It is a drug that is frequently smoked, increasing the risk of lung disease and cancer for the user. Potential exists for greater smoking harm than from standard cigarettes.
Second-hand smoke from this use will place people who are not patients at risk. People who are simply breathing near the patient will be exposed to the drug and its inhaled dangers.
No controlled studies have been published in peer-reviewed literature showing superiority to drugs currently available in pharmacies.
We have enough problems on the island with alcohol abuse. Do we really need to add another mind-altering substance to the mix?
While there are many pharmaceuticals from plants, these drugs are purified and standardized before dispensing to patients. They aren’t smoked or baked into brownies or steeped into teas.
Advocates, there are steps you must complete if you ever hope to gain support for legalizing your plant:
1. Do the studies. Compare this drug head-to-head with existing therapies and prove equality or superiority.
2. Find a dosage form that doesn’t put the patient or those around the patient at risk of lung disease and cancer.
3. Treat your drug as a drug. Drugs aren’t approved by legislatures. The FDA approves drugs, and there is a process for gaining drug approval and the credibility that comes with approval. Use it.
4. Recognize the pharmacists are the drug experts and use their dispensing expertise to prevent problems with this drug.
5. Acknowledge that there will be a segment of the population that uses this drug for illicit purposes and embrace the existing system for the prevention of drug diversion.
6. Understand that anecdote isn’t science.
MIKE TROUP
Saipan, CNMI
