Psychiatrist warns Yuba supervisors about medical pot

A children's psychiatrist who has treated children who use marijuana had a warning for Yuba County supervisors Tuesday evening: Allowing a dispensary to open in the county would be, in a manner of speaking, stoner logic.

"It's very clever how advocates of marijuana have fooled everyone," said Ronald Hayman, who practices in the Yuba-Sutter area and addressed the board at the request of Supervisor Andy Vasquez, who opposes medical marijuana down to the term itself.

Hayman had a similar perspective, saying he believes both the terms "medical marijuana" and "dispensary" are oxymorons because they imbue a sense of medical professionalism and oversight he says is absent in reality.

Scientists have done few studies of marijuana's health effects on people older than 25, he said, and almost none since the 1970s, when cannabis was far less potent.

And studies of the effects of marijuana on children, Hayman said, suggest negative effects on brains still developing and learning impulse control, among other functions.

Studies in Colorado, which also has voter-approved medical marijuana, show most students expelled from school use marijuana, he said. And most people with approved cards for marijuana used pain as a reason, Hayman said, though there are very few conditions the drug actually helps.

Other studies show people possessing a certain gene are predisposed to develop schizophrenia if they use marijuana, he said.

According to the state of Colorado's website for public health, there were 80,558 holders of medical marijuana cards as of Nov. 30. Forty-one, about .0005 percent, were minors, according to the site.

"My only plea is for adolescents, it's really bad news," Hayman said. "We don't know for adults."

Outside the meeting, Hayman said he favored decriminalization of marijuana as long as it's accompanied by strong referral programs for drug abuse, but not legalizing marijuana and regulating it like alcohol, for example.

"Liquor stores sell to minors too," he said.

Unlike other recent debates in the Yuba-Sutter area over medical marijuana, Tuesday's discussion was relatively quiet, with only one person, Olivehurst resident Carmel Garcia, speaking from a pro-marijuana perspective.

"It's medicine," she told the board. "It's not a drug, it's not produced, it's not manufactured, it's natural, it's a plant."

Yuba County supervisors will hear a proposed ordinance on where and how people can grow medical marijuana at the Feb. 28 meeting, said Kevin Mallen, the county's director of development and community services.

CONTACT Ben van der Meer at bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4786. Find him on Facebook at /ADbvandermeer or on Twitter at @ADbvandermeer.