Ed Gogek, M.D. Letter to Illinois Senate regarding Medical Marijuana

The following email was sent from Ed Gogek, M.D. to all Illinois Senators 

on Monday, April 22, 2013. 

From: Ed Gogek, M.D. 

Subject: A doctor against HB1 

Dear Senator, 

I’m an addiction psychiatrist who grew up in Decatur, graduated from the U of I in Urbana, and 

went to medical school in Chicago and Rockford. Twenty years ago the National Health Service 

Corps sent me to Arizona, where I still live. 

Arizona passed a “medical” marijuana law two years ago, and none of the promises the marijuana 

lobby made have turned out to be true. They told us our law would be different and not create the 

drug abuse found in other states, but it turns out they make this false promise in every state. 

In Arizona, 90 percent of the “medical” marijuana patients claim pain, which is easy to fake and 

impossible to disprove. In Oregon and Colorado, 94 percent of marijuana patients claim pain. As in 

other states, Arizona’s patients are disproportionately young males. In fact, three-fourths of 

Arizona’s marijuana patients are male, which matches exactly the demographics of adults diagnosed 

with marijuana abuse, and does not at all match patients with pain who are mostly female. 

HB1 lists many conditions that qualify for marijuana recommendations, including complex regional 

pain syndrome and causalgia. Despite the fancier wording, this is still just pain, a totally subjective 

complaint. Illinois also plans to recognize three other diagnoses that are easy to fake because the 

symptoms are all subjective: fibromyalgia, traumatic brain injury and post-concussion syndrome. If 

you pass this law, it is almost certain that at least 90 percent of your marijuana patients will claim 

one of these subjective conditions. 

I know you expect good doctors to recommend marijuana only to patients who are genuinely ill, but 

the law allows pot-smokers to avoid good doctors. Here’s how it’s done: In most "medical" 

marijuana states, a handful of unethical pot doctors set up practices where they hand out marijuana 

cards all day to anyone who can pay their fee. Arizona has over 33,000 “medical” marijuana 

patients and just 24 doctors handed out three-fourths of all those marijuana recommendations. In 

Montana, eight doctors made 75 percent of the recommendations. 

Illinois does plan to require a bona fide doctor-patient relationship with the patient under the 

recommending doctor’s care for the condition treated, but “bona fide” and “under the car of” are 

never defined. Your bill forbids doctors from advertising at dispensaries, but not on street 

corners and online, which happens in other states. 

So like the other “medical” marijuana states, Illinois will have pot docs who advertise and drug 

addicts will flock to their offices by the thousands. The “patients” will pretend to be sick, the pot 

docs will pretend to believe them, and you will have legalized marijuana in Illinois for anyone. 

The bill also encourages dangerous medical practices. For instance, glaucoma is a qualifying 

condition. The American Glaucoma Society and the Glaucoma Foundation have issued warnings to 

glaucoma patients that marijuana use could be dangerous; it causes a spike in intraocular pressure

that could lead to earlier blindness. No well-informed ophthalmologist would recommend marijuana 

to a glaucoma patient, but pot docs would, and the bill does not limit treatment of glaucoma to eye 

doctors. If Illinois passes this law, you will have enshrined dangerous medical advice in state law. 

This just screams irresponsibility. 

Advocates say it’s hard sometimes to get one’s primary doctor to recommend marijuana. Of course, 

it is. Marijuana is an addictive drug of abuse and its supposed medical benefits have been way 

oversold by a lobby that represents drug users. Doctors spend their lives fending off drug addicts 

demanding addictive drugs. They’re doing what is best for their patients. What so-called “medical” 

marijuana laws do is no different than allowing “Xanax doctors” or “Oxycontin doctors” to practice. 

The marijuana lobby is pushing these laws as a stepping-stone to legalization, and the claim that 

thousands of people are suffering because they can’t get marijuana is something they made up. 

The American Cancer Society, National Multiple Sclerosis Society and 

American Glaucoma Society do not support “medical” marijuana laws. This should not be 

surprising; the whole idea of calling pot “medical” was invented by drug users, not by medical 

professionals. 

I know the marijuana lobby got 250 doctors to sign a statement saying “medical” pot is needed, but 

that’s not hard in a state as big as Illinois. The fact is the AMA opposes these laws. The American 

Society for Addiction Medicine, the group of doctors who understand addicts the best, has come out 

strongly against “medical” marijuana laws. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American 

Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the doctors who care for children and teens, have 

issued warnings about legalization and “medical” marijuana laws. 

