This morning, Hsiu-Ying Tseng became
the first doctor inhistory convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to a prison term forreckless opiate prescriptions. Apparently, she had been
notified that three of her former patients died from opiate overdoses, and she
kept prescribing them “to young patients who traveled long distances and paid
cash for their prescriptions. She wrote them without performing meaningful
medical exams and despite there being no medical necessity for the drugs. She
ignored pleas from parents and loved ones concerned about the worsening
addiction of sons and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters.” She
was prosecuted for the deaths of three patients who died of opiate overdoses
prescribed by her after she learned of the first three deaths.
Other doctors have been arrested and charged with other
crimes relating to the overprescribing of opiate painkillers, and it is
well-known that much heroin addiction begins with prescription painkiller
abuse. Deaths and near-deaths from painkiller overdoses are common.
And yet, the DEA has painkillers classified as a schedule I
drug, and marijuana classified as a schedule II drug.
Two days ago at a town hall appearance in New Hampshire,
Hillary Clinton said that she would change marijuana from a schedule I drug to
a schedule II drug, and encourage research on the medical benefits. In the same
breath, she spoke of the need to address the overdose problem. She then correctly
noted that opiate addiction leading to heroin use is a primary culprit.
Nothing she said was untrue, but it was completely
inappropriate to jump from a medical marijuana discussion to an indictment of
drugs leading to overdose. No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose.
There are conflicting stories about actions that marijuana users have taken
that have been dangerous and/or fatal, but no matter how hard you try, you’re
not going to find a story of someone who died simply from smoking, vaping, or
ingesting too much weed.
I live in a small Colorado mountain town, where there are
three marijuana dispensaries for a population of 2,200 and plenty of people are
routinely stoned. Colorado is in its second year of legal weed, and the sky has
not fallen. Other than a questionable ballot outcome in the last midterm
election, our fair state is doing just fine, with so much of a boom in tax
revenue from pot that we had to have a
marijuana tax holiday last year.
And yet, so many – not just the puritanical – continue to
wring their hands at the idea of legal weed. The stigma remains. Even in states
where marijuana is legal and common, we hesitate to invite neighbors over for a
bong the way we might invite them over for a cocktail.
Society’s attitude toward so-called drugs has to be more
nuanced than “drugs are bad, mmmkay?” Now that more and more people understand
that prescription opiates have a dangerous propensity to lead to serious
addiction problems, and more and more people have the opinion that weed is no
worse than alcohol, it’s an excellent time to reexamine all drug priorities and
encourage the thoughtful, comprehensive reevaluation of federal drug laws. Non-enforcement
is not enough; as long as marijuana remains illegal on the federal level, the
tension between state and federal laws will continue to confuse, and to expose
would-be entrepreneurs in a fledgling industry to unfair and unnecessary risk.
It’s great that attitudes toward marijuana are changing. It’s
also great that attitudes toward more dangerous but more “legitimate” drugs are
changing. Now is the time to put it all together and work toward comprehensive
drug reform.
