Religious
Leaders Discuss Medical Marijuana
IDPI worked closely with the producers
of this show to shape the story. Rev. Andrew Gunn, who is featured
in this segment, is a member of IDPI’s Leadership Council.
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Transcript:
Religion and Ethics Newsweekly: PBS
November 19, 2004
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: This past Election Day, voters in Montana approved
the use of marijuana if a doctor recommends it to relieve pain.
That brings to 10 the number of states --almost all in the West -
-- that now permit so-called medical marijuana.
But, until the Supreme Court decides which laws should prevail, that
permission at the state level remains in contradiction to federal
law, which forbids marijuana use for any reason. Lucky Severson
reports.
LUCKY SEVERSON: For now, anyway, this is a legally protected pot garden.
It's located near Santa Cruz in California, and belongs to a nonprofit
group called Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, known as WAMM.
Valerie Corral founded WAMM after a car accident years ago left her
with severe epilepsy and unbearable migraines. Her doctor prescribed
medicine, but she says it didn't help. Her husband agrees.
MIKE CORRAL ( Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana ): I don't think
I can really describe the difficulty and the sadness that we both
went through during those years, until we discovered marijuana.
SEVERSON: But they won't get a sympathetic hearing from the White
House office of national drug control policy.
DAVID MURRAY ( White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
): Unfortunately, the information that we have to date about smoked
marijuana is that it is an illusion -- it does not address therapeutic
needs of patients. In fact, the likelihood is high that they
are actually doing more damage to themselves by taking in this substance.
VALERIE CORRAL ( Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana ): What can
I say to somebody who believes that they know more about my suffering
than I do?
SEVERSON: The clash between public policy and personal rights is not
lost on the people at this WAMM-sponsored event on a warm Sunday afternoon.
Many here say they have a note from their doctor recommending that
they light up. But Valerie Corral says marijuana is only a small
part of what WAMM is about -- that it's about people in pain caring
for one another. She says she has cared for 140 friends who
have died from cancer and other diseases.
Ms. CORRAL: I would invite anyone to spend an afternoon with
me at the bedside of one of our friends who is dying and to watch
that suffering fade away with a small puff of medicine.
SEVERSON: David Murray says he does not know Valerie Corral, but he
suspects the motives of anyone campaigning for medical marijuana.
Mr. MURRAY: I believe the real lack of compassion here is those
whose political agenda for legalization is so strong that they are
willing to use as hostages and as front people suffering patients
in wheelchairs and holding them up as if that is the real reason.
They want this drug available to themselves. That is my interpretation.
SEVERSON: Murray is not alone in his criticism of medical marijuana
advocacy groups. Barrett Duke, with the Southern Baptist Convention,
shares his skepticism.
Dr. BARRETT DUKE ( Southern Baptist Convention ): The people
who are advocating it just want people to go out in their back yard
and want them to grow plants and pick the leaves and smoke them.
That doesn't seem to me to be a very healthy approach to medicine.
SEVERSON: There are now numerous medical marijuana clubs operating
in Northern California where patients can get marijuana in all forms
as well as support and counseling.
Since the court decision in 2002 that doctors could not be punished
for recommending medical marijuana, the number of patients smoking
pot has grown into the thousands. But federal law still defines
smoking marijuana for any reason as illegal under the Controlled Substance
Act. And in some instances, government agents have vigorously
enforced the law. Such was the case in 2002 when Valerie and
Mike were arrested once again by DEA agents.
Ms. CORRAL: He put the gun to my head right where I have the
brain trauma from my car accident. And, but I have to say, at
that moment something happened inside of me.
SEVERSON: That's when she sued the government and won a temporary
injunction to stop federal prosecutions and keep the garden going.
The court ruled in her favor because she wasn't selling marijuana,
she was giving it away.
Ms. CORRAL: It is not a law enforcement issue, it is a health
issue.
PAULA YARR: I have been in so much pain that I cannot move.
SEVERSON: Paula Yarr has lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer in
remission. She has undergone 12 surgeries and says her medicines
only make her sicker. So she smokes, and says it gives her relief.
Ms. YARR: I was once very conservative in my thinking.
But that was a long time ago.
SEVERSON: A 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit
research organization, concluded that marijuana can be helpful in
treating pain, nausea, and vomiting. There are legally prescribed
painkillers, such as the pill Marinol, a marijuana derivative that
can ease pain. Brian Bachmann, who has been HIV positive since
1985, says Marinol and other pharmaceuticals that can have side effects
don't work very well for him.
