Christian Action League
March 1, 2023
Today, the North Carolina Senate approved S.B. 3 – N.C. Compassionate Care Act – a measure to legalize marijuana as a medicine.
Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, released the following statement to the press:
The vote in the Senate today is most unfortunate. This policy initiative will do more harm in the long run than lawmakers seem to understand.
For every moving story one hears about how marijuana is a medicine – how it has helped many lives – there are reports of personal experiences demonstrating the opposite effect.
No matter how often you hear it said that smoked cannabis is medicine, the jury is still officially out on the question. It has not been endorsed as a medicine by any major medical organization. There is no consensus that it is a medicine. The idea that marijuana can be used for a long laundry list of conditions – including PTSD, Cancer, Epilepsy, HIV, AIDS, ALS, Chron’s Disease, Sickle Cell Anemia, Parkinson’s, M.S., Cachexia or Wasting Syndrome, etc., is nowhere accepted in serious scientific literature. Only “snake oil” has ever been recommended or used for the number of ailments political proponents for marijuana as medicine do.
Admittedly, according to polls, the public supports medical marijuana. But the polling usually involves asking people whether they are comfortable with marijuana as a medicine if a doctor prescribes it. That isn’t how it works. No medical professional in this country can prescribe pot because it is not an FDA-approved medication. These so-called “prescriptions” are not prescriptions but only “recommendations” or “notes.” No actual dosage is given for medical marijuana recommendations for the same reason prescriptions aren’t written. You can’t buy it at a pharmacy, but only at a dispensary. Why? Because it is an end-run around every standard for modern healthcare.
Moreover, as time progresses, new studies are now regularly being rolled out that show marijuana isn’t harmless but a dangerous drug.
The better part of wisdom is that we should wait – be patient. Let’s not get ahead of the science, relying largely on anecdotal evidence. We could be doing more harm than good to patients by bypassing the normal processes of clinical trials to actually determine marijuana’s efficacy.
Shouldn’t we keep politics out of medicine? Let those trained and know what medicine is make these decisions. Isn’t that the wisest way to approach the question? It is a dangerous thing to be deciding medication by legislative fiat.
There seems to be more reason to believe medical marijuana is a ruse by the very lucrative marijuana industry to provide it legitimacy – making it appear as an angel of light so it will be accepted recreationally. If North Carolina continues on the same trajectory as other states that approved marijuana as a medicine, legal sales for recreational will follow close behind. Marijuana will become the new Big Tobacco. God help us.