‘Pot’ act stirring passions in state

Two sides claim moral high road

— Supporters and opponents of an initiated act to legalize the medical use of marijuana argue that voting for their side of the issue is the compassionate and moral thing to do.

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act will be Issue 5 on the ballot. If approved by voters, the act would legalize some medical use of marijuana and require the state Department of Health to set up a system of nonprofit dispensaries that would distribute marijuana to Arkansans with certain diseases or symptoms.

Registered and qualified patients would be allowed to have up to 2 1/2 ounces of usable marijuana without being prosecuted by the state.

Supporters of the measure, Arkansans for Compassionate Care, question why they can’t have legal access to a natural drug to treat pain and symptoms of diseases like cancer and AIDS. Opponents, such as Family Council Executive Director Jerry Cox, say the act opens the door to widespread marijuana use.

“The compassionate thing to do is to vote against Issue 5, because our children and our grandchildren are going to be the ones who pay the price. This law will put far more marijuana in circulation than any of us can imagine,” Cox said.

Arkansans for Compassionate Care campaign strategist Chris Kell questions why a group like the council, which has religious backing, could be against the issue.

“How they can do this and have absolutely zero compassion for these people is beyond me,” Kell said. “I thought that was one of the major issues with religion was compassion. It’s called the Medical Marijuana Act, it’s about medicine, that’s all.”

Patients would qualify if a doctor certifies that they have cancer, glaucoma, human immunodeficiency virus/ acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), hepatitis-C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Tourette’s syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Marijuana also would be available for people suffering from a chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following: cachexia or wasting syndrome; peripheral neuropathy; intractable pain, which is pain that has not responded to ordinary medications, treatment or surgical measures for more than six months; severe nausea; seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy; or severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.

“You’re talking about people with really crippling debilitating symptoms,” Kell said.

But Cox said the measure is too broad.

“Most people are very compassionate and the promarijuana people have done a pretty good job selling this as a compassion issue,” Cox said. “They included everybody else in there and they created all these loopholes. [It] goes way beyond just helping the sick people. It’s there just to legalize it.”

Kell said the list is supposed to be specific and “help keep the reins in on who actually qualifies for it. It’s hard to fake a lot of the symptoms. It’s not open for any more abuse than any other prescription drug.”

To apply for a registry identification card, a person would have to provide written certification from a physician that he has a qualifying medical condition; his name, address and date of birth; and the name, address and phone number of the physician. The applicant has to designate a single dispensary to use.

Applicants can also specify a person, referred to in the measure as a designated caregiver, to pick up and deliver the medical marijuana.

Applicants and their caregivers must also submit a signed pledge not to divert marijuana to anyone not allowed to possess it under law and pay a fee. Children under the age of 18 would need written parental permission.

Registry identification cards expire after one year unless the physician specifies a different time frame. A patient has 10 days to notify the department if he loses the card, gets a new caregiver, moves or no longer has the treated condition. Failure to follow those steps could mean a $150 fine.

THE PATIENTS

Campaign volunteer Emily Williams said she had always believed that medical marijuana should be legal, but probably wouldn’t have helped on the campaign if she hadn’t had to use the drug herself while undergoing chemotherapy for stage 3 lymphoma.

“I had been offered it before I started and said no because I didn’t want to take the risk,” Williams said. “I kind of naively thought I would be fine.”

She said the anti-nausea and pain medicine she was given by her doctors had no effect.

“The only thing that worked for me was medical marijuana,” Williams said. “The problem with it not being legal is people are going to use it. I’m living proof of that.”

Williams said she initially used medical marijuana secretly to treat her nausea and pain because she was worried about getting her husband, Fayetteville City Attorney Kit Williams, in trouble.

“It certainly increased my guilt and my fear,” Emily Williams said. “His job is basically to make sure the law is upheld. The risk for him is the loss of his family home, the loss of his license, the loss of his job.”

She said he publicly supports the measure because of her experience.

“Having seen it personally, the difference that it made, he could not sit on the sidelines and stay quiet,” Emily Williams said.

“I would hope that the public would recognize that his position is one of love ... and compassion.”

She called passing the act is a moral issue.

“When you are in pain and sick whether it’s cancer or the other diseases that this covers, its immoral to withhold relief and sometimes medical marijuana is the only substance that will provide relief,” Emily Williams said.

Williams said her lymphoma hasn’t been gone long enough to be considered medically in remission. Her fear is the cancer will return and that after telling her story, she will be a target if the measure fails.

“I don’t think I would have the ability emotionally to sit down in the chair and let them do the chemo knowing I won’t have this available,” Williams said. “I don’t think I would be able to go through that again and it scares me to death. I would hope I would be strong enough, but I don’t know if I would be. The closer it gets to the election the harder it is for me to contemplate.”

THE LAW

Whether or not the measure passes, it is still illegal to use, produce or distribute marijuana for any reason under federal law.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the federal government can enforce federal drug laws, even in states that allow marijuana use for medical reasons.

While U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has directed the Justice Department to shift from prosecuting “medical marijuana” cases and focus instead on cases involving other drugs or drug trafficking, in recent months there has been a crackdown on dispensaries in some states that have legalized them.

In September, federal authorities sent warning letters or served search warrants at 71 dispensaries in California’s Los Angeles County.

Earlier in the summer federal authorities closed down 26 dispensaries in the Seattle area.

Under Arkansas law, firsttime possession is punishable by up to a year of probation.

