By Bob Allen
The leader of Kentucky’s largest religious organization voiced opposition Jan. 20 to a bill introduced in the state legislature legalizing the medical use of marijuana.
“The very idea of thwarting the authority of the Food and Drug Administration and allowing Kentuckians to smoke marijuana under the guise that it is somehow medically beneficial is absurd,” Paul Chitwood, executive director of the 750,000-member Kentucky Baptist Convention,” said in a press release on the KBC website.
“Just because other states have taken this step doesn’t mean we should legalize another intoxicant, especially one that has been proven to be the first step toward abusing the hard drugs that are claiming so many lives through overdose,” he said.
Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo introduced a bill Jan. 6 that would make medical marijuana legal for Kentucky patients diagnosed by a physician as suffering with a debilitating or terminal condition. It would task the Department of Public Health with establishing a patient registry, issuing ID cards to patients who qualify and licensing and regulating dispensaries that produce and sell medical marijuana for patients’ use.
Both Stumbo and the bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Charles Miller (D-Louisville), identify their religious affiliation as Baptist.
“I’d like to believe the prescription requirement in the bill would limit its use, but we have seen in the past how willing wayward doctors have been to hand out prescription narcotics,” Chitwood said. “Lawmakers need to see this for what it is: another step in the push by pro-marijuana advocates to legalize marijuana altogether.”
Chitwood says he doesn’t lack compassion for people suffering with symptoms of cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, pain, glaucoma, epilepsy and other diseases, but there other FDA-approved drugs that can be used to treat those conditions without the harmful side effects of marijuana, long known as a “gateway drug” to substance abuse.
“No one could possibly believe that it’s medically beneficial to inhale smoke into the lungs,” Chitwood said. “We have so many drugs that are better options for the terminally ill.”
Currently medical marijuana is legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Four states — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — and the District of Columbia, have legalized marijuana for recreational use.
A separate bill pre-filed in the Kentucky Senate does not allow for medical marijuana dispensaries but would allow home cultivation by patients.