ST. LOUIS, Mo. – This morning National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse of St. Louis issued a call to Missouri voters to carefully examine the three marijuana-related initiatives on the November 6th ballot.
“Much of the conversation about November’s measures surrounds how access to marijuana will help people who are suffering. This is, of course, a laudable goal,” said Nichole Dawsey, Executive Director of NCADA. “However, we are very concerned about the structure of each of these measures. These systems put profits over patients.”
Specific issues of concern are:
· Patients accessing marijuana products will be forced to pay taxes up to 15%. In Missouri, we don’t tax medicine
· With each of these initiatives, the marijuana industry is writing its own rules
· These initiatives are being funded through dark money and special interests
· 2/3 of the initiatives lock taxes and bureaucracy into Missouri’s constitution
· Under these initiatives, doctors can’t prescribe marijuana, only recommend it
· Licensed healthcare providers should be offering medical advice, not unqualified dispensary staff
· One initiative has the potential to deny Missourians access to FDA approved medications, Epidiolex and Marinol
· Programs seem to be designed to plug budget gaps and fund government programs
Dawsey concluded, “Missourians deserve high quality, compassionate care- not schemes designed to line the pockets of special interests by taking advantage of people suffering from chronic, debilitating medical conditions.”
For NCADA’s full position statement on medical marijuana and in-depth analysis of each ballot initiative, please visit: http://ncada-stl.org/medical-marijuana-on-the-november-ballot/