Ohio Advocates Distribute Medical Marijuana Position Paper

Fourteen states have enacted laws that legalize medical marijuana and a state-level advocacy group in Ohio doesn't want to be one of them. The Columbus, Ohio-based Drug-Free Action Alliance, a conglomerate of state-wide coalitions, has recently distributed a position paper against legalizing medical marijuana to Ohio lawmakers.

The Drug-Free Action Alliance and their research and writing partner, the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Association of Ohio, do not support marijuana as medicine nor legislative or ballot initiatives to consider this policy change.

The group’s executive director, Patricia Harmon, hopes their position paper, “Marijuana as Medicine,” will nip it in the bud.

“We are trying to pre-empt, be proactive on any legislation. It has never gone anywhere in the legislature, but that’s not to say that it wouldn’t,” Harmon said.

The paper had been disseminated to all state legislators and senators, and hand delivered to senators before Representative Kenny Yuko last week introduced a bill proposing the legalization of dispensing, growing and using marijuana for medical purposes to the Ohio House of Representatives.

The California-based Drug Policy Alliance worked with Yuko in drafting the bill, which would allow certified cardholders who verify they have debilitating medical conditions to grow marijuana plants. However, it would require them, when they are not at home, to keep the plants in a locked "room, greenhouse, garden or other enclosed area that is out of public view."

Harmon’s group takes the position that marijuana should be subject to the same research, consideration and study as any other potential medicine, under the standards of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Since the bill’s introduction to the state legislature, state-wide media outlets have interviewed Harmon on their anti-marijuana stance.

The brief position paper states simply that highly-addictive marijuana, “as medicine should be treated with the same logical, rational approach as any other drug that has demonstrated health and safety risks. Anything less puts the health and safety of the general public at risk.”

The paper goes on to state that the FDA, along with most national medical associations (including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, National Institutes of Health, Institute of Medicine, American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society) does not support smoked marijuana as medicine.

And, it causes cancer. The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment of the California Environmental Protection Agency last year added marijuana smoke to their list of known carcinogens.

The past CADCA Outstanding State Member Award winner is a statewide, private, non-profit prevention agency founded in 1987. Their mission is to educate key leaders on the problems facing their communities and provide the resources needed to take action. The Drug-Free Action Alliance’s strategic work on other drugs like alcohol has been effective. They developed the original “Parents who Host Lose the Most: Don’t be a Party to Teenage Drinking” social host campaign used throughout the country more than a decade ago.
To read the entire Drug-Free Action Alliance’s “Marijuana as Medicine” position paper, visit their Web site at www.drugfreeactionalliance.org.