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"Yeah, sure, if it works for you, you know, try
it." But there's no way that they would, like,
write a script for it or anything, even if it meant
to get medlcal marijuana from California or
something.
In terms of being worried about the
reputation, I think that that's probably one of the main
concerns, main reasons why yeu don't have a whole
lot of physicians here, which is sad, but I would
like to -- I would like you guys to take that into
consideration too when you look at, like, the
audience that shows up.
In terms of the benefits, both from
specific active ingredients and marijuana overall,
it certainly is very hard to study these
considering it's illegal, so you know, looking at
some of the studies that were done outside of this
country, it definitely looks like there's some
promise there, including studies comparing, for
example, cancer risks of marijuana compared to
tobacco, which from what I found so far, it does
not seem that marijuana is actually causing lung
cancer when comparing it to placebo and compared to
tobacco which increased it by eight times in the
particular study that I was looking at it, which I
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will forward to you as well.
The -- let's see. Another issue with
the whole pain and depression that are often -- you
get those a lot type of deal, but that's something
that marijuana can help with. But depression pain
also lead to the lack of desire to live.
I've seen it plenty of times myself
that folks who just -- you know, if you lose the
desire to live because you're constantly in pain,
it's -- it gets tough. The going gets tough, and
medical marijuana, for example, would be one thing
that would help with a number of respects, not just
the pain, but it could also uplift the mood and
increase the desire to live, which especially in
hospice, I think, would help individuals with their
end stage of life, instead of just wanting to die,
actually trying to get out of life still what you
can.
When taking a look at the different
drugs that are under Schedule I, II, III, IV, and V
from the DEA, I had actually written out a couple
of these. When we look at -- marijuana is
Schedule I, which supposedly has no medical use.
Even on Schedule II we find things like opium,
cocaine, morphine, as well as the Oxys, OxyContin
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which has been abused quite a bit and has gotten a
bad rap even though it helps a lot of people with
severe pain.
On Schedule III we're even looking at
ketamine or Special K which I did not know there
was much medical benefit for that kind of drug, but
if you think about the stuff that supposedly makes
you see God is a Schedule III drug and medical
marijuana is a Schedule I, you just start to
wonder.
In addition, on Schedule III, we also
have LSD precursors, and on Schedule IV, which is
even further down the list, we have things like
Valium, Xanax, Ambien, drugs that can make -- cause
addiction or dependency behavior, which I'm sure --
well, that is one of the issues that you guys are
looking into, is the whole, you know, addictiveness
of marijuana and how that will play into, you knoww,
society in prescribing these medical marijuana.
But just taking a look at this, it
definitely appears to me that drugs that are
prescribed legally without much difficulties
definitely share this whole issue of dependency.
And last but not least, current issue,
the whole Gardasil shots that we give to, like,
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l1-year-olds, a very understudied drug before it
came out. It kills people. I mean when we take a
look at, you know, we base the life of millions of
11-to 16-, l8-year-old girls on a study that was
done with 1,200 people, and you know, that's all
okay, I think medical marijuana deserves another
look at the possibility of, you know, giving people
help and hope. Thank you.
What a democracy. I just walked in
off the street and get right up to the mic. I
appreciate you listening to me.
I broke my back when I was 16 years
old. I had a fusion surgery. And since then, I've
recovered. But still to this day, I suffer from
chronic pain on a daily basis.
I practice yoga. I eat healthy. I've
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seen physical therapists. I've tried medications,
and with the medications I've found that there are
very bad drawbacks. They make me extremely tired,
these muscle relaxers and pain relievers. They
make me want to go to sleep all day. They make me
bleed internally. It fills my stomach with blood,
and it is, as you can imagine, very uncomfortable.
So I don't necessarily take them as I probably
should.
If I don't take them, I suffer with
pain, and if do, I find that the drawbacks are
sometimes more uncomfortable than the pain. I
simply ask that you legalize the use of medical
marijuana so that I can at least have a
conversation with my doctors to look into something
else that doesn't necessarily have the drawbacks of
the medications that I'm used to.
I guess I wasn't as prepared as the
gentleman before me. That's really all I have to
say, and I thank you for your time.
BOARD MEMBER BENJAMIN:
Lloyd is going
to be coming back in a little bit, but if you want
to come up and introduce yourself, we'll go ahead
and take whatever statement you have and
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STEVE MELBOSTAD: You bet.
