Letters to the editor for Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015

Farmer blowing smoke about medical pot

Guy Farmer’s column on Oct. 11 regarding medical marijuana or cannabis was based either on misinformation or misinterpretation of the facts. He did not do his homework regarding the issue on which he chose to pontificate.

Smoking may be an expedient method of consumption, but there are other ways to ingest cannabis which are beneficial and don’t involve inhalation of smoke. They contain THC and other therapeutic cannabinoids, which produce medical relief. Many people claim to have benefited from the properties found in cannabis, particularly those suffering from chronic conditions such as pain, muscular diseases, epilepsy and glaucoma, as well as the effects of cancer treatments which make folks not able to take in proper and necessary nutrition. There are edibles, oils, tinctures and tonics, topicals, teas and pills. Most of these do not cause the “high” to which Mr. Farmer seems to take most exception.

Further, the process he describes to obtain a medical marijuana card in Nevada is not accurate. There are many other steps and associated costs to the process. While I do not personally use, I have personal knowledge of and have spoken to people who have benefited from the use of cannabis, as well as physicians who would, if not threatened with losing their medical license, prescribe medical marijuana to their patients. And wouldn’t it be better to have these folks monitored by a doctor? There might be more research with more support on a federal level and better funding streams available. Just sayin’.

Linda Hoxsie

Carson City