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SALT LAKE CITY — Local and national experts explained some potential impacts of medicinal marijuana to state lawmakers Wednesday, pushing along the debate for legalization in Utah.
"When you call it medicine, you create an entitlement, and when it's an entitlement, everybody then wants it," Sgt. Jim Gerhardt, a member of Denver's North Metro Task Force, told Utah's Health and Human Services Interim Committee.
The number of people claiming "chronic pain" in Colorado has increased substantially each year, giving more people access to marijuana, Gerhardt said.
And dozens of laws have changed and been amended since original legislation legalizing marijuana was passed.
"You end up walking into a big, big question mark when you go down this path," he said, adding that a nationwide movement to legalize marijuana products has been afoot in America for decades. "We're going back to the days of the snake oil salesman."
Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Saratoga Springs, is backing legislation in Utah that would give people with certain conditions access to medical marijuana, though not products that could be smoked or inhaled. Madsen claims the upcoming bill, his second attempt in Utah, would not pave the way for widespread recreational marijuana use.
Earlier this year, Madsen admitted to using medical marijuana in Colorado for treatment of chronic back pain.
Annette Fleckenstein, a professor and assistant dean of Foundational Sciences at the University of Utah, said there isn't enough research available on marijuana to help physicians determine who needs it and how much to prescribe. The plant and its chemical components aren't allowed to be researched in the United States due to tighter regulations as a Schedule I drug.
"Existing data show a lot of promise, but it is too soon to tell whether and for whom THC and CBD would be effective," Fleckenstein said, adding that research is needed sooner rather than later as patients are needlessly suffering because viable treatment options are not yet available.
Though, she said, people are using marijuana. Fleckenstein said it is "the most commonly used illicit drug in the U.S."
"Government has created this situation where we are so far behind in research," Madsen said. "It's going to take time to get there. How long should we make those people suffer who know they can get relief from medical marijuana?
"It seems wrong to hold the people hostage because government screwed up in the process," he said, also asking researchers how much study is required to satisfy science.
Fleckenstein said the dearth of research isn't unique to marijuana and that development of any drug requires time.
Twenty-three other states have taken steps to legalize medical marijuana, each with various consequences that followed. Gerhardt said officials in Colorado have uncovered many unintentional consequences, including child and pet poisonings, increased drug use among teenagers, and death. Businesses are booming, he said, and law enforcement has been left without many of the tools necessary to deal with it.
There are apparently "a lot of sick people in Colorado," Gerhardt said, jokingly. Dispensaries, he said, "don't look like any pharmacy I've ever been in, and they're all over the place."
Advertising of various products, he said, is also rampant.
"Clearly this is for the recreational market," Gerhardt said.
Madsen said his bill isn't anything like what Colorado has done and that Colorado shouldn't be used as the standard.
Dr. Lynn Webster, a local chronic pain and addiction specialist, said the talent and resources in Utah give the state a unique opportunity "to become a laboratory" for research, providing answers, but it still needs approval from the federal government to move forward.
"We are dangerously out of sync with the condition of chronic pain in Utah," he said, adding that marijuana might be an answer to the increasing number of deaths caused by prescription drug overdoses.
"Research on cannabinoids has the potential to help society," Webster said. "Public policy needs to recognize the potential medical benefits of marijuana. … The status quo is failing those who suffer chronic pain and addiction."
The more states deliberate and experiment with their own laws, the more pressure is put on the federal government to change something, he said. And while he doesn't support the use of medical marijuana just yet, Webster said responsible study of it could lead to responsible access and help for certain individuals.
"It is a huge, vast frontier that still needs to be explored," he said.
Jahan Marcu, senior science adviser at Americans for Safe Access, told lawmakers that enough research exists to prove marijuana isn't harmful. Like any substance or activity, he said, marijuana can be addictive.
"Cannabis is inherently safe, nontoxic and innocuous, but commercialization is extremely complicated," Marcu said, citing pages of regulations set forth by various groups that are becoming standard practices for marijuana operations across the country.
"There's a lot of information out there," he said, adding that cannabis has been shown to provide benefits for various patients suffering diseases such as multiple sclerosis and cancer, as well as depression and eating disorders.
Utah lawmakers already passed a law that allows a small population of children with a specific type of epilepsy to use cannabinoid oil for treatment of seizures. The Legislature stopped short last session of adopting looser regulations for medical marijuana and will face the decision again in the coming year. Email: wleonard@deseretnews.com Twitter: wendyleonards
