Two medical marijuana bills are headed to the Utah Senate, which have the potential of making the state the 24th that legalizes the plant. The two documents will be debated by the Senate starting next week, but the outcome is difficult to predict.
It all started from Dallas Sainsbury who is suffering from Crohn’s disease. In order to ease her anxiety and nausea she had to take a cocktail of medications, including opiates, muscle relaxers and steroids, which in turn affected her in other ways. However, after recently attending a concert with her friends in Colorado, she tries marijuana. According to Sainsbury, the plant managed to relax her and to help her quit opioids that were the cause for her inability to finish school and get a job.
As a result, Sainsbury started to urge senators to support the bill for legalizing medicinal marijuana in Utah. Two senate committees listened to various testimonies yesterday and concluded that two bills can be forwarded to the full Senate. The first one proposes legalizing extracts of cannabis without THC, while the second one asks for all products with THC to be available to those in medical need.
Senator Daniel Tatcher declared that he wishes there would be a way to heal all ill people that are hurting, but he is not sure if this little documented experiment will be of great help to people in need, or if it will become a danger to the safety of the public.
On the other side, senator Evan Vicker is of the opinion that the first bill should be implemented in order to treat patients in a humane manner. The fact that these products do not have THC will surely prevent the youth from using recreational drugs, but also the activity of black markets and criminals. Another supporter of the bill is rep. Brad Daw, who believes they should gather more information on cannabidiol products in order to fully understand the matter.
However, there are many patients and their caregivers who strongly state that THC-less products will not help all ill people, and that this selective bill will be of no use. In spite of all difficulties, the bill was endorsed by both Human Services Committee and Senate Health and thus sent to the debate. The THC bill was also voted by the Criminal Justice Committee, Law Enforcement and the Senate Judiciary. As the medical marijuana bills are headed to the Utah Senate, we are all waiting to see the final decision.
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