If the initiated act is approved, those penalties will still be in place, but won’t be applied to a registered patient, a caregiver or a dispensary.

The act also would protect physicians who write certifications for medical marijuana.

If approved, the act would prohibit employers from hiring or firing a person because he legally uses marijuana or is a caregiver for someone who does. The act also prohibits a school from making enrollment decisions or a landlord from refusing to lease to a medical-marijuana patient or a caregiver.

Employers, schools and landlords would still be able to set standards for not using the drug at their facilities.

THE EFFECT

State Drug Director Fran Flener said she is worried that making marijuana more accessible will have effects beyond just providing relief to people Arkansans for Compassionate Care aims to help.

“In states that have already passed these laws, the marijuana-use rates are already higher than states that have not passed those laws,” Flener said.

Flener said she’s concerned that the act doesn’t require people working at dispensaries to be specially trained or require that the quality of the marijuana be tested.

“This does not have the public safeguards that ... other controlled substances have to have,” she said.

Cox agreed, saying the government controls the ingredients for medicine for a reason.

“You don’t get to grow your own poppy plant and make your own morphine ... they need to treat marijuana the same way,” he said.

Flener said she is also concerned about teens having easier access to marijuana.

“While we have many, many fine and wonderful parents, we also have some parents that are not good parents so there is the possibility of diversion,” she said.

According to the 2011 Arkansas Prevention Needs Assessment Student Survey, 5.1 percent of respondents said they used marijuana at least once a day; 7.1 percent said they had used marijuana in the past 30 days; and 15.1 percent said they had never used.

The survey is administered annually to students in grades six, eight, 10 and 12. The 2011 survey is based on the answers of 90,468 students at 627 schools in the 221 Arkansas school districts.

THE DISPENSARIES

Under the measure, marijuana would be grown and distributed at about 30 nonprofit dispensaries, though the Health Department could choose to increase the number.

Dispensaries would be limited to cultivating and possessing up to 95 flowering marijuana plants or six flowering plants per patient, whichever is greater.

A flowering plant is the female version of the marijuana plant. When not pollinated, a female plant produces flowers or “buds” and leaves that contain the plant’s main active chemical, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, according to the University of Washington Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute.

A dispensary could dispense up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana to a patient or caregiver every 15 days and must track each time marijuana is dispensed.

The department must track the number of patients who have designated each dispensary as their providing dispensary. Each dispensary would be told monthly by the department the number of patients it may supply and the identification numbers of those patients and their caregivers.

Dispensaries and their employees would be registered with the Health Department and would have to get the registration renewed once a year.

Dispensaries must be nonprofit and may not be located in a residential district or within 500 feet of a public or private school.

Patients who live more than 5 miles from a dispensary would be allowed to grow up to six flowering, or female, plants.

Some caregivers also would be immune from state prosecution for growing that amount of marijuana.

Cox pointed out that 5 miles is the distance between downtown Little Rock and the Heights neighborhood.

“I’m very concerned that people don’t know that if this passes, their neighbor will be able to grow marijuana right next door in the backyard and they’ll be able to sit on the porch and smoke it,” Cox said.

Kell disputed that. He said the measure requires marijuana be grown where it would be difficult to steal, such as in a greenhouse or indoors, using special lights.

“It’s not like it can be outside in your garden in your backyard. It has to be under lock and key,” Kell said. He said for most patients it will more convenient to just find a dispensary.

If the act passes, the department has 90 days to adopt rules for applications, dispensary requirements and rules for adding medical conditions for which the drug can be prescribed.

The department also would set fees, which are supposed to cover the ongoing administrative cost of the act. The state would be responsible for the upfront costs, although the act does allow the department to accept donations. Kell said the Marijuana Policy Project might provide the money. The Washington, D.C.-based group largely funded the campaign to get the measure on the ballot.

Department of Health employees are talking to states that have legalized the medical use of marijuana to determine how much it will cost to set up the program, spokesman Ann Russell said.

THE OPPOSITION

Several constitutional officers and the Republican and Democratic parties of Arkansas have opposed the initiative.

Gov. Mike Beebe said he opposes it because he is concerned about the cost to the state and he also worries about the state legalizing a drug that is illegal under federal law.

“I want to be compassionate, I understand that compassion-wise there are some folks that feel very, very strongly about it, but those are two specifics areas that cause me some personal concern,” he said.

Lt. Gov. Mark Darr and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel also oppose the measure.

Key terms of proposal

Here are definitions of terms in the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act. The act, which will be on the ballot as Issue 5, authorizes a system for allowing the growth and distribution of marijuana to qualifying patients.

Designated caregiver: A person at least 21 years old who is registered with the Department of Health to help a patient acquire and use marijuana for medical reasons. A caregiver must not have a felony conviction for a violent crime or most substance-abuse laws. A caregiver may serve five patients at a time.

Qualifying patient: A person diagnosed by a physician as having a qualifying medical condition and who is registered with the Health Department.

Nonprofit dispensary agent: An employee, supervisor or volunteer at a dispensary. The person must be at least 21 years old and registered with the department.

Registry identification card: A document issued by the Health Department identifying a person as a qualifying patient, designated caregiver or nonprofit dispensary agent.

Usable marijuana: The dried leaves and flowers of the marijuana plant. Does not include the seeds, stalks or roots or the weight of any ingredients combined with the marijuana and prepared for consumption as food or drink.

SOURCE: The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act

Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/14/2012

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