I work with addicts for a living. They’re incredible con artists, and this is basically a scam. This 

should be obvious: Groups representing the patients supposedly helped by marijuana are not in 

favor of it. Physician groups are against it. The only people strongly in favor are groups like the 

Marijuana Policy Project that represent people who smoke weed and want to legalize it. That alone 

should make everyone suspicious. 

Back in the 1970s, a small group pushed laetrile as the cure for cancer. Some were idealistic; others 

just wanted to make money. Half the states legalized it before the furor died down. 

I don’t always agree with the FDA, but they were right about laetrile and they are definitely right 

about pot. With the possible exception of nausea from chemotherapy, for every condition that 

marijuana supposedly treats, there are already safer, non-addictive and equally effective drugs on 

the market. 

If the FDA approved a drug with marijuana’s profile, people would scream and lawsuits would fly, 

and for three good reasons: 1) very few people are truly helped by it; 2) almost all of the “medical” 

marijuana prescribed so far has been diverted to drug abuse; and 3) it causes a lot of damage; far 

more damage than any benefit. 

These laws hit kids the hardest. In other “medical” marijuana states, teenage marijuana use is 20-30 

percent higher than in states without these laws. Nationally, teenage pot use has skyrocketed over 

the past few years, and “medical” marijuana laws are most likely to blame. This is a serious 

problem because teens who smoke pot regularly do worse in school, drop out at twice the rate of

non-users, and are at increased risk of developing schizophrenia. Please don’t buy the story that pot 

is safer than alcohol; the research just coming out shows that, especially for teens, pot is in many 

ways far worse. Pot interferes with learning and career development, the most important tasks for 

adolescents if they want to have satisfying lives. “Medical” marijuana laws help only a handful of 

people, and harm tens of thousands of teenagers. 

Increased traffic fatalities are also a problem in “medical” marijuana states. California, Colorado 

and Montana all records higher numbers of fatal car wrecks caused by pot after their “medical” 

marijuana laws kicked in. A research study from New Zealand found that heavy pot-smokers were 

nearly ten times as likely as non-users to be in a serious or fatal car wreck. A recent meta-analysis 

in the British Medical Journal found that anyone who drives after smoking pot is twice as likely to 

be in a deadly or serious crash. Research also shows the combined use of pot and alcohol, even in 

low doses of both, is particularly deadly. It’s simply not worth the tiny number of people who are 

helped by the drug, and the FDA knows that. 

The marijuana lobby’s claim that taxes on marijuana will boost state coffers is also untrue. Taxes on 

alcohol come nowhere near paying for their costs to society, and marijuana will be no 

different. Untreated substance abuse is already a huge drain on state budgets, and legalizing another 

addictive drug will only make that worse. Dispensaries and grow houses breed crime, adding to the 

criminal justice costs and harming property values. 

You will probably hear from hundreds of pot-smokers who tell you how beneficial marijuana is. 

Please don’t believe them. As I said, drug abusers are the world’s best con artists. They will say 

anything to get an uninterrupted supply of their drug, and they are very convincing. But I have 

repeatedly seen that when these people finally do get off addictive medicines, their problems go 

away, or at least are no worse. And that includes people who were certain they needed pot to 

function. Addictive drugs are almost never good long-term medicines. 

So I urge you to vote against the so-called “medical” marijuana law. It would harm far more people 

than it would help. 

Sincerely, 

Ed Gogek, MD 

Board-certified in Psychiatry 

Prescott, AZ 

(928) 713-0721 

edgogek@gmail.com 

Op-Eds & Blogs on “medical” marijuana 

Arizona Republic Op-Ed, evidence that it’s almost entirely recreational: 

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2011/08/04/20110804gogek05-medicalpot.html 

Op-Ed from San Francisco Chronicle, problems with ‘medical’ marijuana: 

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Medical-marijuana-a-health-risk-for-society-3498533.php

Why legalization is far from inevitable 

http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2013/02/25/marijuana-legalization-is-far-from-inevitable/ 

No medication should ever be smoked, and no doctor should prescribe a smoked medication: 

http://edgogek.com/2010/12/27/medical-marijuana-should-never-be-smoked-lets-keep-smokingillegal/

Ed Gogek, M.D. Letter to Illinois Senate regarding Medical Marijuana

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