Setting the record straight on marijuana extracts
The elected attorney from Yavapai County’s July 13 guest column in The Re
public argues a “ruse” has been undone by the 2-1 split decision by the Arizona Court of Appeals with State vs. Jones, but the decision goes against science, the modernization of medical marijuana in the United States, and common sense.
Polk believes the Jones decision means medical marijuana patients can smoke “leafy marijuana” but cannot ingest “extracts” from the marijuana plant. Take a moment to let that sink in: Polk is essentially arguing that even though oranges are legal, if you juice that orange you are suddenly a felon.
Sadly, this highlights a fundamental misunderstanding among marijuana opponents concerning the crucial role extracts play. The future of medical marijuana is dosing, and concentrates are central to efficient dosing. Medical marijuana is now available in patches, salves, balms, tinctures, capsules, transdermal patches, drinks, soaps, coffee and even cough-medicine-like syrup. All of which are made with marijuana extracts.
Extracts make sense. They aren’t the highly potent “felony-worthy” substances malicious prohibitionists purport them to be. Whichever way the patient consumes the concentrate, extracts are generally considered more efficient and healthier. For a cancer patient, the option to consume the prepared components of a plant, rather than only smoke the flower, is always going to be the cleaner and preferred option.
I could go on and on about how the elected attorney from Yavapai County is A-OK with taking money from indicted pharmaceutical executives — money derived from the sale of deadly opioids, such as fentanyl — to be used for antimarijuana messaging.
I could then go on to tell you that in the same breath, she appears to promote Big Pharma’s baby steps toward main- streaming medical marijuana with products like Epidiolex, a marijuana-based drug approved by the FDA for epilepsy, all while clinging to the notion that marijuana is not medicine, but rather is “evil” and the root of most addictions. Even Polk should understand this astonishing level of hypocrisy.
There is a great deal of evidence that shows CBD is most effective when used alongside THC. This is known as the “entourage effect” and is something the pharmaceutical companies are only starting to embrace. However, Arizona’s medical marijuana dispensaries have been providing anti-seizure concentrates to hundreds of Arizona families for years.
Medical marijuana is no longer a political issue. The vast majority of American voters acknowledge that marijuana is now a part of American life. The elected attorney from Yavapai County would have society continue an archaic policy crusade that most conservatives acknowledge has failed.
We should be locking up fentanyl and heroin drug-runners, rather than wasting precious resources pursuing her campaign against marijuana..
This isn’t the first time Polk has used county and law-enforcement resources to promote her vitriolic lobbying agenda and judicial activism.
Could it be that the office of the county attorney, as well as its satellite organizations, benefits financially from the “war on marijuana”? The answer must be yes, considering that groups like Smart Approaches to Marijuana and Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy are still willing to continually “beat the drum” of prohibition while new data is released almost daily showing the benefits and acceptance of marijuana. It’s a losing battle for them, and patients suffer as a result.
Bottom line? Marijuana extracts are cleaner for patients, and you can consume less to achieve the desired result. That’s why we call them concentrates, Sheila Polk.