YouSpeak: Should Medical Marijuana Be Legalized?

Ballot initiative could make it happen in Massachusetts

September 17, 2012
58
Twitter Facebook

On November 6, Massachusetts residents will vote on a ballot initiative that would legalize medical marijuana. The controversial measure would allow people with glaucoma and chronic illnesses that cause severe pain to buy marijuana, with a doctor’s written recommendation, at designated dispensaries.

The proposal has the support of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Committee for Compassionate Medicine, and the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, but the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) opposes the ballot question, noting that “there is insufficient scientific information about the safety of marijuana when used for ‘medicinal purposes.’”

If the ballot initiative passes, Massachusetts would become the 17th state to allow the medical use of marijuana.

With the election just seven weeks away, this week’s “YouSpeak” asks: Should medical marijuana be legalized?

“YouSpeak” typically appears each Monday.

If you have a suggestion for a question we should ask, post it in the comments section below.

Explore Related Topics:

  • Share this story
  • 58 Comments Add

Share

YouSpeak: Should Medical Marijuana Be Legalized?

Share

  • Alan Wong

    Executive Producer

    Alan Wong oversees a team of video producers who create video content for BU's online editorial publications and social media channels. He has produced more than 300 videos for Boston University, shuffling through a number of countries in the process: Australia, Argentina, Peru, Ireland, China, and Cambodia. He has also bored audiences in Atlanta and Boston giving talks on video for higher ed. Profile

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 58 comments on YouSpeak: Should Medical Marijuana Be Legalized?

  1. Ending prohibition would greatly reduce, even almost eliminate, the market in illegal narcotics, cause a reduction in the number of users and addicts, greatly curtail drug related illness and deaths, reduce societal harm from problematic abusers, and bring about an enormous reduction in the presence and influence of organized crime. The people who use drugs are our own children, our brothers, our sisters, our parents, and our neighbors. By allowing all adults safe and controlled legal access to psychoactive substances, we will not only greatly reduce the dangers for both them and ourselves but also greatly minimize the possibility of ‘peer-initiation’ and sales to minors.

    If you sincerely believe that prohibition is a dangerous and counter-productive policy then you can stop helping to enforce it. You are entitled—required even—to act according to your conscience!

    * It only takes one juror to prevent a guilty verdict.
    * You are not lawfully required to disclose your voting intention before taking your seat on a jury.
    * You are also not required to give a reason to the other jurors on your position when voting. Simply state that you find the accused not guilty!
    * Jurors must understand that it is their opinion, their vote. If the Judge and the other jurors disapprove, too bad. There is no punishment for having a dissenting opinion.

    “It is not only [the juror’s] right, but his duty … to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court.” —John Adams

    We must create what we can no longer afford to wait for: PLEASE VOTE TO ACQUIT!

    Reply
    Link

  2. If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”
    -Thomas Jefferson

    One look at the condition of the average American’s body today pretty much tells you ol’ Tom was right!

    The government has no authority to dictate what natural products we put in our bodies period. Any man who thinks otherwise is a fool.

    Reply
    Link

  3. How will ending prohibition cause a reduction in the number of users and addicts? Many illegal drugs are incredibly addictive, e.g. cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin. The legalization of these drugs will cause a drastic decrease in the price for hard drugs, and greater ease of access to them. This will mean that people will be able to consume more narcotics. We already see this sort of behavior with “near” legal drugs, or more accurately Schedule II narcotics. Look at the ramifications that Oxycodone has had on society. Do you really think that by making drugs legal we will see a decline in their use? Its seems clear that we will see the contrary.

    Further, how will ending prohibition truly decrease the presence and influence of organized crime? I wouldn’t disagree that in the short run, we would see a decline, as the main revenue generator for organized crime will be striped away from them, but will this lead to a long run decline. Probably not. Organize Crime existed well before the days of prohibition, and had just as much, and perhaps even more political and societal power than organized crime has today. Look at Sicily in the 19th century. The only long term solution to organized crime is to implement intelligent systems that promote equality and seek to make the cost of organized crime far greater than the benefit.

    Reply
    Link

    1. The steady reduction in the use of nicotine that has occurred over the past few years is a remarkable historical example of the fact that your argument is fundamentally flawed. Legalization combined with comprehensive honest education about the risks and benefits of marijuana will have a far more positive impact on our society than will perpetuating prohibition which has only led to the conviction of people for doing something that they have a fundamental right to do which is to ingest or smoke any of the natural substances nature’s God placed on this earth. No man has the authority under natural law to dictate what another man puts into his body.

      Why is this obvious fact so hard for some people to understand.

