Arkansas Baptists' Resolution on "Medical Marijuana"

This is the full text of the resolution passed by Arkansas Baptists at the annual meeting about "medical marijuana."  The campaign for these initiatives have been misleading.  This is not about distilled medicine for babies with seizures.  

Smoking a plant is not a good way to administer any benefits of the substance to a patient.  It can't be properly dosed or controlled.  It's not medicine.

If these people are really concerned about the child like the one in the commercial, they wouldn't tie her plight to a proposal that's really about legalizing recreational marijuana and marijuana edibles.

RESOLUTION NO. 5: ON “MEDICAL” MARIJUANA

Whereas, in November’s general election, Arkansas’ voters will be faced with ballot Issues 6 and 7, both of which are measures to legalize so-called “medical” marijuana; and

Whereas, Issues 6 and 7 are ostensibly intended to legalize only the medical use for marijuana, but both are actually designed to approve recreational marijuana; and

Whereas, both Issue 6 and 7 designate a number of medical conditions that would qualify someone as a “patient” entitled to be able to smoke or consume in edibles or drinks marijuana and both include chronic pain in that category; however, since chronic pain can be neither proved nor disproved, anyone wanting to legally consume marijuana need only lie about having chronic pain (as occurred in the state of Colorado); and

Whereas, doctors will not be allowed to write prescriptions for marijuana and pharmacies will not be permitted to dispense marijuana for the primary reason that smoked and ingested marijuana is not medicine; and

Whereas, if smoked or eaten marijuana was a legitimate medicine, bona fide health organizations would approve its use; however, the Federal Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Glaucoma Society, and many, many more do not endorse the smoking or eating of marijuana because they do not consider it real medicine; and

Whereas, to be a legitimate medicine, marijuana would have to be capable of having dosages precisely measured, have quality controls that guarantee its purity and consistency, and be FDA approved, and it is none of those things; and

Whereas, the claim is made by the proponents of Issues 6 and 7 that there are medical conditions for which marijuana is either the only or the best treatment; however, for every one of those conditions for which that claim is made there are bona fide medications effective for those conditions; and

Whereas, if there are some components in marijuana that have some medical application, and it appears there may be, then the proper research has to be done, the components need to be extracted, and then real medicine needs to be created (and that has already been done with marijuana in a few cases); and

Whereas, contrary to many popular cultural myths today, marijuana is not an innocuous drug – it is in fact a dangerous drug and associated with addiction, respiratory ailments, impaired cognitive ability and lower IQ scores for adolescents who regularly use marijuana, anxiety, depression, and psychotic episodes; and

Whereas, if the experiences of states already with legalized marijuana are any indication, Arkansas will see a dramatic increase in traffic accidents, injuries, and deaths, and an increase in emergency room visits and hospitalizations, especially for children who will eat what they think are regular cookies or brownies, when in fact they are infused with marijuana; and

Whereas, under the terms of Issues 6 and 7, children can qualify as patients if parents or guardians sign off on it; and

Whereas, since under the terms of both Issues 6 and 7, employers will be prevented from “discriminating” against an employee, it is likely that employers may be hindered from making hiring or firing decisions regarding a patient who uses marijuana or from taking disciplinary actions against an employee who is a patient and is impaired at work; and the same could be true for a teacher or student at school; therefore, be it

Resolved, that we, the messengers to the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, meeting at Immanuel Baptist Church, Little Rock, Arkansas, October25&26, 2016, desire that patients with painful and debilitating medical conditions have access to compassionate care, consisting of treatments and medicines that have received approval by the federal Food and Drug Administration and have been shown to be efficacious; and, be it further

Resolved, that ballot Issues 6 and 7 have little to do with compassionate health care and do not offer the availability of proven, safe, and reliable medicine, but instead, seek to have the voters give them permission to grow, market, and smoke and ingest marijuana; and, be it further

Resolved, that both Issues 6 and 7 are being presented ostensibly as “medical” marijuana proposals, but in actuality are designed to legalize virtual recreational marijuana; and, be it further

Resolved, that if there are components of marijuana that prove to have legitimate medical benefits, scientific research needs to be continued, and bona fide, safe, and quality-controlled medications should be developed (as has already been done in a few cases) that are delivered in ways that do not involve the inhalation of marijuana smoke or the ingestion of foods and drinks infused with marijuana or its components; and, be it further

Resolved, that we strongly encourage voters to cast votes against Issues 6 and 7, rejecting the reckless notion that smoked and ingested marijuana is bona fide medicine as reflected by the absence of any major, legitimate health organization’s endorsement of marijuana in those forms; and, be it finally

Resolved, we encourage medical science to continue to do rigorous research in its never ending quest to develop safer and more effective medications with the primary goal of delivering the most compassionate health care possible.