Today students voting in Massachusetts will be deciding on the legality of medicinal marijuana. Currently, 17 states have legalized the sale of marijuana including New Jersey, Maine, Michigan and Connecticut, but some people still have reservations about the extent the government should regulate its use. How do you think Massachusetts residents should vote on the medical marijuana initiative this election year?
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Prof. Cindy Parks Thomas (HELLER)

The irony is that Massachusetts, a national leader in innovative solutions to health care and health policy, is far behind other states in recognizing this important medical issue. The scientific evidence is conclusive that marijuana can play an important therapeutic role in many diseases, by alleviating pain and major symptoms of cancer, Parkinson's, MS, HIV and glaucoma. We should be bold enough to shed the stigma of marijuana's history as a recreational drug, and see this as a simple access-to-care issue. As a health policy expert and former clinician, I say yes to medical marijuana, but it is not without reservation. Like any public policy, the devil is in the details of how it is implemented. Balanced regulations of licensing providers, and putting bounds around the diseases for which it may be prescribed, is imperative. This will avoid the dispensary mills on every block in certain parts of cities like my former home of Denver, and the ease with which pretty much anyone in the state could get a license to purchase at age 18.  

Professor Cindy Thomas, is an Associate Research Professor at the Brandeis University Schneider Institute for Health Policy.

Jonathan Steinberg '13

I think people need to separate objectivity from subjectivity when they vote in this issue. Too often people will vote simply based on their opinion about smoking marijuana. There are legitimate therapeutical benefits of medicinal marijuana. The real challenge is making sure that legalizing medicinal marijuana doesn't lead to drug abuse. As long as it is effectively controlled, I think people should vote in favor of the bill.

Jonathan Steinberg '13 is the Health: Science, Society, and Policy  undergraduate departmental representative.
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Julie Johnson

State-level medical marijuana policies vary considerably on the legalization of non-FDA approved use, possession, cultivation and purchase of medical marijuana. Massachusetts policy as written has multiple loopholes and risks for exploitation, including: zoning regulations, no age limits, tax breaks and subsidies as a 'non-profit' industry, no prescription and thus, no tracking through prescription drug monitoring programs. In addition to the many unforeseen impacts this policy will have in Massachusetts given these loopholes, my and many others' concern is for youth. Legalizing marijuana may decrease perceived risk of harm, and increase social approval and access to marijuana. Marijuana use and abuse affects youth in many ways including both short-term effects e.g. cognitive dysfunction, increased risk of injuries, and long-term effects, e.g. cognitive impairment, brain and respiratory system effects, mental illness and negative impacts on educational outcomes. If Ballot 3 is passed on Nov. 6, it will be implemented on Jan. 1 making it paramount that we are ready for the consequences that will unfold, including increased protection for our youth.

Julie Johnson is a Ph.D. student at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.

Hannah Goldberg '13
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Currently, many physicians understand that the cannabinoids contained in marijuana have a clinically beneficial role in neurotransmission, alleviating symptoms that accompany a number of medical conditions. I think that it is important for doctors to have access to any methods of treatment that they believe would most effectively treat his or her patient's ailment. My general laissez-faire attitude toward social policy influences my personal decision that residents of these states should vote to legalize medical marijuana.  However, as a medical school applicant who studies neuroscience, I believe that it is important that medical marijuana is legalized to give doctors option to prescribe the drug to the patients whom it can benefit.

Hannah Goldberg '13 is the undergraduate departmental representative for Neuroscience and a columnist for the Justice
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