Ohio_Patient_Network

Nearly six out of ten people admitted to drug ‘treatment’ for marijuana are referred there by the criminal justice system, according to a just-released report by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association (SAMHSA).

In 2008, 57 percent of persons referred to treatment for marijuana as their ‘primary substance of abuse,’ were referred by the criminal justice system. For adolescents, nearly half (48 percent) were referred via the criminal justice system.

By contrast, criminal justice referrals accounted for just 37 percent of the overall total of drug treatment admissions in 2008.

“Primary marijuana admissions were less likely than all admissions combined to be self-referred to treatment,” the study found.

Since 1998 the percentage of individuals in drug treatment primarily for marijuana has risen approximately 25 percent, the report found. This increase is being primarily driven by a proportional rise in the percentage of criminal justice referrals. According to a previous federal study, the proportion of marijuana treatment admissions from all sources other than the criminal justice system has been declining since the mid-1990s.

Commenting on the study, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: “These statistics make it clear that it is not marijuana use per se that is driving these treatment admission rates; it is marijuana prohibition that is primarily responsible. These people for the most part are not ‘addicts’ in any true sense of the word. Rather, they are ordinary Americans who have experienced the misfortune of being busted for marijuana who are forced to choose between rehab or jail.”

According to federal figures compiled by SAMHSA in 2009, some 37 percent of the estimated 288,000 thousand people who entered drug treatment for cannabis in 2007 had not reported using it in the 30 days previous to their admission. Another 16 percent of those admitted said that they’d used marijuana three times or fewer in the month prior to their admission.

Last year clinical trials on the efficacy of medical marijuana were completed at the University of California at San Diego. The results of these gold standard trials showed that marijuana is effective in reducing muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis and relieving pain caused by neurological injuries or illness, (neuropathic pain).

There is also a huge body of colloquial evidence among Veterans that marijuana is also effective in treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These are exactly the kinds of conditions suffered most by Veterans who have experienced lifetime disabling injuries to body and mind as a result of their service. I have had numerous veterans tell me that when they tried marijuana for their PTSD, they experienced their first decent nights sleep in years.

Those who use it for chronic pain report needing only a minimum of traditional pain meds at bedtime and no tolerance buildup when supplementing traditional pain medicine with marijuana. This minimizes the chance of addiction to traditional pain medicine as many times occurs when treating chronic pain with opioid medicines alone. The success of using medical marijuana to treat these types of conditions is solid and unquestionable. The Veterans Administration should be allowed to prescribe medical marijuana to it’s patients and should provide it thru the VA pharmacy system.

There is no doubt in any reasonable person’s mind that the war on marijuana is a failure. Today, despite the propaganda efforts of the government, we know that marijuana is not the dangerous, useless drug it has been claimed to be, but effective medicine with a safety record better than aspirin, Rolaids and most medicines sold over the counter.

Currently the government allows the use of medical marijuana in states that have medical marijuana laws. So, what is the governments reason for not allowing Disabled Veterans, it’s most deserving citizens, to use medical marijuana? In order for the government to allow it’s Veterans to use medical marijuana it would have to admit that it was wrong. It would have to admit that marijuana prohibition was a mistake.

One can only conclude that the failed forty year war on marijuana users is more important to the Federal Government than the suffering of those permanently injured while standing the wall of freedom. As witnessed by the 2010 Drug War budget, they would rather pour money into a failed policy than admit the policy is wrong. This is a course of action that was not expected of this administration and certainly not change our Veterans can believe in.

Master Sergeant Tony Vance is a retired 20 year Air Force veteran who is a regular contributor the the editorial pages of the Cincinnati Enquirer.  You can read and comment on his article on the Cincinnati Enquirer website.