LB 643 The Cannabis Compassion and Care Act

LB 643 The Cannabis Compassion and Care Act recently proposed and put up for discussion at Nebraska's legislature that aims to legalize Medical Cannabis for the purpose treat ill patients who suffer from deliberating medical conditions who's medical treatment can benefit from ingesting medical cannabis. So the purpose of this post is to look into the medical practicality of cannabis and how other states across America have gone about in dealing with this controversial subject and some of the benefits it had brought with its legalization.

           On January 21, 2015 LB 643, also known as the Cannabis Compassion and Care Act, was introduced to Nebraska’s Legislature by Senator Tommy Garrett and three other of his colleagues. The aim was to start the discussion of medical cannabis legalities and to hopefully pass legislation that would allow patients who would benefit from the use of medical cannabis protection from prosecution for the use of marihuana. However, as the conversation of medical cannabis begins here in the state of Nebraska, it’s important to take several steps back and understand the medical uses of cannabis, what its regularly used to treat, the budgetary issues that are present with the prohibition of marihuana, the addictive nature of the drug, and what group is less suited for the use of medical cannabis.

           
           As more and more states and doctors experiment with medical cannabis, this plant is being used to treat a varied amount of conditions and ailments for people with pain, muscle spasms, and seizures. These are only a small scratch of the vast amount of ailments that it been used to successfully treat. A nationwide study conducted at the UK looks to see the effectiveness of cannabis under the use of patients and the rates in which they found the drug to be effective in treating their conditions. Within the study adults varying from the ages of forty to sixty, each with their own medical conditions for using medical marijuana, where asked a series of questions that looked into the effectiveness of it as a treatment. Out of 948 users, approximately 648 of those patients reported to having their symptoms/ailments relieved, 256 reported some relief, and a low 36 responded to having no change to their condition (1).  When asked to further deliberate and to compare the effects of the cannabis to other prescribed medicine about 45% of the patients stated that it worked better than other prescribed medicine, 28% stated that it was somewhat more effective, and 5% stated that it was about the same in effectiveness as other prescribed medicine (1).

 Of the many reasons to prescribe medical cannabis a popular reason it’s prescribed is to help patients who suffer from chronic pain. A study conducted at Washington State looked into what components of the cannabis helps alleviate patient’s pain. The component found to alieve pain is an exogenous cannabinoids component that when introduced to the human body, reacts with the endocannabinoid system of the brain which is in direct connection with movement, pain, and other components of the body that introduce analgesic, pain relieving, effects (2). The Washington state scientist Aggarwal and his colleagues concluded in their study that medical cannabis they prescribed to their patients’ experienced major relief of pain symptoms with the use of cannabis with the major side effect of an euphoric state during the duration of the drug’s effects (2).

Another major category of patients that are regularly prescribed cannabis are patients who suffer from muscle spasms, especially those who suffer from multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is a disease which effects a person’s brain, spinal cord, and the optic nerves in their eyes with side effects being very long in nature. An individual’s symptoms may be different from another, but of the many possible symptoms loss of control or spasms of the muscles are potential effects. In a small scale study, fifty patients where prescribed cannabis in a pill form, and of the fifty patients who regularly took their prescribed cannabis, about thirty seven of them saw an improvement and had a decrease in the amount of usual spasms and spasticity they would get (3).

By keeping Cannabis prohibited also comes a heavy cost to many U.S. tax payers. Jeffrey A. Miron a professor in economics at Harvard estimated that in the year 2000 that about 7.7 billion was spent on enforcing the prohibition of cannabis (4). Of that 7.7 billion about 5.3 billion was used to help states enforce the prohibition of cannabis and about 2.4 billion was spend to enforce prohibition at a federal level (4). That data firmly concludes that a lot of money is being spent to ensure cannabis is out of reach of the hands of U.S. citizen. It can be criticized that U.S. is spending way too much of a price to keep this prohibition up on a drug that has been proven to having medical use in treating patients.

During the year 2000, it was estimated that here in Nebraska that out of 97324 arrests about 6787 of those arrests where due to marijuana possession; furthermore of the 97324 about 326 of those arrests were of those who sold the drug (4). These arrests would use up 8.98 million of the total 235 million Nebraska’s police budget they had that year. The enforcement of marijuana probation adds up even further in our judicial, and correction budgets as it costs 10.46 million on our judicial branch, and 2.31 million at our corrections branch (4). With the total budget of all three branches together being 562 million a total of  22 million is used on cannabis prohibition with the judicial branch taking the biggest hit that year with their budget being 9.6 million and the cost of enforcing the prohibition exceeding their budget (4).

With budgetary issues previously presented it is firm to say that it’s costing the tax payers, to ensure cannabis prohibition, a lot but how much could we save if the prohibition against cannabis were to be lifted? If prohibition against cannabis were to be lifted immediately 7.7 billion would be saved in costs and allowing newly freed money to be used by the federal government, and state governments. Cannabis once legal would be open for taxation and if taxed like any other regular commodity it’s been estimated that 2.4 billion can be made annually even more if taxed like alcohol, and tobacco which estimated could earn 6.2 billion annually (4).

One of the many reasons advocated for the prohibition of medical marijuana is due to it being a very addictive substance to the users of the drug. While marijuana is an addictive drug research studies seem to point in the direction that marijuana addiction being less harmful then alcohol, tobacco, and any other illicit drug. Amanda Reiman a researcher at the University of California conducted a study in regards to drug substitution. With drug substitution medical marijuana patients would use cannabis to replace any other existing addictions they may have such as the use of alcohol, tobacco, and any other illicit drug (5). The end goal of replacing their addictions with medical cannabis is to overcome those old addictions with cannabis because it’s less adverse side effects, less potential of withdrawal, and easier to maintain symptoms (5). Amanda in the end of paper concludes that substitution of cannabis to reduce the use of other drugs as being eligible of working with the harm reduction frame work and has found the some dispensaries offer 12 step programs in which active members use cannabis substitution methods to combat other more severe addiction they have (5).

While medical cannabis has many benefits with the patients that use the drug there is a group demographic that do face harm with the use of marijuana and could face a future of depression, and anxiety. George C Patton a researcher at Australia conducted a research in aims to see if regular use of cannabis among teens would lead to depression and anxiety later onto their young adulthood. In his study he sampled 1601 students between the ages 14-15 over the course of seven years, around 60% of the participants admitted to using cannabis by the age of twenty and 7% to being daily users (6). With those who used cannabis on a daily basis he found that they have a fivefold increase of experiencing depression and anxiety which is especially more true to young women who were daily users (6). With students who used cannabis on a weekly basis faced a twofold chance of experiencing depression and anxiety later on life (6).

As the Cannabis Compassion and Care Act, LB 643, precedes forward in Nebraska’s legislature for discussion it’s important for Nebraska citizens to get informed on the pros and cons of medical cannabis. It’s important to remember the miracle drug that cannabis is as it’s used to treat many medical conditions that ails many patient, the costs it has on tax payers on keeping cannabis prohibited, addictive nature of the drug, and what age demographic that is less suited for the use of medical cannabis. As this conversation continues to unfold, I can only hope that more Nebraskans come to see that it’s time to allow medical cannabis in this state for the benefits it has for patients who suffer pains far outweigh cons that are associated with the plant.