What Is Medical Marijuana and Why is it Important?

• A Brief History
• Patient Arrests
• The Human Side

A Brief History Of Medical Marijuana (Cannabis)

During the mid-1800s, cannabis became an accepted therapy by Western medicine. By the beginning of the 20th Century, more than 100 papers on it had been published by physicians in Western medical literature, and it was a recognized treatment for over 100 separate ailments. Marijuana was officially removed from in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia in 1942 after passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. This legislation severely limited the ability of physicians to prescribe the compound, and as a result, the American Medical Association became one of the most vocal opponents of the ban. In 1937, it foretold of today’s battle by saying,

"The obvious purpose of and effect of this bill [Marijuana Tax Act] is to impose so many restrictions on the medicinal use [of cannabis] as to prevent such use altogether. ... It may serve to deprive the public of the benefits of a drug that on further research may prove to be of substantial benefit."

Marijuana’s illegal position was solidified after Congress passed the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, which placed it on Schedule 1 in the same category with heroin and LSD, drugs deemed to have high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.

In 1978, after a young cancer patient named Lynn Pierson brought marijuana’s medicinal value to the attention of the New Mexico State legislature, the nation’s first law concerning medical cannabis was overwhelmingly passed. Many other states, including conservative ones like Florida and Louisiana, followed New Mexico’s lead, and by December 1991, Massachusetts Governor William Weld signed the nation’s thirty-fourth state law recognizing marijuana’s potential as medicine. All of these laws gained wide bipartisan support. Essentially, by 1991, 87% of legislators in 34 states had voted to end the prohibition of medical marijuana. However, many state efforts were effectively thwarted by federal drug agencies.

During the mid-1970s, Robert Randall, who suffered from severe glaucoma, found that cannabis relieved visual halos produced by the disease. In 1977, after painstakingly documenting the inability of conventional medicine to control his symptoms, Randall became the first patient to obtain government-supplied cannabis from what was to become known as the Compassionate IND program. Cultivated at the University of Mississippi, the marijuana was rolled and packaged at the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina under the supervision of the National Institute of Drug Abuse. By 1991, the program had 13 patients enrolled in it.

As the AIDS epidemic spread in the 1980s, patients began to find that marijuana countered wasting syndrome and the nausea and vomiting that accompanied powerful AIDS drugs. Facing an onslaught of new applications from AIDS patients, the Public Health Service under the first Bush Administration closed the Compassionate IND program to new patients in 1992. Seven surviving patients currently remain in this program and receive marijuana for their medical conditions from the Federal government each month.

Frustrated by the closure of the Compassionate IND program and the federal obstacles that were placed in the way of implementing state programs, a group of California medical marijuana activists wrote Proposition 215 and placed it on the California ballot in the fall of 1996. The initiative passed by a margin of 56%/44%. Since then, similar initiatives have been passed in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, all by significant margins. Maine, Nevada, and Oregon have successfully implemented programs.

In spite of the political battlefield, research into the medical use of marijuana is expanding. British pharmaceutical company, GW Pharmaceuticals, has several cannabis-based medicines in Phase III of clinical trails. Indications include pain from spinal cord injury, Multiple Sclerosis, cancer, and nerve damage. Approval and launch in Europe are expected in 2004, but it may be ten years or more before this medicine passes through the approval process in the United States to once again become available on prescription basis.

Cannabis is being studied for the treatment of numerous other diseases and conditions including glaucoma, dementia, Tourettes syndrome, and wasting syndrome from AIDS/HIV. Emerging research suggests that cannabis may also act as a neuro-protectant in brain injuries and safeguard the body from some malignant tumors.

Medical Marijuana Patient Numbers And Arrests

In February 2002, The Ottawa Citizen reported that a poll by Price Waterhouse-Coopers for Health Canada placed the use of medicinal marijuana by Canadians age 15 and over at about 4% of the country’s population. Assuming that 4% is an accurate figure for medical marijuana use in the U.S. – many argue that this figure is too low – and applying it to the U.S. population over age fifteen (an estimated 219,088,000 people) reveals that almost nine million Americans use cannabis medicinally. Multiplying this 4% times the 734,000 marijuana arrests in 2000 indicates that roughly 29,000 individuals whose use of cannabis was likely medicinal were arrested that year, equaling about 600 per state. This number is probably much larger in more populous states like New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Ohio. Applying this calculation to all marijuana arrests in the last ten years finds that nearly one-quarter of a million people in the United States have been arrested on marijuana-related offenses that are medicinal in origin. The magnitude of these numbers shows the reason for activist outrage over the issue and the public’s interest in addressing it.

