By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via PinalCentral
State lawmakers voted Tuesday to require warning labels on medical marijuana and use proceeds from a new tax to study any link between the drug and schizophrenia or violent behavior.
The voice vote by the House came over concerns by some Democrats that the wording of the measure is one-sided, looking for links between the drug that voters legalized for medical purposes in 2010 and bad behavior. Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley, D-Tucson, said there’s nothing to determine the positive effects the drugs can have for certain people.
Potentially more significant, Powers Hannley said there’s nothing in HCR 2045 to require these state-funded studies to be done in a scientific way, one where the results are subject to peer review.
House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, acknowledged he was only interested in studying the relationship between use of this drug and violence and schizophrenia.
