The future of the use of marijuana as medicine in Alabama will be determined this afternoon as the Alabama House of Representatives Committee on Health will vote on a proposal to allow the drug to be prescribed for certain illnesses and chronic diseases.
Members of the committee will have to wrestle over how to vote on this issue as marijuana-related debates are becoming more common around the nation.
The vote on whether to move the Alabama Medical Marijuana Patients’ Rights Act out of committee is expected to take place around 2 p.m.
The Chairman of the Health Committee Jim McClendon, a Republican from Springville, Ala., will be voting against the proposal. He said he saw no need for medicinal marijuana to be legalized, as there are other legal alternatives for people facing chronic pain.
“According to physicians, we have a number of commercially produced pharmaceutical agents that deal with nausea, for example,” McClendon said. “So from those people that prescribe it, they feel like they have a pretty good armament of pharmaceuticals that are currently available to them, and they don’t see anything special or unique about marijuana for medicinal purposes.”
Also known as HB 2, the bill would allow doctors to prescribe doses of marijuana as treatment for people suffering from AIDS, autism, cancer, chronic pain, Parkinson’s syndrome, severe nausea and a slew of other reoccurring medical conditions and chronic symptoms.
If the proposal passes, the Alabama State Department of Public Health would have to issue a card to those with a prescription from a doctor. The patient would then be able to purchase a set amount of marijuana from a licensed and regulated distributor.
“It is our committee’s obligation to help those people [with chronic pain] find a way to have a good quality of life,” said Rep. Joe Hubbard, a Democrat from Montgomery. “I’m not convinced that medicinal marijuana is the only option we have right now.”
Hubbard also said he will motion to table the bill at the meeting and wants more time to fully study its implications.
“Alabama is a conservative state, so when we come to these issues, we have to be very careful,” Hubbard said.
Rep. Elaine Beech, a Democrat from Chatom, Ala., is a pharmacist by trade and opposes the bill.
“I have a hard time grasping such an issue,” Beech said. “My pharmacy background keeps me seeing red flags about HB 2. Logistically, Alabama is not ready to harvest, manufacture or distribute marijuana in any setting.”
Beech said she wants to see drug companies make a few more products that can offer the benefits of marijuana but in a legal fashion.
“We only have one synthetic drug, Marinol, that mimics some of marijuana’s effects,” Beech said. “I think pharmaceutical companies could probably develop another drug or two that could be a solution. We have never thought of legalizing opium but we have synthetic versions on the market. All such drugs are additive and I am to ready to add more to the market, legally.”
(See also [Letter to the Editor] “New direction for medical marijuana in state of Alabama”)
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws reports that Marinol is not truly comparable to the naturally grown variety.
“Marinol typically provides only limited relief to select patients, particularly when compared to natural cannabis and its cannabinoids,” NORML’s website said about the drug substitute.
Rep. Jim Patterson, a Republican who lives in Meridianville, opposes the measure but foresees a potential compromise. According to his official state house website, Patterson is a retired pharmaceutical representative for Bristol Meyers Squibb.
“I can’t vote for it in its present form,” Patterson said. “I’ve told Patricia Todd [HB 2’s author] that I’d look to a pilot program for people who are undergoing radiation treatments. There are some limited uses for medical marijuana.”
McClendon said he hasn’t polled the committee members and wouldn’t want to predict how any member of the committee will vote, but did offer some insights into the political reality facing the bill.
“We did have a public hearing on medicinal marijuana back in November, and I could not detect any support among the committee members, but I did detect quite a few members who were openly opposed to it,” McClendon said.
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