      Reply
      Link

      1. I won’t disagree that education about the health risks that nicotine has led to a decrease in nicotine consumption, but I will disagree that this is the only factor. The price of nicotine products has gone up considerably as a result of increased taxation on the product. Higher prices mean you can afford less of the product, therefore consumption goes down.

        What if there are great societal costs as a result of you ingesting or smoking natural substances. Why should others, who choose not to ingest or smoke substances, be required to bear the costs of your choices?

        Reply
        Link

        1. Also, nicotine products have become more closer to being completely prohibited over the last quarter century. Compare the number of places where you can smoke cigarette in the 1960s to the number of places you can smoke today. it used to be the case that you could smoke in middle of class, now you can’t even smoke within 15+ feet of some buildings.

          In addition, nicotine products have never been fully subject to prohibition. If cigarettes were prohibited, then we would have certainly of seen a rise in their use after their prohibition ended.

          Reply
          Link

      2. First, I take objection to your “channeling” of Thomas Jefferson… you have zero idea of what T.J. would think or say today; and T.J. was far from perfect – he was a womanizer, a coward, an elitist, etc. His “thoughts” from over 200 years ago have no bearing here.

        With that said, you’re missing the point. No one but your parents much care what you “put in your body” up to the point at which others have to pay for your medical care, or when you become a danger to society. You don’t seem to understand the concept of “civilization”. If you want to live on your own in Alaska – completely independent of all other human contant, then I support your stance. Otherwise, you are depending on others to bail you out when you get you get lung cancer or you do something stupid while stoned. Thus, society has to protect you from yourself in order to protect the rest of us.

        Finally, just because something is found on earth doesn’t mean you should ingest or smoke it… it might just be toxic. Rattlesnake venom is God’s creation too.

        Reply
        Link

    3. “How will ending prohibition cause a reduction in the number of users and addicts?” Good question K Time. It has already worked in several other countries.

      Holland, Spain, and Portugal have decriminalized marijuana. In Peru it is legal. Compare these annual prevalence marijuana use rates: U.S.=13.7%, Holland=5.4%, Spain=10.6%, Portugal=3.6%, Peru=0.7% (Source: UNODC World Drug Report 2011). Past month marijuana users in the U.S. have increased slightly from 5.8% in 1988 to 6.6% in 2009 (Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive), despite the war on drugs spending increasing from $9.7 billion in 1990 to $15 billion in 2010 (Source: ONDCP fact sheet 172873).

      Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2000. Portugal has a use rate of 0.46% for opiates and the U.S. has a use rate of 5.90%. For cocaine Portugal=0.6%, the U.S=2.4%. For amphetamines Portugal=0.2%, the U.S.=1.5%

      Reply
      Link

      1. Can you give me the annual prevalence marijuana use rates for these countries before decriminalization. Without them you really have no argument. It may well be the case that the rates prior to decriminalization for the Netherlands (Holland is not a country it is a geographic area), Spain, and Portugal was below the 2011 rates. In fact, in the Netherlands cannabis consumption among youth rose with the legalization of coffee shops, See Korf, D. J. (2001, November) “Trends and patterns in cannabis use in the netherlands”.

        Reply
        Link

    4. K Time is not interested in any kind of facts or debate. K Time is just a naysayer, and will be a naysayer regardless of any information. Naysaying is just a way of getting attention, K Time should be ignored, as K Time wants to stay ignorant, because a loss of ignorance will not allow for more naysaying.

      Reply
      Link

  5. I have a son with schizophrenia. People who are predisposed to this illness are five times more likely to acquire it after smoking marijuana. Marijuana also interferes with the medications he takes and prevents them from fully working. Since we can’t always count on his good judgement regarding what he puts in his body, I’m grateful that marijuana is still not easy to acquire. About half of the people with mental illness will try to self-medicate with alcohol or other drugs. Despite all the arguments I hear for the legalization of marijuana, I have reservations.

    Reply
    Link

    2. Why do people always feel that they are the center of the world. You are one case, why should we base our judgement because of you? Furthermore, there are studies showing that this is not only untrue, but there are also studies that suggest that cannabis oil, marijuana oil, may help fight cancer. So, I ask, should we not help cancer patients at the expense of people not being able to exercise self control?

