Thanks to several mainstream television news features and a lot of follow-up on the Internet, people are learning that marijuana has come out of the escapist recreational and dangerous drug closet into which it was shoved and is reappearing as a somewhat miraculous medicine.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN and himself a practicing neurosurgeon, took on the medical marijuana issue in three segments: WEED (August 2013), WEED 2 (March 2014), and WEED 3 (April 2015); he famously recanted his disapproval of the plant before the first episode. According to the Nielson ratings, three-quarters of a million viewers watched the first and third programs and 354,000 watched WEED 2, in each case dominating the prime-time slot.
NBC News produced a Dateline special with Harry Smith on medical marijuana titled “Growing Hope” that aired June 6, 2015, covering a lot of the same territory. In both cases, the emotional content lay in the extraordinary transformation of terrible symptoms in various personal stories followed by the news teams.
Out of these programs came a least one poster-child, Charlotte Figi, the 5-year old with Divort epilepsy whose case electrified viewing audiences. Her journey to overcome constant seizures and her parents’ tenaciousness to save her contributed to the present climate around medical marijuana. Indeed, there is now a medicinal oil named for her: Charlotte’s Web, made from the cannabis sativa plant.
Meanwhile, three U.S. Senators, Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) have introduced a bipartisan bill to amend the Controlled Substances Act and change marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II drug. According to the D.E.A., “Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Other drugs and substances listed in Schedule I include heroine, L.S.D., mescaline, ecstasy and psilocybin. Schedule II drugs have medical uses “potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence.” Vicodin, cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, Adderall and Ritalin are found on this list.
The bill—called CARERS, or Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States—is alive in Congress, with growing support. If it becomes law, the federal government would no longer stand in the way of state laws legalizing medical marijuana. Marijuana is currently legal for medical purposes in 25 states and the District of Columbia.
At press conferences at the time of the bill’s introduction, patients young and old who seek legal relief for health conditions surrounded the senators. Sen. Booker’s statement to the media read, “This bill seeks to right decades of wrong and end harmful marijuana laws that are over-criminalizing our nation and turning people who are seeking what is best for their children and their families, our doctors and medical professionals into criminals.”
And the CARERS Act has other interesting implications. It would exclude the non-psychoactive compound with medicinal properties that’s found in cannabis, cannabidiol—or C.B.D.—from the definition of marijuana. Other provisions would release marijuana-related research from current red-tape constraints.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee) and co-sponsor Don Young (R-Alaska) introduced the companion bill in the House of Representatives. In his remarks, Rep. Cohen cited the story of a 3-year-old in his district who suffered from severe seizures; the child was unable to obtain cannabidiol, and died. He also referenced Dr. Sanjay Gupta and a CBS News poll showing that 86 percent of Americans thought doctors should be allowed to prescribe small amounts of marijuana to patients suffering from serious illness, adding, “86 percent of Americans rarely agree on anything.”
Rep. Young, a long-term Alaska congressman, stated in a press release: “The topic of medical and recreational marijuana has always been an issue of states’ rights for me. The CARERS Act aims to protect states that have legalized medical marijuana and allows them to properly enforce their own laws.”
Clearly a revolution of understanding is afoot that is not going to be discouraged by tired old platitudes about the dangers of marijuana. Recent events also introduce complicated, paradoxical and ethical questions that are not easily answered. To join a sophisticated conversation about the state of medical marijuana today takes a commitment to plunge into a lot of technical material on the one hand, and to sort out political and economic maneuvering on the other.
Meanwhile, our region is in the spotlight of the medical marijuana controversies. We have pioneering centers for marijuana activism in the Bay Area and locals who have led the revolution. At the same time, we are no different than any other community in America or most of the world: we have people in our lives who are suffering from conditions and diseases that medical marijuana appears to address in a positive way. It’s time to get a handle on this issue.
California was the first state to establish a medical marijuana program. In 1996, Prop. 215—the Compassionate Use Act—was approved by initiative with a 55 percent majority, allowing people with cancer, AIDS and other chronic illnesses the right to grow or obtain marijuana for medical purposes when recommended by a doctor. In 2003, S.B. 420, the Medical Marijuana Protection Act, established an identification card system for medical marijuana patients. And this fall, it is highly likely that California voters will legalize marijuana for “recreational” purposes, following Colorado, Washington and Oregon.
The past 10 years have brought a growing body of anecdotal evidence that the plant contains compounds that gave relief and remission to serious medical conditions. The field of medical marijuana has taken on a quality of seriousness and the spokespeople who have emerged are men and women in lab coats and suits, not coveralls and tie-dye.
Elizabeth Whitney is a West Marin journalist and researcher. The next installment of “Cannabis at a Crossroads” delves into the scientific discoveries behind medical uses of cannabis.