Boston – Doctors who favor legalizing recreational marijuana for adults on Friday pushed back against assertions that legalizing marijuana is harmful to public health.
“I think that if someone is using marijuana a little bit in the evenings after work is done and their responsibilities are over, in those situations, I think marijuana is probably potentially completely safe, if you have someone who’s old enough that their brain’s finished developing,” said J. Wesley Boyd, a psychiatrist in private practice, at a press conference outside the Statehouse.
Massachusetts voters will decide on Tuesday’s ballot Question 4 whether to legalize recreational marijuana. Advocates for marijuana legalization were responding to a press conference held Thursday by Attorney General Maura Healey and groups representing Massachusetts’ doctors, hospitals and nurses.
The marijuana opponents listed a litany of health concerns if Massachusetts were to legalize marijuana. They worried that marijuana edibles could appeal to adolescents or be eaten accidentally by children, resulting in overdoses. They cited reports in Colorado of an uptick in children visiting emergency rooms after eating marijuana edibles since legalization. They argued that marijuana can be addictive, is hazardous to pregnant women and their babies, hurts adolescent brain development, and can impair judgment when someone is driving or working.
The Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, American Nurses Association and several other health-related organizations and professional groups have come out against the ballot question.
In response, the pro-marijuana Yes on 4 group released a list of 117 Massachusetts doctors who individually support legalizing marijuana. No health care organization has publicly endorsed the measure.
Susan Lucas, a doctor from Ayer, said today, patients are hesitant to admit illicit drug use to their doctors, so it can be difficult to talk to them about using drugs safely. She said the current system results in people obtaining unsafe drugs. “Under the current system, they get it from the street,” Lucas said, noting that marijuana can be laced with pesticides or fentanyl. “They should be able to get it in a safe way.”
She added that marijuana can be useful for veterans to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Veterans in the Veterans Affairs system cannot get marijuana for medical purposes because it is illegal federally.
Boyd said marijuana is less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol, both of which are legal. He said there has not been increased use by teens in states where marijuana is legal. He raised the possibility that there will be fewer opioid overdoses if individuals are able to get relief from some symptoms through marijuana rather than more addictive drugs.
Asked about concerns about overloaded emergency rooms, Jordan Tishler, a spokesman for Doctors for Cannabis Regulation who prescribes medical marijuana and who also works in an emergency room, said emergency room visits have increased in states with legal marijuana. But the numbers are still relatively low. In addition, he said no one can get seriously ill from marijuana, the way they can from overconsumption of alcohol or opioids.
Retired physician Michael Olstein added that legalizing marijuana will make it easier for state researchers to research the drug and investigate its medical benefits.
Medical marijuana is already legal in Massachusetts. It is not taxed in the same way as recreational marijuana will be. The products are also likely to be different, with recreational marijuana having higher levels of THC, the ingredient that causes someone to get high.
The Massachusetts Medical Society pushed back against the doctors’ contentions that legalizing marijuana will be beneficial. “The facts are that marijuana presents a real risk of addiction,” said Dr. James Gessner, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, in a statement. “Its use damages the developing brains of young people, risks pregnancy, and increases the risk of accidents.”
The Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association said in a statement, “There is nothing healthy or safe about allowing the promotion and sale of highly potent edible gummies, candies, and sodas, particularly to our children and vulnerable youth. And there is nothing healthy about increasing the number of drugged driving crashes and fatalities on our roads – all of which have happened in other states with commercial marijuana sales.”
“The Yes on 4 campaign should stop disingenuously marketing Question 4 as a medical marijuana proposal and admit that legalizing recreational marijuana is the absolute wrong path for the health and well-being of our families,” the association said. The association argued that the legalization of recreational marijuana would make the medical marijuana system – in which marijuana is prescribed by a doctor at a particular dosage and patients are monitored – obsolete.
Tishler responded that if someone can handle their medical symptoms by taking recreational marijuana, they may not need a doctor – similar to if a person cures a headache by taking Tylenol. Tishcler said he hopes if someone is sicker than that, they will still see a doctor and be prescribed medical marijuana.
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Full Article: Pro-Marijuana Doctors Explain Their Support For Legalization
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