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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Tony Albright (R)

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Medical Cannabis Bill Should Become Law

Monday, May 12, 2014

Medical cannabis may finally be available to those who desperately need it in Minnesota. The House and Senate are both moving forward with bills to legalize its use, and I am hopeful an agreement can be reached.

Those with chronic seizures, muscular dystrophy, cancer and other serious diseases deserve access to medical therapy. What’s more, with state oversight we can ensure that patients are receiving safe, effective medicine—not drugs off the street.

Some opponents claim the legalization of medical cannabis is a backdoor path to full legalization for recreational use. But there are major differences between a teenager wanting to get high and an epileptic child needing cannabis to reduce the number of seizures they have in a day or a chemo patient diminishing their nausea.

As a nation, we offer a number of drugs that can be effective, dangerous and addictive. What medicine works for one person may not work for another, and medical cannabis should be another available option in Minnesota.

If we trust doctors to prescribe medications like Vicodin or Oxycodone, why not cannabis? For those who fear lax laws will lead to doctors prescribing cannabis to those who do not need it, I submit that they would not do that for risk of discipline or loss of license—just like they would with any other prescription.

What’s more, the current version of the bill passed in the House strictly limits what illnesses will be eligible for treatment and include cancer, Glaucoma, HIV, Tourrette’s, Epilepsy and MS to name a few. This isn’t for unidentifiable pain or writer’s cramp—these are serious and often chronic diseases that deserve the best treatments available.

Earlier this year the governor played political games with medical cannabis, telling advocates one thing, law enforcement another, and finally pushing for a study on the drug’s effects. With thousands of studies over the past several decades on everything from cannabis’ effect on Hepatitis C recovery to cancer cells, it has been proven that this drug really works.

Respected organizations like the American Public Health Association, Epilepsy Foundation and American College of Physicians have all taken favorable positions of medical cannabis. In fact, in 2009 the American Medical Association called on the federal government to reconsider cannabis’ federal classification as an illegal drug noting multiple clinical trials that showed the drug’s benefits.

Cannabis is not a brand new drug that needs to be thoroughly vetted by the FDA, and its effects and potential benefits are well known. The seriously ill in our state should not have to wait any longer when a drug exists to help them now.

The vast amount of evidence supporting medical cannabis should no longer be ignored. It is time for Minnesota leaders to come together and pass a responsible law that gives the very sick access to medical cannabis.