This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I find it very ironic that legislators and other leadership in Utah are having such difficulty with justifying Senate Bill 73 (Medical Cannabis Act). Utah is the state that has the largest natural products industry in the country, which is renowned for making anecdotal claims of benefit of products without having any peer-reviewed clinical studies to support manufacturer claims.
This industry brings in more than $6 billion in revenue to Utah, has had the support/protection of Sen. Orrin Hatch and the blessing of many Utah leaders without any shred of evidence that these products do any good.
Yet this same leadership is overwhelmingly against medical marijuana, which has been clinically studied and is now legal in 23 other states. Many legal drugs are, in fact, dangerous, such as opioid narcotics, which have caused the overdose death of 600 Utahns annually. Over-the-counter drugs such as Tylenol can cause irreparable damage and death if used improperly. There is no recorded overdose death reported from medical marijuana worldwide, ever. Regarding psychological effects, medical marijuana would only be used under physician supervision, unlike legalized use of alcohol. So why not allow access for the hundreds of sick and/or disabled Utahns who have found relief from their suffering through the legal and supervised use of medical cannabis?
Michael Feldman, Ph.D.
Salt Lake City