The Oklahoma Senate recently passed a bill regulating medical marijuana before it has even been voted on by the people. Sen. Ervin Yen, R-Oklahoma City, authored a bill because he feels medical marijuana is going to be “used as an excuse to get high.” Yen is an anesthesiologist. He takes care of a patient for, at most, a few hours at a time and most of that time, they are asleep. He has never treated any of the conditions he lists in his bill or any of the important ones he omits. He has never treated any chronic condition.

Our country is in an opioid crisis. In 2015, 33,000 Americans died of opioid overdose. It is estimated that in America, 91 people die every day due to opioids. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2014, states with medical marijuana laws between 1999 and 2010 saw, on average, 25 percent fewer opioid-related deaths than states without such laws. A 2016 study showed a marked reduction in pain medication prescriptions in states after medical marijuana laws are passed.

Physicians need alternatives. We treat chronic pain with opioids. We treat anxiety with highly addictive benzodiazepines like Xanax. We treat post traumatic stress disorder with addictive sedatives. All of these patients risk lifelong addiction. If some could be helped with THC from marijuana, then it should be available to them.

Yen has no expertise in treating any of these conditions. However, because he has "M.D." after his name and holds beliefs against marijuana, he thinks he knows what is best for patients he has never seen with conditions he has never treated.