The public health committee of the Maine Medical Association will recommend that the organization opposes the November referendum on the legalization of medical marijuana.
Included among the committee’s complaints against the referendum were that the list of diseases approved for medical use was too long, and
that marijuana was a “gateway drug leading users to frequently use stronger illicit or harmful drugs.”
“It’s precisely that marijuana is so helpful for so many ailments that the MMA should be looking at the safety and utility of medical marijuana, rather than adopting the federal government’s ‘flat earth’ anti-marijuana stance,” said Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director. “Further, the MMA should read the recently released Institute of Medicine report on the health effects of marijuana.
In the IOM report researchers put to rest the myth that marijuana is a gateway drug.”
NORML Foundation’s Chair Lester Grinspoon, MD, of Harvard Medical School will present a lecture to the MMA’s annual meeting in two weeks.
“It’s our hope that Dr. Grinspoon can impress upon the other physicians in attendance the need for them to support — not oppose — the current medical marijuana law reform efforts in Maine.”
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751 or Lester Grinspoon, MD, NORML Foundation Chair at (617)277-3621. To view the IOM Report: http://books.nap.edu/html/marimed
