Doctors stood behind Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Monday and said recommending medical marijuana to their patients would be a violation of their oath to first do no harm.
Two proposals that would allow patients to use marijuana for medical purposes have been approved for the Nov. 8 general election ballot. Hutchinson said he had concerns about both measures -- the regulatory burden on state agencies, the cost to taxpayers and the impact on employers.
But the governor said his biggest concern with both the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment and the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act is that the use of that drug for that purpose is bad medicine. Hutchinson said all medicine should be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before patients use it.
"We're a compassionate state," Hutchinson said. "Nobody wants to deprive people of medicine."
He pointed to a large picture of Marinol to his left. Marinol, an FDA-approved drug, contains a synthetic compound found in marijuana that is used to treat nausea associated with cancer treatment.
The governor stood in front of representatives of the Arkansas Medical Society, Arkansas Hospital Association, Family Physician Association, Pharmacy Association, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas Children's Hospital, Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, Arkansas Department of Health and Arkansas Heart Hospital.
State Surgeon General Greg Bledsoe said he was concerned about the state's children. He said "big marijuana" aims to target young adults and children with marijuana candy.
Richard Smith, dean of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said marijuana is harmful to patients.
"Both the act and the amendment are misleading and dangerous" and cover too many ailments, he told reporters.
Melissa Fults, campaign manager for Arkansans for Compassionate Care, stood in the back of the room during the news conference. Fults supports the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act and backed a 2012 proposal that almost passed on that year's ballot.
She told reporters afterward that the FDA approval practice isn't all it's cracked up to be. She said her son was on a drug for seven years that had been approved by the FDA, but turned out to be deadly to patients.
"They took it off the market because it was killing too many people," she said.
The FDA can't approve medical marijuana because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration lists it as a Schedule I drug, like heroin, LSD and ecstasy, Fults said.
"The DEA won't reschedule it until they approve it," she said. "It's a catch-22."
State-by-state allowances make sense in order to force the federal government to reschedule the drug, Fults said. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 25 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico either allow medical marijuana use or are in the process of doing so.
Hutchinson is a former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Asked earlier if he thought marijuana should be rescheduled to allow for further research, he said harm is not the test the scheduling system reflects.
"The test is whether there's any indication that it is of medical benefit," he said. "The opiates are in a different schedule because they have a recognized medical benefit. Marijuana does not have that so it remains Schedule I."
Bledsoe said the DEA recently decided not to reschedule marijuana, but to make it more available for research. He said he agreed with that policy.
Fults told reporters she had questions about the governor taking a position against medical marijuana, but not opposing a ballot measure intended to limit the amount of money patients and their lawyers can collect from a medical lawsuit.
"They're coming after marijuana, cannabis and the casinos, yet tort reform, who is going to prevent nursing home patients from being able to get any kind of a settlement, he's really kind of undecided on that," Fults said. "It's an insult to the voters and to the patients of this state."
Late Monday, Arkansans for Compassionate Care issued a news release in response to the news conference. On Marinol, the group said the drug contains a synthetic version of one of more than 80 compounds found in cannabis and that Marinol patients have found it "expensive, difficult to use and ineffective compared to the benefit they receive from medical cannabis."
The group also states that Arkansas ranks eighth in the nation for the number of opioid prescriptions written per person.
Metro on 09/13/2016