Here are reader comments from last week’s Atlanta Forward blog on whether the state Legislature should legalize medicinal marijuana.
K. Brown: The reasoning, the politics, the prolonged acceptance and the denied passage of this bill is a complete lack of compassion. It's cruel and insane. The methods, medication and coping skills each of us has the choice to make for ourselves and our children should be between us and doctors.
Kwager: It's less harmful than alcohol. Legalize the whole plant. Never should have been made illegal in the first place. We have been lied to for the last 70 years.
Blaine Cloud: As one of many parents pushing for this life-saving medicine for my child, I take issue with Sue Rusche's article and her statement that "not one (product) has been tested for safety and efficacy." This is simply not true. The children taking this medicine in other states have their product continuously tested by independent labs to make sure it contains no contaminants, and that the proper mix of cannabinoid to THC is reached. You paint the picture that these products are unsafe for our children, but the fact remains cannabis is magnitudes safer than the FDA-approved drugs our children are forced to take today, which not only cause behavior issues, cognition delays, loss of appetite and sleep issues, but also in the long term can cause kidney failure, liver disease and fatal rashes. Cannabis causes none of these. We will gladly go through the FDA process if that provides the best medicine, but these approvals take years and are only for one particular strain. Some children most likely need small amounts of THC. We seek the best and safest medicine for our children, and cannabis has been proven to be it.
Sue Rusche, president and CEO, National Families in Action: I want to correct a misunderstanding about the FDA process. Yes, clinical trials take a long time to get a new drug approved — years, in fact. But FDA provides a program that gives access to an Investigational New Drug (IND) to patients for whom nothing else works while those clinical trials are taking place. An IND is a drug that has met the first test FDA requires: that it is safe for humans. Safety is determined by testing in animals to ensure there are no lethal or dangerous side effects. GW Pharmaceuticals' drug Epidiolex meets that test, which is why FDA allowed it to begin clinical trials in the U.S. while seeking FDA approval.
