Proponents of legal medical cannabis brought their own doctor to the State Question 788 fray this weekend, a physician and medical researcher born and raised in Muskogee but who now practices and conducts research in Washington state.
Dr. Sunil Aggarwal did not smoke marijuana in Muskogee, but it’s become a big part of his life since, he said Friday in Tulsa. Aggarwal styles himself a cannabinologist, and has spent his adult life studying the effects of cannabis and its more than 100 chemicals on the human brain.
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“I was able to dispel so many myths,” Aggarwal said, referring to his research on medical cannabis use. “That patients using marijuana medically are really not sick ... that these are all teenagers on skateboards.”
Yes on 788 brought Aggarwal to Tulsa and Oklahoma City over the weekend to talk to the press but also to doctors to convince them the benefits of legal medical cannabis outweigh the risks and uncertainties noted at length by the state’s medical associations and other opponents.
“While we work things out, we need to take the sick people off the battlefield,” Aggarwal said. “This is not the final way we’re going to regulate this medicine in this country.”
Top Image: © Konstiantyn Zapylaie | Adobe Stock
