Imagine a substance that can relieve excruciating pain for those with terminal cancer. A substance that can ease nausea and restore appetite in AIDS patients. A substance that can reduce the muscle spasms and movement disorders associated with multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. Sounds like a miracle drug, right? A medical breakthrough?

In fact, the substance has been around for at least five millennia and was a staple of medical practitioners throughout most of this nation’s history, until being outlawed some 70 years ago.

The substance, of course, is Cannabis sativa, more commonly known as marijuana, and Illinois lawmakers now are considering whether to allow doctors to prescribe its use under tightly controlled conditions for patients who meet certain requirements. (See Illinois Issues, May, page 31.)

The key measure, sponsored by Sen. William Haine, an Alton Democrat and former Madison County state’s attorney, would set up a three-year pilot program under which the state Public Health Department would provide ID cards to people whose doctors have prescribed marijuana for certain enumerated “debilitating medical conditions” such as cancer and AIDS, or other afflictions causing intractable pain or severe, debilitating nausea that have not responded to other treatment.

Under the proposal, registered patients or their primary caregivers would be allowed to possess up to two ounces of dried, usable cannabis and up to six plants, no more than three of them adult.

The measure includes harsh penalties for anyone distributing marijuana to any unauthorized party, including two additional years in prison besides the regular sentence for drug dealing.

With such obvious medical value and tight controls, one might assume the bill’s passage would be a no-brainer. One would be wrong.

Hard-liners in the War on Drugs are fighting medical marijuana on a wide variety of fronts. 

Medical marijuana is not needed, they say, because other prescription medicines, including one made from one of cannabis’ psychoactive ingredients, are available. Marijuana is a dangerous drug whose therapeutic qualities have not been documented through rigorous clinical studies, they argue.

Besides, they contend, allowing cannabis to be used for certain medical conditions will lead to widespread abuse. After all, they say, the federal government doesn’t allow it. Moreover, marijuana is a “gateway” drug, one that predisposes its users to move on to hard-core narcotics like heroin and methamphetamine. So we don’t want to send the wrong message to young people by legalizing medical marijuana.

Seem like pretty sound arguments, at face value. But a closer look suggests they should not be persuasive. 

While other medications may be available to treat the conditions for which medical marijuana could be prescribed, the legislation would require that cannabis be a last resort, used only when nothing else works.

Scientific evidence is inconclusive on marijuana’s efficacy as a medication. Both sides can cite supporting research and studies. But what can’t be argued is that for many stricken individuals, marijuana provides relief when nothing else works. Testimonials abound from seriously ill folks for whom medical cannabis is a godsend, mitigating excruciating pain, allowing them to keep down food and other medication, and giving them a semblance of normal life.

Is marijuana dangerous? Not really. Perhaps the biggest health risk associated with cannabis comes from smoking the plant. In fact, inhaling smoke from any burning material — be it marijuana, tobacco, or even the leaves raked up each fall — can cause respiratory problems. Still, no case of lung cancer or emphysema has ever been documented as a result of marijuana smoking, according to one leading researcher. And use of vaporizers or water pipes can remove many of the harmful substances from unfiltered smoke.

Nor does medical marijuana cause the same serious side effects found with some of the prescription drugs it would replace. No one has ever died of a marijuana overdose; researchers say a fatal overdose is impossible, given the quantity that would have to be ingested. In fact, marijuana is both less addictive and less harmful than both alcohol and tobacco, British researchers reported two years ago.

Might abuses occur? Probably, just as they do for other potentially more harmful drugs that physicians routinely prescribe, like OxyContin or morphine. That’s why the legislation includes tough penalties for anyone stepping outside its boundaries.

And while the federal ban on cannabis remains, officials in Washington, D.C., have said they will not interfere with the medical marijuana programs now operating in 13 states. 

Perhaps the weakest argument of all is the contention that allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for certain medical conditions will encourage teenage drug use.

Similar “slippery slope” concerns helped scuttle a few years back a sensible plan that would have allowed the University of Illinois to study the potential of industrial hemp as a new cash crop for Illinois farmers. Former Gov. George Ryan twice vetoed carefully crafted measures for the study, citing among other concerns the “mixed message” that the study might send to the state’s youths.

Of greater concern, one might think, is the wrong message the anti-drug warriors send to teens with their dire warnings about marijuana. Savvy young people hearing such overheated rhetoric and comparing it to their first-hand knowledge of pot’s relatively benign effects in their circles might reasonably be expected to discount similar warnings from the Just Say No crowd about truly dangerous drugs, like cocaine, heroin or meth.

Ironically, while lawmakers fret about the legislation, Illinois voters appear to have few qualms. More than two-thirds supported medical marijuana use in a 2008 poll, and almost half said they’d be more likely to vote for a lawmaker who voted that way, while only 20 percent said they’d be less likely.

Reassured by such poll results, Illinois lawmakers should approve the medical marijuana measure. As a statewide group of religious leaders noted in supporting the bill, the issue is one of mercy and compassion.

Both sides can cite supporting research and studies. But what can’t be argued is that for many stricken individuals, marijuana provides relief when nothing else works.

Charles N. Wheeler III is director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield. 

Illinois Issues, June 2009