While California's Proposition 215 could be a boon to the production of marijuana cultivated at the Ole Miss marijuana research plant, many connected to pharmaceutical studies at the university say California is taking the wrong approach.
Proposition 215, voted on favorably by California residents, legalizes marijuana for medical purposes where use is deemed appropriate by a physician. Physicians can prescribe the drug for patients suffering from cancer treatment, AIDS, glaucoma, arthritis and other illnesses.
Under Proposition 215, patients obtaining marijuana for medical purposes are not subject to criminal prosecution.
Mahmoud ElSohly, UM professor of pharmaceutics who oversees the only legal marijuana production plant in the country, said themarijuana plot at Ole Miss could see more of a demand for the drug as a result of the proposition. However, ElSohly said the Ole Miss farm is primarily a research tool andadded that providing marijuana cigarettes would be unfortunate for citizens of California.
"If the situation is such that the State of California will request material from the federal government to those people who claim they need it, then obviously that would mean we would have to produce more material because we are the only place around the country that is authorized to produce marijuana in large quantities for the federal government," ElSohly said.
"I have a feeling, though, that the people behind this issue are not necessarily the people that have a medical need for it," he said. "This is an issue that has been pushed by pro-legalization people and it's an issue that has taken advantage of the unfortunate situation with some people that might be in need for medical attention."
ElSohly said that marijuana smoked in the crude cigarette form is not a proper treatment for patients suffering from painful afflictions. The preferred way is to administer marijuana's psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in a refined pill form.
Such pill has been on the market for many years and although the capsule doesn't produce the "high" that is accompanied by marijuana cigarettes, it is equally effective for patient's symptoms and is safer than smoking, ElSohly said.
"This (passage of Proposiition 215) was not a good decision because marijuana as the crude drug is very complex and has more than 400 different chemicals that when you put it in a burning cigarette and it combines with other chemicals you are literally ingesting thousands of chemicals," ElSohly said. "What is important is that the amount of THC you need to achieve therapeutic activity is not necessarily the amount you need to get a high.
"Putting THC in a formulation that is pharmaceutically acceptable and using it in a way that doesn't necessarily produce a high, we can do away with the side effects of marijuana and only use the desirable effects," he said.
Coy Waller, director-emeritus of the Ole Miss Research Facility for Pharmaceutical Science and founder of the marijuana project at Ole Miss, said the THC capsule is the only safe means for patient relief.
"Marijuana has no medicinal use that is better than what is approved by the Food and Drug Administration," Waller said. "The California situation is a result of people who want to legalize marijuana."
Marvin Davis, professor of pharmacy at Ole Miss, said several states could follow California's lead in what ElSohly says could have a "negative effect around the country."
"What happens in the next year will determine if others jump on the bandwagon," Davis said. "This proposition violates the medical philosophy that the physician knows what the patient is taking in."
The university's marijuana research lab, which was established in 1968, has come under the scrutiny of many in the last few years who have claimed the lab serves little purpose. In 1976, the government allowed people with certain diseases to apply to the FDA for permission to use marijuana.
In order to ease symptoms brought on by cancer and AIDS treatment, the FDA approved marijuana on a case-by-case basis. In 1992, however, the Bush administration banned the medical testing of marijuana, claiming the drug could harm patients who had weakened immune systems. Very few patients since that time have been legally allowed use the marijuana treatment.
ElSohly said the Ole Miss farm will undoubtedly receive the kind of attention from Proposition 215 that it has not received in the past. According to ElSohly, it's important for people to know the importance of his project.
"The problem is that those who have been criticizing the project that the only reason that the project exists is to provide marijuana for those few patients that are receiving it legally now, and that is not the case," ElSohly said. "The basic mission of the project is to make marijuana available for research because so long as there is an illegal drug that has biological activities that are not fully understood, then research needs to continue to be done on this drug ... there is a need for the material to do research on."
According to Ole Miss constitutional law professor Tim Hall, due to a federal law prohibiting the use of marijuana, California could have a difficult time getting the proposition out of the starting blocks.
"State law cannot override federal law," Hall said. "The supremacy clause of the Constitution makes federal law dominate."
And as the nation continues to fight increased drug use, Hall said Proposition 215 could contradict the direction of the nation's war on drugs.
"I think this sends the wrong signal precisely at the time we don't want to send a signal to our young people on the legitimacy of drug use," Hall said. "I'm sure a lot of people see this as the first step in legalizing other drugs."