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My ACLU Letter – Medical Cannabis in Iowa

Kat — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:35:04 +0000

I wrote the following letter to the ACLU yesterday, to hopefully encourage them to help out with the Iowa Pharmacy Board’s illogical decision. We need to start looking at this as a legal issue, because it really is…

Subject: Medical Cannabis – The Iowa Pharmacy Board

Hello,

Let me start off with one clarification to my subject: I live in Rock Island, IL. This is in the Quad Cities area (QCA), which is on the Iowa and Illinois border. I was born in Davenport, IA. I have lived in the QCA my entire life, and have lived in each of it’s main cities (there are actually closer to ten cities/towns here) at some point in my life. And I will be frank in saying, my next home will be probably on whichever side of the Mississippi finally gets their act together on medical cannabis.

I am a 35 year old single mother. I currently work two contract jobs, one as a web administrator for a non-profit association in California, the other is as a local food delivery driver. I am also a writer and web designer. I co-own a home, with my mother. I pay taxes, I shop (though as little as I can manage), I drop my kid off at school. I am pretty much a text book example of those people who used to be called middle class, and now know that title is a joke. I’d like to tell you a little bit about why I, personally, care about the medical cannabis situation in the country, and in both Iowa and Illinois, since I still have family on both sides of the river.

While there are people who have it far worse than I, I didn’t do so great in the genetic lottery. I’ve had arthritis and bursitis since I was a teenager. I get chronic migraines, though mine are the low persistent ones – lasting 2 or 3 days – not the head splitting type. As a former type II diabetic (4+ years with non-diabetic A1C levels), I have issues with my appetite which can make it very difficult to eat properly. I have a short abdomen, low arches, and short legs. So basically a day of significant movement hurts after, no matter how easy I take it, or what kind of activities are involved.

I also have sleep apnea, to the degree that I wake up 30 times an hour – on average – according to my last sleep study. I try to be diligent about using my CPAP machine, but it causes my sinuses and throat to dry out so much that it can make me feel like I have the flu for at least an hour after waking up. I have ADHD-PI, and my 14 year old son has combination ADHD, which was diagnosed when he was 5. In the last two months, I’ve started seeing signs of Restless Leg Syndrome. I have yet to see a doctor to check into it, since I don’t currently have medical insurance. This is pretty common with contract workers.

I probably sound like a hypochondriac, but I’m not. I’m just well informed on my medical history, and with a medical history like mine, you have to be. My father died of Leukemia, his half sister has battled the exact same kind of lymphoma twice. In case you don’t know, that’s not supposed to happen to siblings. It’s pretty much unheard of. Most of the women in my family have High Blood Pressure. One aunt has Fibromyalgia. And I told doctors, for close to 10 years, that I was concerned about diabetes. Each doctor gave me the fasting test and said I was fine. It wasn’t until a doctor decided to go further – and give me the A1C – that they found it. He said, based on what my medical history showed, I was probably right 10 years earlier. So when I say I’m showing symptoms of RLS, it’s a good bet the doctors will confirm it, when I can afford to see one.

So what is my point? It is that every medical condition I’ve mentioned, which I and my family have/had, can be assisted by medical cannabis. I have found articles and studies (and I do check sources) that indicate different cannabinoids in marijuana may help with management of every single one of those conditions. Of course, these are usually small studies, often just involving animal testing. There are few studies to prove what all medical cannabis can do, but that’s not going to change until the scheduling of cannabis changes.

And testing is what we really need. Even if/when one of my states approves medical cannabis, the odds of my finding a strain of marijuana – that would adequately address all of my own medical issues – are probably worse than Vegas odds. The researchers working on these conditions need to be able to identify which cannabinoids will affect what, so they can determine how they can be extracted or synthesized. From indications thus far, cannabis could be the most important every day medical substance since aspirin was developed. All indications are that side effects would be non-existent, so any medications derived from the study of marijuana could potentially be a wonder drug. Some people claim that’s a snake-oil salesman argument; but bizarrely it really isn’t. The amount of information that’s already been found does not conclusively prove that cannabis can be developed into drugs for dozens of medical conditions, but it far more than hints that it could be true. In scientific terms; this proof is sound enough to dig much deeper.

The problem is the view of this as a counter-culture issue. It’s not. For over 40 years the second most prescribed medication was a concentrated marijuana extract. Never, not in the history of marijuana’s prohibition or before, has it been solely the domain of the counter culture, but yet that is still how it is portrayed. The only way to change this is with proper scheduling. Cannabis has proven medical effects on some conditions (such as glaucoma), therefore it is not a Schedule I drug. While there is a potential for abuse, there is no medical evidence that its abuse has a potential to cause severe psychological and/or physical dependence, therefore it is not a Schedule II drug.

Schedules IV and V both point upwards. If the substances has a lower potential for dependence upon abuse than substances in Schedule III or above, then it belongs on the lower schedule. Schedule III includes drugs such as ketamine, codeine and anabolic steroids. The lowest Schedule is V, which includes cough medicines with small amounts of codeine, and an anti-diarrheal medication which has opium in it.

So by this point in reviewing the Controlled substances act, the highest that any medical evidence can substantiate putting cannabis would logically be Schedule V, since Schedule IV contains phenobarbital, Xanax and Valium. That the Iowa Pharmacy Board chose to make cannabis a Schedule II drug simply makes no legal or logical sense. Schedule II drugs include cocaine, morphine, methadone and injectable meth-amphetamines. That it remains a Schedule I drug federally is, in a word, ludicrous. Schedule I drugs include heroin, strong opiates, Ecstasy, LSD and mescaline. When you consider that there has never been a case of THC overdose reported, in the recorded history of the world, it becomes absurd to suggest marijuana’s classification should be the same as heroin. You have a better chance of overdosing on Flintstones Vitamins than you do of overdosing on cannabis in any form, or any substance derived from it.

I understand the difficult position the Iowa Pharmacy Board was in, and I understand the difficult position politicians across the globe are in right now. The public, by and large, are confused about the realities of this issue; they think it’s just about drug abusers wanting easier access to drugs. But I believe it is the duty of all parties – including a body like the ACLU whose position is to advocate for the public – to use this opportunity to fix a mistake we made a long time ago. There is no legal standing for any government – federal, state or local – to keep cannabis as a Schedule I, II, III or IV drug. There might be very little standing to keep it as a Schedule V drug, but even that seems is unlikely.

It’s not just a basic rights issue. It’s not just about the judicial nightmare that is overcrowding our jails with otherwise law-abiding, tax-paying users, some of whom were even arrested despite complying with state medical cannabis laws. It’s not just how much cheaper medicines derived from cannabis could be for individuals without decent medical insurance, and how much tax revenue could be generated with medical cannabis. And it’s not just about the millions of people these medicines could help.

It’s also about the law making sense. And cannabis’ current scheduling makes no sense at all.

I hope you will consider assisting Iowans for Medical Marijuana, and other groups who are endeavoring to make Iowa reevaluate their Schedule II decision. If we can’t get the federal government to fix the problem, and let it trickle down, then we need to work our way up. If enough states are forced to correct this, then the federal government will have even less standing for refusing.

Thank you for your time and attention,

Katherine Williams

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