My name is
Steve Melbostad, M-e-l-b-o-s-t-a-d. I was born in
Des Moines in 1968, went to Western Hills
Elementary School in West Des Moines. I went to
Indian Hills Junior High School and Valley High
School, graduated in 1986.
I'm 41 years old. went to the
University of California Berkeley where I studied
history, including American history, and part of my
history studies was of drug prohibition and the
history of that and the outrageousness of its
history.
I then went on to the University of
Iowa College of Law where I graduated in 1994. So
as a student of history and a student of law, I am
a concerned citizen about this issue. I am so
grateful to you guys for having public hearings
about this issue because I think it's very
important.
I was planning on having a speech
prepared, but I don't, so this is just off the
cuff. But I have strong emotions about this on a
couple of levels.
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On a medical level I want to testify
that I know people with medical issues like anxiety
and nausea and panic attacks that they've tried all
the antidepressants, Lexapro, Zoloft, Klonopin, and
they find that marijuana works best for keeping
them calm, having them have an adequate appetite.
Marijuana helps for people who -- who
lose appetite like me. You know, I take
antidepressants, and they help make it possible
that I can eat a meal every day. I know for some
people that marijuana helps better to control their
appetite or keep up their appetite.
I also know I have friends that
experience anxiety, panic attacks, and they -- you
know, they're given drugs, Klonopin, Zoloft,
Lexapro. They're given drugs to help them control
their anxiety and help them live normal lives.
Marijuana is one option, and I know
that -- from experience that it helps. It acts in
the same way as -- as -- as many of these
antidepressants and antianxiety drugs work. It
calms people. It helps them keep up their appetite
so they can eat a meal every day, which is a big
deal. And I know from experience, it's an
important medicine for some people.
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Now, for a lot of people, it's just a
recreational drug that they use to get high and
have fun like alcohol, and I'm not advocating the
use of marijuana in that way, but I'm so pleased
that the pharmacy board has conducted these
hearings to hear from us Iowans about our
experiences with marijuana and people that use
marijuana.
I think -- I don't want to insult
anyone on the board here, but I did read in the
Des Moines Register a quote about, well, if
if -- you know, comparing other states that have
legalized medical marijuana, there was a quote
something to the effect of, "Well, my dad told me
if we all you know, if my friends told me to
jump off a bridge, you know, should I do it just
because everyone else is doing it?"
And I was really offended by that
quote. To suggest that the states that have
legalized medical marijuana are jumping off a
bridge and committing suicide is ridiculous.
I would suggest that the states that
have legalized medical marijuana are actually the
leaders in a progressive, more intelligent future
for the United States and that the ones that don't
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based cn the ridiculous history of the
criminalization of marijuana are in the backwaters
of history.
So you couldn't -- you could as board
members be at the forefront of a progressive
movement that is going to win out in the end or you
can kick and scream and complain about we should
just stick to how things are done in the past.
I hope that you don't do that. I hope
that there is an open-mindedness to the use of
marijuana as a medicinal medicine for nausea, for
anxiety, for a lot of things.
The -- as a student of the law, the
history of the criminalization of marijuana is
wrought with racism and bigotry and ignorance.
It's a scandal.
We expend enormous resources hunting
down and locking up marijuana users, and it is the
most scandalous waste of resources that I have seen
in the 20th century. We're in the 21st century
now, so we need to open up our eyes and look at it
closely.
I will defer to all of the experts on
marijuana as -- for medicinal purposes. I know of
many. I've seen it. And I would just encourage
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the board to, you know, have an open mind about it.
Thank you. I just -- I want to again
say I am so impressed that you guys had these
hearings, and I'm so grateful that I was able to
come down and speak my mind about this issue.
Thank you.
(Public Meeting concluded at
7;00 p.m.)
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C E R T I F I C A T E
I, SueAnn Jones, Certified Shorthand
Reporter and Notary Public in and for the State of
Iowa, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a
true and accurate computer-aided transcription of
the public hearing as taken stenographically by and
before me at the time and place indicated on the
title page;
That I am neither a relative nor employee
nor attorney nor counsel of any of the parties to
this action, and that I am not financially
interested in the action.
Dated this 1st day of October, 2009.
SUEANN JONES, CSR, RPR