Forum: Close to Home
Topic: Viewpoints - Should marijuana be legalized for medical purposes?
Topic Posted by: Close To HomeDate Posted: Wed Mar 18 15:22:22 1998
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Posted by:Tod H. Mikuriya, M.D. (mikuriya@igc.org )
Organization:California Compassionate Use Act Compliance Unit
Date posted: Tue Mar 31 11:13:49 1998
Subject: Medicinal Cannabis
Message:
Having treated alcoholism and the other chemical addictions in both inpatient and outpatient circumstances I am struck by the similarities of patients's issues. The blockage of the emotional channels of communications by various substances that substitute sensation for feelings produces a specialized kind of blindness(denial)that leads to alienation. This empathetic disconnect then leads to dysfunctional behavior. Different substances produce variations of dysfunction with memory loss, disinhibition, disturbance of circadian rhythms. The matter is infinitely complicated by both user group behavior that reinforces use and produces social cohesion. Radical social surgery is part of the intervention in this chronic relapsing disease. There are other models besides the intensive inpatient treatment depicted in the program. Thanks for the memories. This free standing private residential faciliity is not available anymore to all but the wealthy or on very limited numbers of "scholarships". You have depicted what we HAD in California when I was completing my psychiatric residence thirty years ago. Both public and private facilities were available until the mass "denial" set in that government no longer was responsible for this problem. Talk about denial. When Ronald Reagan praised volunteer efforts for the homeless, he passively affirmed the policy of abandonment of the ill and chemically dependent. The government moral decline in the area of substance abuse with turning over the interventions to criminal justice and casting out from housing and other benefits is the current "Malice in Blunderland" government policy. Driven by right wing opportunists cruel and inhuman policies on chemical dependency is harming America. California voters in November 1996 passed proposition 215 which exempts persons that have the recommendation and approval of a licensed California physician from marijuana laws. In my capacity of medical coordinator for California cannabis centers I have interviewed hundreds of Californians who are able to attain long term clean and sober lives with cannabis substitution. At the California cannabis centers one finds the same fellowship without the anguish and self deprecation that is part of the 12 step approach. It may be a stretch but if AA could accept harm reduction as an alternative to allegiance to the "Big book", the number of persons who can be reached would markedly grow. A century ago cannabis was utilized in the treatment of "inebriety" by addiction specialists. There is no reason that it would not work today, were it not for the American Disease. Prohibition removed cannabis from prescribing availability in 1937 after ninety years on the market. Factual clinical information has been replaced by ignorance and dumbing down by the prohibitionists. I am excited to discover that the uses described in pre 1937 medical and pharmaceutical texts were not "snake oil" but legitimate observations by skilled and experienced clinicians. When refereed and formal research confirm my findings we will move toward more reasonable treatments of the addictions. Tod H. Mikuriya, M.D.