      Reply
      Link

    3. Schizophrenia affects approximately one percent of the population. That percentage has held steady since the disease was identified, while the percentage of people who have smoked marijuana has varied from about 5% to around 40% of the general population.
      Source: http://www.schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm

      Despite a massive increase in the number of Australians consuming the drug since the 1960s, Wayne Hall of the University of Queensland found no increase in the number of cases of schizophrenia in Australia. Mitch Earleywine of the University of Southern California similarly found the same with regard to the US population and Oxford’s Leslie Iversen found the same regard to the population in the UK. According to Dr. Alan Brown, a professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at Columbia University, “If anything, the studies seem to show a possible decline in schizophrenia from the ’40s and the ‘50s”.

      Reply
      Link

    4. I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, but I think that your case should be treated as a separate issue. Some medications make it unsafe to operate motor vehicles, but we don’t ban cars nationally to make automobile access more difficult for people on medication. I’m always wary of the potential slippery slope of legislation that could arise from catering national policy to every single possible scenario.

      Reply
      Link

  6. This article is about the legalization of medical marijuana, not for recreational use. I am a BU student and I know that weed will become more easily accessible if medical marijuana is legalized, but I don’t believe it will have a profound effect on the number of marijuana users. If anything, legalizing marijuana will make using the drug safer.

    I have encountered weed that is “laced” with other drugs and, to the unsuspecting party-goer, having an encounter with this altered weed is dangerous, while smoking prescribed medical marijuana is safe, so long as the user is responsible and with others.

    If more of the weed in the United States comes from a legitimate medical marijuana farm, and said weed is smoked (legally or illegally), then the act of dealing weed becomes a white-collar crime, rather than a crime whose base comes from violent crime syndicates.

    The legalization of medical marijuana will not only provide relief to the patients who need the drug, but will also make marijuana use safer and remove the recreational use of the marijuana away from the violence associated with dealing weed, making the United States a much safer country, overall.

    And isn’t making the lives of your kids safer the motivation for all this controversy?

    Reply
    Link

  9. As a 100% disabled veteran, I am allowed to take marijuana therapeutically for some of my severe conditions. It does help tremendously.
    In 2009 I got the VA Medical Center directors in Michigan to approve veterans right to take marijuana as an adjunct therapy.
    The VA is part of the federal government. Therefore, the government is being deceptive in it’s opposition to any medical use. They cannot have it both ways, opposing it by the DEA and allowing it’s use by the VA Medical Centers.
    Tens of thousands of disabled veterans are currently taking this medicinal plant and it’s extracts.

    Reply
    Link

  10. I voted to legalize marijuana, including for recreational use, in California 4 years ago in part because I believe there is no logical reason for some drugs to be legal while others remain illegal. Cirrhosis of the liver is one of the leading causes of death in this country. Smoking is the second leading “real” cause of death in the U.S. after obesity. So why do alcohol and tobacco remain legal while other drugs remain illegal? Perhaps it’s cultural, but about 70% of adult Americans have tried marijuana so this seems to be changing. Legalize it, regulate it.

    Reply
    Link

  13. For the sake of our children we cannot afford to send the message that smoking
    marijuana is okay or healthful in any way. It is not. Any parent who has seen the light fade in the eyes of their teenager or worse descend into addiction knows this. Smoking marijuana and the notion that it is any way medicinal defies logic, science, and common sense. Haven’t we just spent the last 50 years proving beyond a shadow of doubt that smoking ANYTHING is deadly? The tobacco ad-men at their most diabolical were not so creative. “Medical marijuana” is a Trojan Horse. It has been proved so in other states. It is the thin end of the wedge to full legalization. With few exceptions in the chronically ill, who deserve relief using non-smoked, cannabis-derived palliatives whose dosage can be measured and controlled and that does not lace the lungs, and brain with toxins, the proponents are vice-based lifestyle advocates and a growers industry warming up in the wings.
    >
    > This is bad policy. As Mark Kleiman said: “If we legalize marijuana or any
    other drug, either we will have a private industry whose profits depend on
    creating and maintaining addicts, or we will have a public beauracracy whose
    revenues depend on creating and maintaining addicts. Somebody’s going to get a
    revenue stream from selling licit drugs, and whoever gets that revenue stream is
    going to try and maximize it. What you might call the political economy of drug
    legalization is a bigger problem than the legalizers seem to grasp.”

    However you choose to vote, please get informed on both sides of this issue. Start your research here: http://mavotenoonquestion3.com/

    Reply
    Link

    1. You comments are wrong in too many places to comment.

      As a person who actually attended meetings to pass the FIRST california indoor non-smoking laws in the 1970s – no the case for smoking ANYTHING has not been proved.

      As a person who shook the hand of the founder of normal this weeked, I resent you calling him a “vice-based lifestyle advocate.” Do you kiss your mother with that mouth.

