The Communique

Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Opinion

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy is holding public hearings to weigh the pros and cons of allowing marijuana for medical uses. When the meetings end Nov. 4, the board will recommend to the Iowa Legislature whether the drug should be reclassified as a Schedule 2 drug, making it available for treatment of chronic pain.

When I went to Iowa City to cover the third of the four hearings, I expected a balanced debate, exploring the scientific and anecdotal evidence on both sides of this controversial issue. Instead, I found a room full of medical marijuana supporters, each politely waiting a turn to essentially preach to the choir.

The only opposition was from Jennifer Huisman of the Area Substance Abuse Council in Cedar Rapids. The crowd jeered as she tried to make the point that loosening marijuana restraints could threaten children.

The rest of the seven-hour hearing was spent listening to doctors, lawmakers, professors and pain sufferers make their case for reclassification. In summary: They said medical marijuana is cheap and has few adverse effects compared with other painkillers

The lopsided debate makes me wonder: What is the purpose of these hearings? How many stories of the magic of marijuana do we need to hear?

The pharmacy board wants to hear some science on this issue, too. But it's a Catch-22, because, as John Stamler, an ophthalmologist and University of Iowa researcher, said at the hearing, "I don't want to spend a lot of time researching something that doesn't have the potential to be used."

And what about Huisman's theory of the slippery slope? Would medicinal use lead to full legalization? Medicinal marijuana advocates discount her argument.

The Schedule 2 label is misleading. In many of the 14 states that have reclassified marijuana, medicinal users receive a doctor's note, not a prescription, which allows them to grow pot and distribute small quantities to other medicinal users. This freedom places marijuana in a drug category of its own.

This freedom also gives more credence to the slippery slope argument. If hundreds, or even thousands, of people in the state are tending to their own pot plants virtually unregulated, things could get hairy.

If legislators receive the "go ahead" from the board, will they be able to get over the stigma that comes from decades of prohibition?

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