November 06, 2011
By Doctor Tom
Yesterday was the fifteenth anniversary of California’s Proposition 215, which allowed use of cannabis (“marijuana”) as medicine, provided it was formally “recommended” by a licensed physician or osteopath. Controversial from the moment it qualified for the ballot, the successful proposition was promptly attacked by Clinton’s drug czar before it could take effect; however his ploy was invalidated by the Ninth Circuit of the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. Their ruling was promptly challenged by the incoming Bush Administration at its first opportunity. Fortunately, the senior Court, as it was constituted in 2000, allowed the Ninth Circuit’s ruling to stand. Fortunately that was was long enough before arch conservative justices Roberts and Alito, were added to the court. Thus the first successful voter challenge to the Nixon-Mitchell drug war has been allowed to evolve within California. Even so; it still faces formidable opposition from Law Enforcement at every level as confirmed by recent threats of forfeiture aimed at landlords and the refusal of the IRS to allow deductions for a product voters have declared legal.
Whether the present Supreme Court (which appears to have been configured by Republican Presidents intent on overturning Roe v Wade) would have allowed the state initiative process to stand is probably moot, particularly since a spate of medical marijuana laws been passed; some by initiative and others by state legislatures
Now in its forty-first year, the drug war does not want for vigorous federal backing, but it has also been weakened further by the passage of medical cannabis laws in fifteen additional states and the District of Columbia. With similar legislation now being actively supported in six more, including populous New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, a tipping point may be imminent. That medical use legislation has been supported almost exclusively by youthful Democrats sends its own message; it also attests to the power of the black market created, however inadvertently, by the drug war. Beyond that, it confirms the ability of cannabis to attract loyal long term users despite the extreme legal and social risks imposed by its illegality. The underlying message should be clear to anyone with the capacity to decipher it, a growing population that will hopefully include our first biracial President who happens to fit the profile established by an ongoing study of California applicants to an uncanny degree (that he had negligible contact with his biological father, tried cannabis, was able to get “high,” and also had extreme difficulty becoming abstinent from cigarettes are matters of public record).
To return to this entry’s anniversary theme: the real genius of Proposition 215 may have been a Psychiatrist who became a lifelong cannabis user, Tod Mikuriya, who, as brilliant as he was, undoubtedly experienced its benefits on a personal level long before appreciating them intellectually. Whatever the truth of that speculation, I have no doubt that his critical contribution to Prop 215’s wording was what gave me, as a pot neophyte, the courage to recommend it for the “mood disorders” I soon recognized from and the accumulated family and drug initiation histories I began collecting from applicants in November, 2001.
Although there is far from universal agreement among chronic users, I am convinced that most were attracted by the unique anxiolytic benefits of cannabis (especially when when it is inhaled). It was that intuition that gave me the courage to proceed in the face of skepticism from both political opponents and supporters of “medical marijuana.”
My profound regret is that although I’d enjoyed limited access to Tod; it was late in his career and mainly during the short remission before he died; thus we had no opportunity for the relaxed, collegial discussion I now miss acutely. Nevertheless, I appreciate the life-long courage and sagacity he demonstrated in such abundance.
Without those qualities and the contributions of a few other prime movers, we might not have had Prop 215 and be still at square one, rather than well on our way to what promises to be ultimate “legalization.” It may not come as soon as many would wish, but the demographics of current medical users and the absence of competitive products among the offerings of Big Pharma make it a very safe long-term bet.
Doctor Tom
