MEDICAL MARIJUANA AN ELECTION ISSUE

[Ferre]

Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 19:46:09 -0800

From: "D. Paul Stanford" <stanford@crrh.org>

Subject: 004 IN: Medical Marijuana an Election Issue

 

Pubdate: Sun, 29 Dec 2002

Source: Herald-Times, The (IN)

Copyright: 2002 The Herald-Times

 

 

MEDICAL MARIJUANA AN ELECTION ISSUE

 

Bloomington physician Clark Brittain reached over his office desk for his

container of herbal tea, which is about the strongest thing he ever ingests.

 

"I don't drink alcohol, don't even drink coffee or cola," Brittain said.  "I

don't smoke cigarettes, or anything else.  I'm a real boring guy."

 

Everything about Brittain's demeanor proclaims a zest for life, though.  It

is conveyed by twinkling eyes, a jaunty mustache and an engaging personality.

 

Perhaps that helped him garner 25 percent of the vote in the District 61

state representative race, running as a Libertarian -- the highest percentage

received by any Indiana "third party" candidate for any state or national

office this November.

 

Brittain likes to think it had something to do with his message.  He wants to

see marijuana decriminalized, and to see the drug approved as treatment for

certain medical conditions.

 

An experience with a patient who resorted to smoking marijuana to control

nausea prompted Brittain to do some research into marijuana and its reputed

medicinal properties.

 

"I got interested in medical marijuana," Brittain said.  "I looked at it.

It's a valid medication.  It's been around for about 5,000 years.  It's one

of the safest drugs ever known.  And it's been studied a lot.  It's safer

than aspirin.  Nobody has ever died from it.

 

"Until about 75 years ago, people could use marijuana however they wanted.

It's through this sort of moral crusade that we've demonized it."

 

The Monroe County Local Council of Women voted Brittain its 2001 Humanitarian

Physician of the Year.  He served in the U.S.  Army, before and after medical

school, ending up a lieutenant colonel.

 

Brittain and his wife, Dr.  Mary Mahern, who shares the Bloomington practice,

adopted sons Marty and Parker while stationed during the 1990s in Panama.

Brittain was already the father of 25-year-old daughter, Anyah, and

24-year-old son, Aaron.

 

Brittain lectures at Indiana University.  He's on the board of directors of

his church.

 

He thinks many people already share his basic views, and that more would if

they understood the "true costs" of the "War on Drugs."

 

"The state of Indiana incarcerates about 40 percent of its inmates for

nonviolent drug crimes.  That's about 8,100 people per year and, it's about

$650 million per year we're spending on that.  That's almost as much as we

spend on nursing homes."

 

Brittain argues that mandatory-minimum sentencing laws end up putting violent

criminals back onto the street to make room in the crowded prisons for

nonviolent drug offenders.

 

"In Marion County, they're releasing real bad guys because they have to

incarcerate the pot heads," he said.  "It's nuts.  And I'm not the only guy

who thinks so.

 

"To me, it's a no-brainer.  We should change our policies and our laws to

better fit reality.  And I plan to keep speaking to that."

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