      Your Mark Kleiman quote that poses the threat of a “political economy of drug legalization” is ridiculous. Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Wall St, Big Pharma, the Military Industrial Complex – these are orginizations that pose a political threat. In the wildest possible fantasies of pot fields stretching from sea to shinning sea, there will still be more large agribusinesses growing and lobbying for corn, wheat, and potatos.

      It is a bad idea to confuse someone elses fear with reality.

      By all means, get informed on both sides. To pick a website on the pro-marijuana side http://norml.org/

      Reply
      Link

    3. Marijuana smoking is okay and healthy for your mind, kids. Smoked marijuana does not “…lace your lungs, and brain with toxins…”, kids. IndyVoter is not telling the truth, kids, and he is doing it because he is prejudice and scared of a world where everyone is not controlled by him.

      Reply
      Link

      1. Marijuana smoking is healthy? What about the fact that there are more carcinogens in marijuana than cigarettes. Or the fact that marijuana use has been tied to learning and memorization problems.

        Reply
        Link

  14. young people are going to get it no matter what so it doesn’t really matter about the whole prohibition thing but I believe people who need it for medical reasons should be able to get it

    Reply
    Link

  15. Marijuana is not just for Pain and Glaucoma, the text of the ballot initiative lists:

    (C) “Debilitating medical condition” shall mean:
    Cancer, glaucoma, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus, acquired
    immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), hepatitis C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
    (ALS), Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and other conditions as determined in writing by a qualifying patient’s physician.

    Other conditions where patients experience relief is almost as long a list as the organs in the body, including:
    Clinical depression
    Menopause
    Anxiety Disorders,
    Sleep Disorders,
    Tourettes,
    Hypertension,
    Osteoporosis,
    Arthritis,
    Resistant Staff infections,
    etc.

    Reply
    Link

    1. The reason why there is relief has nothing to do with its effects on the organs directly, but rather the effects of the THC on the brain and how it can interfere with our perception of these pathways by altering endocrine and hormone signalling. Do I feel that a smokeable form of marijuana should be legalized? No. I watched my roommate’s slow but consistent slip in grades and attendance correlate to his increased usage in smoking. I feel that medically, the drugs from marijuana can be isolated and used for medicine that can be taken via pill, inhaler, dermal patch, or injection if need be. There is a safer way of distribution.

      Also, if you live by the “grown by the earth” crap, there are plenty of toxins that if you try to smoke them, mother nature will kill you off real quick.

      Reply
      Link

  16. Here are some links on the relationship between schizophrenia and marijuana. The first one is from a NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) blog. The rest are easily found on the Internet. There are reputable sources if you want to research this further…

    http://blog.nami.org/2011/03/marijuana-and-risk-of-schizophrenia.html
    http://bipolar.about.com/od/relateddisorders/a/schizo_pot.htm
    http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/07/08/marijuana-may-trigger-schizophrenia/2568.html

    Reply
    Link

  17. Over time I’ve come to the conclusion that marijuana does not belong in the same category as “hard drugs.” I think a lot of negative public perception is based on a few since-discounted studies several decades old, and more recent studies are showing a more mixed-bag of positives and negatives. Obviously smoking anything is not great for your lungs, but there are many other legal ways to harm your body – eating too much fast food, not exercising, smoking additive-filled cigarettes, pounding caffeine-loaded energy drinks, etc. And in the end, it’s not the state’s job to play mommy. Massachusetts should take hint from the New Hampshire state motto- “live free or die.”

    Reply
    Link

  19. Medical marijuana is not a problem. It gives relief and would be used mostly by a sick population that is not prone to developing illnesses, like schizophrenia, that first occur in the years between 15 and 40 (more toward the younger side). But medical marijuana is definitely not a slam-dunk good thing. There would be more access, and with that comes the social burden of people who can’t handle it. Balance the safety of having regulated drugs and people who don’t deserve to be in jail or prison, with the burden of having to care for mentally ill people or living around people who can’t get their act together to care for themselves. I don’t see this as a black and white question. If you vote for medical marijuana, consider the consequences of passage as not being 100% good. And, no, I don’t think a lot of us want a ‘Nanny’ state, but neither do we want to eliminate poison labels.

    Reply
    Link

  20. It never fails to amaze me how ridiculous people sound when trying to “academically” defend their addiction. Alcoholics, the clinically obese, heroin addicts, etc. chant the same litany. You will note that not one of the “legalize marijuana” contributors above simply stated that they like being stoned. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who has smoked marijuana regularly KNOWS that it is psycholgically addictive and, above all, a “demotivator”. For that reason alone, it should remain illegal. Here’s my advice: Stop smoking. Get healthy. Stop practicing escapism in any form. Take charge of your life and make it mean something. Otherwise, you’re just passing through. How sad is that?