BRIAN BACHMANN: I have tried Marinol in the past. I found it
to be overwhelmingly sedative and not as effective and controllable
as smoking marijuana.
SEVERSON: Bruce Mirken, with the Marijuana Policy Project, a private
advocacy group, says Marinol and other pharmaceuticals often don't
work.
BRUCE MIRKEN ( Marijuana Policy Project ): Those drugs work for some
people, and for those for whom they work, great, God bless them.
But any physician will tell you that no drug works for everybody.
SEVERSON: He says the Food and Drug Administration is out of step
with science and polls that show two thirds of the public now supporting
the use of medical marijuana.
Mr. MIRKEN: When you look at the public opinion polls, you look
at the growing number of medical and public health organizations,
there is no doubt that public opinion has begun to shift and begun
to take a more nuanced view.
SEVERSON: The shift in public opinion is one reason an increasing
number of denominations are now giving their blessing to medical marijuana.
That includes most mainline Protestant churches. The Reverend
Andrew Gunn, retired after 50 years in the United Methodist ministry.
Reverend ANDREW GUNN ( Retired Methodist Minister ): The United Methodist
Church, which has been strongly against drugs, just this past year,
three months ago, passed an amendment to be in favor of medical marijuana.
And it passed overwhelmingly, which was quite a surprise to most of
us.
Mr. MURRAY: My impression is that they have been badly briefed,
because no aware and passionate, careful, morally charged person,
in a church or otherwise, who actually looks at the evidence and the
record, could sustain that understanding.
SEVERSON: There are still churches that strongly oppose the use of
medical marijuana, like the nondenominational church Paula Yarr belongs
to.
Ms. YARR: They said that I couldn't be in a leadership position
-- that it wouldn't be safe for the kids.
SEVERSON: The Southern Baptist Convention is still very strongly opposed
to medical marijuana.
Dr. DUKE: People's lives are being destroyed by this.
And there are too many people taking illicit drugs now. To make
medical marijuana more available is simply going to increase the likelihood
that more people are going to end up with serious drug problems.
SEVERSON: That's the argument most opponents of legally prescribed
marijuana make: that it will start an epidemic. Critics charge
that marijuana clubs, like this one in the Bay area, are dispensing
a drug illegally and the users are coming here for pleasure as much
as pain. They might point to this man, Joshua John, who has
smoked four joints and eaten one rather potent brownie. But
he says he requires a heavy dose of marijuana to soften the pain of
a severe and rare form of arthritis.
JOSHUA JOHN: Am I breaking the law? In my wallet right now, I have
a note from a doctor -- a licensed M.D. -- that says he doesn't
see any reason why I shouldn't continue what I am doing for my pain,
as long as I am not driving and being irresponsible.
SEVERSON: The greatest fear seems to be that legalizing medical marijuana
will lead to legalizing recreational marijuana.
Mr. MIRKEN: Doctors have been able to prescribe cocaine and
morphine and methamphetamines since before I was born, and I don't
see any movement to legalize those drugs for recreational use.
SEVERSON: It was Reverend Gunn's dying wife who persuaded him that
medical marijuana should be legalized. It was after his son,
a doctor, recommended it to ease her pain. But medical marijuana
was illegal in Maryland, where they lived.
Rev. GUNN: I think it is a matter of compassion. A matter
of carrying out the will, God's will to love one another and to help
one another. And this is a positive way in which we can help
people who are very sick and need as much help as they can get.
SEVERSON: But Barrett Duke, with the Southern Baptist Convention,
defines compassion another way.
Dr. DUKE: Christ would call humanity to do everything they could
to relieve suffering. But I think he expects us to do that in
a responsible way. While we would help bring relief to some
people, we would create a lot of problems for a lot more people in
the long run as a result.
SEVERSON: People on both sides say they feel compassion for the sick
and dying, for those caught in the middle. The Supreme Court
will decide how that compassion should be administered, and whether
Valerie and Mike Corral can keep their garden.
For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Lucky Severson in Santa
Cruz, California.
ABERNETHY: The high court will hear arguments on November 29 on whether
federal law or state law should prevail in medical marijuana cases.
Interfaith
Drug Policy
Initiative, P.O. Box 6299, Washington,
D.C. 20015
Phone: 301-933-7681 Fax:301-933-7682 |
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