The debate for legalizing marijuana is continuing in Minnesota. Bills are progressing through the legislature, but nothing as of yet has been decided. There are some very vocal groups supporting medical marijuana in Minnesota, with one of the most passionate groups being parents with children who are prone to seizures. The medical and law enforcement communities are less excited about the legalizing of medical marijuana.
It’s interesting to note that the Senate and House bills are not legalizing the smoking of marijuana. Instead, they’ve proposed the legalization of state-dispensed marijuana in pill or liquid form for vaporizing. There will be fees paid by the user and pharmacy, and it appears that it will be restricted to only certain medical conditions.
Qualifying Conditions
The Senate has created a list of conditions that would make a person eligible for medical marijuana. Some of the conditions include:
- HIV
- Glaucoma
- ALS, MS, and Crohn’s Disease
- PTSD
- Seizures
- Some forms of Chronic Pain
The Senate and the House do not agree on some eligible conditions, as the House is not supporting medical marijuana for PTSD or chronic pain.
The legal community is not thrilled with legalizing marijuana due to concerns about control and abuse. There are so many prescription medications that are currently being abused, and the law enforcement community does not want to add to the existing problems. Tight restrictions on use may control the availability and abuse potential, but these problems are unknown. In states where less restrictive medical marijuana laws are present, abuse is a large problem.
The medical community is not thrilled with marijuana at this time more on a scientific basis. There are at least 84 cannaboids associated with different forms of marijuana. All these compounds have different actions in the body and they have not been studied in depth. The compounds that are helpful in various conditions have not been isolated. In general, it is bad medicine to give people drugs without knowing all of the potential side effects. Medically, we have no idea if these compounds may cause cancer or other horrible problems later in life.
Marijuana may have some very good attributes for treatment in some conditions, but at this time we are only guessing what may be helpful or dangerous. The best solution would be to get serious in testing and scientifically studying the various ingredients in marijuana. Legalizing does not really help in our understanding of the plant. Research is needed to determine the real nature of the cannaboids in the plant. A national effort to appropriately study marijuana would be beneficial.