Sample Essay: Legalize Marijuana

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Marijuana, physician-assisted suicide, for-profit healthcare and Rob Reiner. They may sound like part of a movie story line, but they are the key elements behind healthcare-related ballot initiatives voters will face on Nov. 3. Voters in four states–Alaska, Nevada, Oregon and Washington–along with the District of Columbia, will decide whether to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. Voters will also be presented with a medical marijuana initiative in Colorado, but it will not count. After a series of court battles, the secretary of state declared that the measure did not have enough valid signatures, but it was too late to remove it from the ballot.

Why is marijuana creating such a buzz?
“California was the catalyst for all the other initiatives,” said Brenda Craine, spokeswoman for the American Medical Association, referring to a 1996 referendum that legalized marijuana prescriptions in that state in certain cases, such as for patients with glaucoma, AIDS or cancer. A similar initiative was passed at the same time in Arizona. However, doctors in both states have generally been reluctant to prescribe marijuana, partly because of a threatened crackdown by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which oversees licensing for prescribing narcotics for medicinal use. Most of the marijuana ballot initiatives are similar to California’s: Patients could get prescriptions only after certain illnesses or debilitating conditions had been established. In Alaska, Measure 8 would require a confidential registry of users. In the District of Columbia, Initiative Measure 60 would require only a physician’s verbal recommendation to use marijuana; family members could be designated to obtain it; and not-for-profit organizations could grow and distribute marijuana for medicinal purposes. In Oregon, Measure 67 calls for patients using marijuana to carry an identification card allowing them to carry up to an ounce of the drug and cultivate as many as three marijuana plants.
According to published reports, a group of philanthropists led by billionaire businessman George Soros has given most of the funding to the organization that sponsored Initiative 692 in Washington: Washington Citizens for Medical Rights. Most polls indicate that the marijuana initiative will pass easily in Washington. The AMA has not taken a position on medical marijuana, insisting that valid research is insufficient to certify it as a reliable medication. Most individual state medical associations have not taken a position on the issue. A poll conducted in Nevada in early October by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and a Las Vegas television station found a slight majority of respondents favored passage of the initiative, called Question 9. In Michigan, the hotbed of the physician-assisted suicide issue, voters will decide whether to become the second state to legalize the act. Proposal B is similar to a ballot initiative Oregon voters passed in 1996: Patients must be terminally ill and mentally competent, and their decision must be reviewed by three physicians. But unlike Oregon, up to a quarter of all cases would be reviewed by an oversight committee. Surprisingly, Jack Kevorkian, M.D., who has gained national attention by assisting in the suicides of dozens of people in and around Michigan since 1990, opposes the measure, saying it creates too much bureaucracy, slowing down the process.
Conversely, the Michigan Health and Hospital Association and the Michigan State Medical Society oppose the measure in part because it is too vague. Polls show the numbers are too close to project the outcome. “It’s a terrible piece of legislation, and legal liabilities for physicians and hospitals abound,” said Patrick Foley, director of communications for the MHHA. “It’s unclear whether a hospital could be sued by a relative whose family member got the drugs elsewhere and committed suicide on the premises, or whether a hospital could be sued if it furnished the drugs and the patient committed suicide elsewhere.” The association is neutral on the position of physician-assisted suicide. Colorado’s is the only ballot initiative that will directly influence hospitals. A proposed amendment to the state constitution would allow public hospitals to engage in joint ventures with for-profit operators if they would not accrue debt. Referendum A would mostly affect the state’s rural hospitals. More than 70% of Colorado’s 37 rural hospitals are public facilities. Under state law, public hospitals are barred from aligning with for-profit organizations. That legislation stemmed from a string of small communities that bankrupted themselves at the turn of the century by making promises to railroad companies to get easy access to their tracks. The initiative was sponsored by the rural council of the Colorado Health and Hospital Association, which believes passage would increase access to capital for rural hospitals so they could upgrade facilities and equipment.
Although the initiative has no formal opposition and was recently endorsed by Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, association spokeswoman Peg O’Keefe noted that only 7% of Colorado’s registered voters live in counties with public hospitals and that “we have many people to educate on the issue.” A recent poll suggested that as many as 50% of voters are undecided on the measure. In California, film director Rob Reiner is spearheading Proposition 10, which would raise the tobacco tax to 87 cents per pack from 50 cents per pack, raising an extra $750 million a year in revenues. The money would go into the newly formed California Children and Families First Trust Fund and an affiliated state commission to distribute money to improve prenatal care and boost early childhood development research, among other things. Backers say the funding is required to ensure that low-income children in California aren’t left behind mentally or physically. The tax also would discourage smoking among lower-income individuals. Proposition 10 has broad bipartisan support, but its critics say the measure would increase bureaucracy and the funds could not be redirected if priorities changed. Initiative 200 would eliminate race-based preferences in hiring and university admissions. The proposal is opposed by the Washington Hospital Association and the American Association of Medical Colleges. The AAMC has taken out advertisements in the New York Times blasting the measure. The group’s president, Jordan Cohen, M.D., said Initiative 200 would cut the numbers of minority physicians and shortchange the low-income communities where they often practice. According to the AAMC, 17,000 more minority physicians are practicing in the U.S. because of affirmative-action programs. Initiative 694 would ban partial-birth abortions except if the mother’s life was in danger. It’s opposed by the Washington State Medical Association.

Reference:

Gupta, Sanjay; Sloane, Matt. Time, 11/6/2006, Vol. 168 Issue 19, p98-98, 1p, 2c;

Time, 2/20/2006, Vol. 167 Issue 8, p18-18, 3/4p, 3bw;

Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, 11/8/2004, Vol. 16 Issue 43, p2-2, 1/4p;

Nadelmann, Ethan A.. National Review, 9/27/2004, Vol. 56 Issue 18, p42-43, 2p;

Flass, Rebecca. Adweek, 4/19/2004, Vol. 45 Issue 16, p10-10, 1/3p, 1c;

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