Marijuana Policy Project

MONDAY'S 6-1 vote by the state Senate Health Committee to approve medical marijuana legislation sponsored by Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Linden, bodes well for New Jersey, and particularly for citizens suffering from a variety of painful, hard-to-treat illnesses. By protecting such patients from arrest, New Jersey can help avoid untold suffering.

The evidence of marijuana's safety and efficacy continues to mount. In just the last two years, results have been published from three separate clinical trials documenting that medical marijuana safely and effectively relieves what is known as neuropathic pain - pain caused by damage to the nerves. This type of pain, common in multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, diabetes and other illnesses, is notoriously resistant to conventional pain drugs, even highly addictive narcotics.

In all three studies, conducted at the University of California under a state-funded program established a decade ago, marijuana provided meaningful relief with remarkably few side effects.

Old studies

But that's not really news. Back in 1995, the American Public Health Association endorsed legal access to medical marijuana, stating, "Cannabis/marijuana has been used medicinally for centuries... Marijuana has an extremely wide acute margin of safety for use under medical supervision and cannot cause lethal reactions ... Greater harm is caused by the legal consequences of its prohibition than possible risks of medicinal use."

Just this year, the 124,000-member American College of Physicians urged the federal government to reconsider marijuana's classification under federal law (which presently bars physician prescriptions), citing "marijuana's proven efficacy at treating certain symptoms and its relatively low toxicity... Evidence not only supports the use of medical marijuana in certain conditions but also suggests numerous indications for cannabinoids."

The opposition at Monday's hearing was led by the same crew of anti-marijuana zealots who show up every time a legislature considers such measures, repeating the same tired arguments.

David Evans of the Drug Free Schools Coalition, for example, insisted, "You have to make sure it is safe. There are no proper studies about dose."

In fact, abundant evidence shows that marijuana is so non-toxic that, as with many medications, patients can adjust their dose easily and safely according to the relief they get. Indeed, the official package insert for Sativex, a marijuana spray now available in Canada, specifically tells patients, "The dose you require is determined by you."

Discredited claims

And some opponents dragged out yet again the long-discredited claim that medical marijuana somehow sends the "wrong message" to young people. That's silly on its face, since no one would seriously suggest banning medical use of morphine or OxyContin - drugs that are orders of magnitude more addictive and dangerous than marijuana - because such use sends the wrong message to kids.

More importantly, we now have a dozen years of experience proving that medical marijuana laws do not increase teen use of the drug.

Twelve states have had medical marijuana laws in place long enough to have data on teen marijuana use from both before and after their medical marijuana laws took effect, and in every single one, teen marijuana use has gone down, not up.

State after state has acted to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest, sparing thousands from needless fear and suffering and without any of the dire consequences predicted by opponents.

New Jersey will do nothing but good for its citizens if it becomes No. 14.