at the state capitol, one of whom told him “we’ve got to look out
for the good of the whole.
“That’s telling me to look at the 99
and not the one,” he said. “I’ve been a card-carrying member (of the
Church) my whole life, and I was never taught that.”
He said he
understands the lingering perception of marijuana as a recreational
drug, but believes times have changed, and state policy should be
adjusted accordingly.
“We’re not talking about Cheech and Chong.
We’re talking about right and wrong,” Summers said. “The generation of
‘get high and make love’ is gone, and the rest of us are just trying to
get by.”
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