As stated earlier, marijuana cultivation, possession, and distribution violates Federal law as well as the laws of all states. Penalties vary considerably. In Oklahoma, simple marijuana possession can result in a year in prison, but in states like Ohio, Nebraska, or Colorado, which have decriminalized marijuana, the penalty for less than 100 grams is a civil citation with a $100 fine. Some states also revoke drivers’ licenses with marijuana arrests, a major problem for patients with mobility problems. Cultivation and distribution are almost always more serious offenses.

In addition, a marijuana arrest can leave a patient with a criminal record, and as a result, trouble finding and keeping employment often follow. Under the Higher Education Act, also mentioned earlier, conviction for possession of even a small quantity of marijuana disqualifies the patient from receiving federal college loans. Patients with a marijuana convictions can also lose Workers Compensation benefits, federal housing, assistant dogs, visiting nurses, voting rights, and even their own children. The harsh marijuana penalties and sanctions inspired by the "War on Drugs" have had a devastating effect on patients whose only crime is to find relief in a medication that is currently non-approved.

The Human Side Of Medical Marijuana

In July 1980, Toledo, Ohio, resident, Dan Asbury, fell from a fence and broke his back, rendering him a quadriplegic paralyzed from the chest down. For years, doctors prescribed pain medications for the burning sensation in his legs, but nothing worked. Then in 1983, a friend, who was also a quadriplegic, suggested that he try marijuana. It helped relieve both the physical and emotional pain resulting from his condition. Because of marijuana’s expense and unreliable availability, Asbury decided to grow his own medicine, which became a patch of about a dozen plants in his back yard. A neighbor complained, and when police investigated, Asbury was arrested. He was subsequently convicted in March of 1995 of trafficking in marijuana, a fourth degree felony in the State of Ohio, in spite of the fact that no customers, scales, or money were presented as evidence. To this day, Asbury remains on probation.

Another quadriplegic, Louis E. Cover Jr., who used cannabis to relieve painful muscle spasms, illustrates the great disparity in marijuana laws. In March 1999, Cover, a Georgia resident, was sentenced to seven years of probation for felony marijuana possession. In January 2000, claiming they had received numerous anonymous complaints and seen people coming and going from Cover’s home, police obtained a search warrant. They only found about 1.25 ounces of marijuana. However, it was enough for the judge in the case to revoke his probation and send him to prison. According the Georgia Department of Corrections, his special care will cost almost $260 per day. Over the course of his seven-year sentence, the price tag will exceed $660,000. As a final insult, using the marijuana conviction, the District Attorney of Richmond County, Georgia, filed a civil forfeiture claim against Covar’s father who purchased the home next to his own in order to care for his son.

One of the most egregious medical marijuana cases belongs to Will Foster from Oklahoma. An Army veteran, college graduate, computer programmer, business owner, and father of three, Foster had an all-American background. He also used marijuana to relieve the chronic pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Late in 1995, acting on a tip that Foster was selling methamphetamine, police broke into his home and tore it apart in front of his terrified 5-year old daughter. Instead of finding meth, police uncovered Foster’s marijuana garden of about 70 plants concealed in an old bomb shelter. According to expert testimony provided by his defense, this would have been about the right number for someone who used cannabis daily to control pain. But the prosecution exaggerated the amount of usable marijuana, and in 1996, Foster was sentenced to 93 years in prison. Declaring that the sentence "shocks our conscience," the Oklahoma State Appeals Court reduced it to 20 years in 1998, making Foster eligible for parole. Twice in 1999, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously recommended Foster’s release, only to twice have it turned down by Oklahoma governor, Frank Keating. Foster was finally set free in 2001 after serving four and a half years.

As a result of his ordeal, Foster, along with James Dawson, established Adopt a Green Prisoner, an outreach program to help medical cannabis patients and prisoners like Dan Asbury, Louis Cover, Jr., Roy Sharpnack, Patrick Elmore, and many others who run afoul of U.S. marijuana laws.