Buyer Beware: The Latest Pot Pitch - Marijuana forces try to pry open Wyoming with false promise peddled in South Carolina

by Wyoming Liberty Group

Saying something is true doesn't make it so.

That's especially the case with the so-called "Compassionate Care Act," a bill to bring about marijuana as medicine in South Carolina.

There's nothing "compassionate" about that bill, by the way. But why should we in Wyoming care about legislative shenanigans occurring far from our borders in the south?

Well, there's at least one excellent reason: Behind the scenes, pro-pot forces, led by the local chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, have already quietly pitched a similar idea to our state lawmakers. They're calling it an interim study topic.

Sounds wonky, right? "Interim." "Study." Doesn't even sound threatening. But don't be fooled. Pro-pot forces want Wyoming legislation that would let in marijuana as medicine, if not for general adult use. Except there's a problem with that notion. For one, marijuana isn't medicine. It's also not legal in Wyoming.

We'll know in a matter of days whether the Management Council, a body composed of state Senate and House members that handles administrative and policy matters, will go ahead and assign the issue as an interim topic. But even if it doesn't, it's a safe bet that pro-pot forces will return with a vengeance next year with a bill similar to South Carolina's.

Marijuana interests have, after all, spent several years trying to crack into the lucrative Wyoming market—so far, to no avail. Just in the last legislative session in Cheyenne, the Wyoming Senate shrewdly voted down an ill-conceived bill that would have complicated what would have constituted misdemeanor possession of marijuana. And Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law a bill that seeks to stop the production and sale of hemp products that are used to create new forms of the mind-altering drug.

But the "Compassion Care Act" is particularly insidious, and it's another way for pro-pot forces to wheedle their way into Wyoming. In short, they're attempting to make inroads by selling a false promise to the uninformed.

To explain: The South Carolina bill would legalize marijuana as medicine, opening the door for doctors to prescribe pot to patients who are suffering from such conditions as cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, sickle cell anemia, autism and diagnoses related to post-traumatic stress disorder.

We all, of course, want people to be treated for such conditions. But with real medicine. And that's not marijuana. This is what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration states clearly on its website about marijuana: "To date, the FDA has not approved a marketing application for cannabis for the treatment of any disease or condition."

The South Carolina bill tries to pull another fast one, by seeking to reassure people that it would only permit patients access to so-called non-herbal forms of marijuana, such as oils and tinctures. As if that would somehow be safer. It isn't. Whether it's in weed or concentrated form, whether it's smoke or ingested, marijuana has been engineered in recent years to have significantly higher levels of THC—tetrahydrocannabinol—the psychoactive substance that alters the user's mind.

And yet, this is how Tom Davis, the South Caroline state senator, has touted his bill: "It's not California, it's not Colorado, it's not a liberal state's cannabis bill. It is a conservative state's medical cannabis bill with lots of regulation and lots of medical professional involvement."

He's also reassured his legislative colleagues that his bill isn't an attempt to eventually open up the state to recreational use of marijuana, a concern raised by many. "I can't think of a more dangerous place for us to get out of our lane," said South Caroline state Sen. Greg Hembree.

Nonetheless, Davis, who has spent years trying to get a marijuana bill passed, appears to have made headway. The South Carolina state Senate recently passed the medical-marijuana bill and sent it to the House, where it is being considered. About two-thirds of the states have approved marijuana as medicine.

But lost in the shuffle is a basic fact: Marijuana is far from medicine. Indeed, according to a fact sheet from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency of the U.S. Justice Department: "Marijuana is a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision."

Also lost in the debate is this other basic fact: Legislative votes and ballot initiatives don't make marijuana a form of medicine, even if they call it so.