Georgia's medical marijuana gap

[Jimbo]

by Ronald Fraser, OpEd, The Macon Telegraph (GA)
May 6th, 2006

When there is a big gap between the views of ordinary Americans on a public issue and the voting record of their elected representatives in Congress on that issue, something is wrong. In the current debate over the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the American people and their representatives in Congress seem to be living on different planets.

Poll after poll shows Americans, by a huge majority, want their doctors, not lawmakers, to decide whether or not marijuana should be used as a
medicine.

Today, however, federal laws prohibit physicians from prescribing marijuana for pain relief even where state and local laws say it is OK to do so. This has not always been the case.

"For most of American history, growing and using marijuana was legal under both federal law and the laws of individual states," according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the U.S. Congress.

The report goes to say, "From 1850 to the early 1940s cannabis was
included in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia as a recognized medicinal. [But] its decline in medicine was hastened by the development of aspirin, morphine and other opium-derived drugs, all of which helped to replace marijuana in the treatment of pain."

The polls

In 1999 a Gallup poll asked, "Suppose that on election day this year you could vote on key issues as well as candidates. Please tell me, would you vote for or against making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering?" Response: 73 percent of the American people said they would vote for making marijuana legally available under those conditions.

In both 2003 and 2005 Gallup polls asked, "Would you favor or oppose making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering?" In 2003, 75 percent and in 2005, 78 percent of the people said they would favor giving doctors the legal right to decide when marijuana should be prescribed to ease suffering.

The national gap
Apparently members of Congress don't read the polls these days, nor do they care much about state laws. In 12 states - Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington - laws already give doctors the power to decide whether or not to use marijuana to treat patients in pain.

In the U.S. House of Representatives on May 4, 2005, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., introduced H.R. 2087, a bill "to provide for the medical use of marijuana in accordance with the laws of the various states," and to prohibit the federal government from stopping "an individual from obtaining and using marijuana from a prescription or recommendation by a physician for medical use." On May 13, 2005 the bill was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce - where it is stuck.

Since a federal bill allowing states to regulate the medical use of marijuana can't make it to the House floor for an up or down vote, an alternative strategy is to attach a medical marijuana amendment to a spending bill that will reach the House floor.

On June 15, 2005, Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey, D-NY, did just that and offered Amendment 272 to H.R. 2862. The amendment would have prohibited federal agencies from preventing the implementation of state laws that authorize the use of medical marijuana. The amendment was rejected on a 264 to 161 vote.

In other words, while 78 percent of the American people favor letting doctors (and states) decide this issue, only 38 percent of the House members favored a law supporting that policy. Nationally, that's a whopping 40 percent medical marijuana gap separating what the American people want and what their hard-of-hearing elected representatives deliver.

The Georgia gap
The gap is even larger in Georgia, where nine of 13 House members from Georgia, including Macon's representative, Jim Marshall, D-Ga, voted against Amendment 272 and the will of three out of four Americans.

Assuming the national polls fairly reflect the opinions of Georgia voters, nine members from Georgia ought to have supported the amendment- instead of only four.

American democracy calls on lawmakers to be responsive to the common-sense wisdom of ordinary citizens. Elected officials from Georgia need to start listening to the people who want their physicians, not politicians, to decide if marijuana should be used to ease suffering in sick patients.

If Georgia's current members of Congress don't improve their hearing, voters might consider replacing them this coming November with people who have better listening skills.

Ronald Fraser, Ph.D., writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Project, a Washington-based civil liberties organization. Write him at: fraserr@erols.com.

ASA*:*Georgia's medical marijuana gap