    Reply
    Link

    1. Very interesting viewpoint, especially considering every study I’ve read ranks marijuana as less addictive than caffeine (for an example one study was done by Dr. Lynn Koslowski at Penn State and is searchable online, called “The Relative Addictedness of Drugs”). But I guess we’ll just have to go with your anecdotal evidence. After all, I have no personal experience with marijuana and don’t really plan to. Either way I would still fight for your right to live as you choose.

      Reply
      Link

      1. There is a difference between physiologically addictive (e.g. alcohol; heroin) and psychologically addictive (chocolate; sex). Caffeine is mildly physiologically addictive. Marijuana is dramatically psychologically addictive.

        Reply
        Link

    2. Uhm, no. I’ve smoked marijuana for years. I’ve been addicted to many drugs & couldn’t stop unless I was forced. But marijuana, I was never addicted to. & I have an addictive personality. So before you wanna talk about something you have no idea about, get some experience & don’t act like you know what your talking about.

      Reply
      Link

  21. I knew a person suffering horribly from the pain of endometriosis. I also witnessed the relief she experienced by smoking (yes, illegal) marijuana where no other pain reliever–even prescription ones–worked. If you were suffering as she was, I believe you’d try anything to find relief, and yes she thankfully did. I’m all for legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. (I’m also guessing that a schizophrenic-prone person would not be given a prescription for it!) Let’s put an end to unnecessary suffering.

    Reply
    Link

  22. were not addicts. i do not feel controlled by my weed. in fact, i am very much in control. we smoke a plant. every marijuana smoker is not the same. i personally use my herb to expand my mind, reflect deeply, think logically and creatively, to be present in the moment, spend some time to ask myself for advice, share laughs with friends, jam out to music, and think about ways that i am going to change the world..and then act upon them. i smoke weed and play basketball, surf, go swimming, skateboard, engage in intellectual conversation, draw, write, go on walks, have amazing sex, appreciate the wonder of nature, acknowledge the concept of wind and ask a caterpillar if he needs a shuttle to the next leaf. i smoke weed to give myself the time i need to relax, to free myself from sinus pressure, headaches, anxiety, nightmares, and to give myself an amazing nights sleep each and every night so i can have the energy i need for teaching lesson plans. when it rains i have my sunshine in a bag, and i smoke weed because of its amazing capability of bringing people together, for men and women of all social class and race to bond over a shared interest. i smoke weed because it allows me to be me. it has become part of who i am and it has made me a better person.

    i read through each and every one of these comments, and i appreciate all of yours words. to take the time to write about this means you care about this topic in some regards, and thats meaningful on its own. all i ask is to not knock it so hard until you try it. if you want your first smoking buddy let me know! i promise only the most comfortable and happy times. regardless of what happens on this vote, us smoke marijuana will smoke it, and those who don’t, won’t. make way for the positive day, no negative ways. peace and love, energy and persistence will conquer all! be good

    alcohol make ya drunk mahn, herb make ya meditate; herb is a consciousness

    Reply
    Link

  24. Walk up to someone with MS in a wheelchair powered by a straw, look them in the eyes and tell them that you don’t think they should be allowed to use cannabis to treat their pain just because of it disagrees with your values.
    If you don’t agree with medical marijuana then DO NOT take it if prescribed it, go with the amalgamation of experimental synthetic chemicals the pharmaceutical companies push instead. How others choose to undergo medical treatment is NONE OF YOUR CONCERN!

    Reply
    Link

  25. Marijuana was first banned by the government under the idea that black men were raping white women while stoned. The original reason for banning Marijuana was racist!! And I know that sounds ridiculous but its true, look it up. And now paper, lumber, and pharmaceutical companies want to keep it banned because marijuana and hemp would cut into their pay checks. Caffeine is a more addictive, but you don’t see me trying to ban you from getting your starbucks in the morning

    Reply
    Link

  26. Man did not make it legalize it. Man makes alcohol and just look how many people die from it . How many people have died from smoking weed. Thought this was a free country. Or would you rather be told how to live. Medicine is made plants or did u forget that. I am a brick mason and it has never slowed me down. George Washington smoked and grew it do you think he was bad if so burn all the one dollar bills you get. Wake up AMERICA!

    Reply
    Link

  27. Medical marijuana was banned for racial reasons because of th emovie reefer madness. It’s not white vs blacks anymore so LEGALIZE IT. Obama should see that.

    Reply
    Link

  29. The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

    Reply
    Link

Post a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest from BU Today