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The ?healthy-looking young man? syndrome |
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Written by James Anthony
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Thursday, 16 November 2006 |
“They’re mostly healthy young men,” “There are hardly any sick people going in there,” “Medical marijuana is a scam—they’re just trying to legalize it.”
This is the most serious public relations threat facing the medical cannabis movement now, and it is growing. Every time a dispensary is closed, or complaints are heard, some version of this comes up. It plays on a number of stereotypes and prejudices: that medical cannabis is “just” a cover for legalization; that “pot” is used by young male (mostly of color) criminals who are selling it and other drugs too. The medical cannabis movement has to meet these criticisms head on and reveal them for the lies they are.
 EFFECTIVE Relief ? Some young people find medical marijuana can give them effective control over serious medical symptoms with fewer side effects. Nature?s Medicinals in Bakersfield has distinctive strains of cannabis to treat many specific conditions. Oaksterdam News photo by Jaime Galindo.
While most people who favor legalization also support medical cannabis, the opposite is not always true. Indeed, just a few generations ago, it was the anti-cannabis forces who pushed for “medical-only” cannabis as a step to prohibition. As usual, medical cannabis is caught in the middle of the argument between legalization and prohibition.
However, the medical value of cannabis, accepted for thousands of years, remains unchanging. Only the politics around it change. And meanwhile, patients who might otherwise find relief, are forced to suffer at the hands of ideologically-driven politics, and that is shameful.
Second, the lie that medical cannabis is being abused by young men (criminals, minorities) who want to use it recreationally or sell it for profit. Again, the opposite is true. It is the prohibition and criminalization of cannabis that makes patients (of whatever age or sex or color) “criminals”—and it is especially young male patients of color who need the protection of law because our criminal laws are so disproportionately used against them.
it is especially young male patients of color who need the protection of law because our criminal laws are so disproportionately used against them. 
The incarceration rate for black men in America is 5%! That is an outrageously higher rate than any country has ever incarcerated its minorities at—short of slavery. South Africa in the worst days of Apartheid did not even come close. Even without regard to color, America’s incarceration rate of almost 1% is higher than any country in history—including the Soviet Union, China, and Nazi Germany.
This issue—that they’re all healthy young men and medical marijuana is just a big scam—must be faced squarely. When a medicine is effective, the people who use it are naturally going to appear healthy.
When a medicine is effective, the people who use it are naturally going to appear healthy.
We must firmly assert the doctor-patient relationship as confidential and sacred. Just as we don’t want our own private and personal medical histories discussed publicly (unless we choose to reveal them), we should not engage in speculation about who is and is not sick enough for medical cannabis.
That decision is for the doctor and the patient alone. Just as they decide if the patient will use Prozac, or Viagra, or Aspirin, or Chemotherapy, or Oxy-Contin, or any other medicine, they decide if the patient will use medical cannabis legally under California law. When they make that decision, they consider only valid medical concerns — they don’t consider the patient’s age or race or how it will look on TV, nor should they. And the doctor and the patient make that decision alone — any comment from the “peanut gallery” (the neighbors, the police, the TV news commentators) is completely improper.
Law enforcement officials who have been making public pronouncements on these matters (i.e., the Riverside and San Diego county DAs) should be ashamed of themselves—and should probably prosecute themselves for practicing medicine without a license just as they would prosecute a doctor who started handing out legal advice.
The medical cannabis movement—and by that I mean you, reading these words—must not fall into these traps. Remember that young patients of color need the protection of state law and especially the protection afforded by a County-issued state ID card more than white patients do—because they are at a risk of incarceration that is 500% higher. Naturally they will be more visible, and just as naturally the forces of prohibition will use them to play on the ancient prejudices of this country.
Do not allow this movement to be split into worthy and unworthy patients (where curiously all the unworthy just happen to be young and of color). Stand up for the rights of all patients and for the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship. Do not allow history to be re-written to normalize prohibition. Remember, for 99% of human history, cannabis has been legal—and it has always been medicine, as it is recognized today in California law for “any illness” for which it provides relief.
* Anthony is a member and speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, www.leap.cc, based on his years as a drug nuisance prosecutor for the City of Oakland. He is now in private practice, specializing in land use law for medical cannabis dispensaries. He can be reached at 510-207-6243. |
James Anthony |
| About the author: |
| James Anthony, Prosecutor
"When the police department can't put the drug dealers in jail, they ask me to take the grandmother's house."
James Anthony has seen first-hand the destructive impact of the "War on Drugs" on both inner-city neighborhoods and on police officers; and Oakland, CA - where he has spent three years as an award-winning Neighborhood Law Corps attorney - is a ground zero for that damage.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 17 November 2006 )
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