SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 10, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released a statement supporting a Utah Medical Association declaration issued last month
The UMA statement said, among other things, that backers of the Utah Marijuana Initiative — which asks the public to vote on whether medical marijuana should be legal here — are falsely claiming the measure has the support of the Utah medical establishment.
“Neither D.J. Schanz, the Libertas Institute, the Marijuana Policy Project, nor any of the other backers of this initiative speak for the physicians of Utah, nor for the majority of their patients,” the UMA statement says.
“As the largest organization representing physicians in Utah, UMA unequivocally states its opposition to the current initiative and applauds Gov. Herbert for speaking out in opposition as well, fulfilling his role in protecting public health and safety.”
The LDS Church released its response Tuesday to the UMA statement:
“We commend the Utah Medical Association for its statement of March 30, 2018, cautioning that the proposed Utah marijuana initiative would compromise the health and safety of Utah communities. We respect the wise counsel of the medical doctors of Utah,” the Church statement says.
“The public interest is best served when all new drugs designed to relieve suffering and illness and the procedures by which they are made available to the public undergo the scrutiny of medical scientists and official approval bodies.”
The full text of the UMA statement appears below:
MarijuanaStatement
