Columnist in chemotherapy backs medical marijuana bill

Frank Cagle, currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer, declares his support for legislation to legalize medical cannabis oil in his current News Sentinel column. It begins as follows:

If you lose 40 pounds and the sight and smell of food make you wretch, you are tempted to try most anything for relief. If you ask around, you can find cannabis oil here in Tennessee. But it has drawbacks.

— You don’t know where it came from.

— You don’t know what the dosage is.

— You don’t know if it’s what you need for your condition, since there are more than a dozen different strains derived from cannabis. But the good thing about it is that it is not toxic and you can’t overdose on it.

If you live in one of 32 states that authorize medical cannabis, the oil is prescribed by a doctor in a dosage calibrated for you, and the oil is tested by the Food and Drug Administration. Testing discovers if the drug produces predictable results, because if the results aren’t predictable, it isn’t medicine.

…States that have medical cannabis have 25 percent fewer deaths from opioid abuse and 23 percent fewer painkiller prescriptions. You can’t overdose on cannabis oil.

Disclosure/Note: The old blogger here considers Frank a friend, even though – or perhaps at least partly because — the conservative curmudgeon was my boss in years past when he was managing editor of the News Sentinel with duties including oversight of everything I wrote at the time. He never, ever acted as a censor and always encouraged expanded reporting on anything involving state government and politicians regardless of political persuasion. We don’t talk about politics as much as in those days, but still do so occasionally. Called him after noting his appointment by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally as a member of the State Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission is now up for legislative confirmation (SJR594). He’s got six months of chemotherapy pending and is optimistic about attending the commission’s March meeting – and the overall result of the chemotherapy.