Former Drug Free America Director Flipped It
March 31st, 2009 by Rick
David E. Krahl, Ph.D., former Drug Free America Deputy Director, is now in support of medical marijuana.
There was a point in my professional career as Deputy Director of the Drug Free America Foundation when I supported the prohibition of marijuana as medicine. But then, I experienced a change of heart, if you will; a moment of clarity, an epiphany. After seriously investigating the issue, and getting beyond the rhetorical arguments of both sides, I began to realize that the prohibitionist viewpoint against the use of marijuana as medicine largely ignored three things, which are so embedded in the fabric of American society and reflective of our cultural values that their truth is almost self-evident.
Krahl believes that the issue of marijuana as medicine should be left up to the states.
From a purely Constitutional point of view, individual states are empowered to chart their own legislative courses, and act as autonomous, self-determining governing entities that are best suited to adopt laws regarding the health and welfare of their citizens.
Krahl brings up a good point. After all, 13 states now have already enacted medical marijuana laws either by ballot initiative or legislation. There are even more following suit and pushing medical marijuana bills through their legislation.
Krahl also believes that it’s an issue of the relationship between physician and patient and that the government has no business intruding on a patient’s prescribed or recommended course of treatment.
Based on long-standing tradition, custom, and practice, the relationship between doctor and patient is sacrosanct. Fundamentally, the treatment regimen prescribed or recommended by the physician is a private matter.
Krahl knows that the new Administration’s apparent willingness to change an outdated policy is not enough. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) needs to reverse their 2006 position that “marijuana has no currently accepted medical use.”
In fact, not only has the FDA approved several studies that highlighted the medical efficacy of marijuana, but many other studies conducted abroad have also come to the same conclusion: marijuana, indeed, has therapeutic value.
Krahl says he hopes a new White House policy position means a new thoughtful, more deliberate, compassionate, and rational approach to the issue of medical marijuana. With more people like Krahl, now influencing a possible change in their stance and beliefs on medical marijuana, and more states defying federal law to bring the issue to legislation, it’s become necessary the White House tread lightly when dealing with the American public.
