PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer says terminally ill patients should have the right to use drugs that have not yet been approved — and may never be approved — by federal agencies.
And she’s even softening her position on the use of marijuana by people with specific medical problems.
In an interview Friday with Capitol Media Services, Brewer said she supports Proposition 303. She said the so-called “right to try” measure, put on the November ballot earlier this year by state lawmakers, provides some hope to patients who otherwise may have none.
In essence, the proposal seeks to craft an Arizona exemption to the regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration which require that new medications go through various stages of testing before they can be prescribed by a physician and used by patients.
This would permit — but not require — drug companies to make available those drugs or other medical devices which have not yet been cleared for use by the FDA for those with a terminal illness. That is defined as any disease that, without life-sustaining procedures, would result in death in the “near future” or a coma form which recovery is unlikely.
It also would immunize doctors from being disciplined by regulatory boards solely because they agreed to prescribe a nonapproved medication for a patient’s use.
Brewer pronounced the idea “terrific.”
“I think that if someone is facing life or death that they should be able to make that choice,” she said. “And if they’re willing to take that risk ... they ought to be able to do it.”
That question of risk is part of the ballot measure. It requires a patient to give “written informed consent” for the use of the experimental drug or device, a process that would mean acknowledging the side effects and complications.
But the proposal also requires a doctor to first determine that the probable risk from the experimental drug “is not greater than the probable risk from the disease or condition.”
And there’s also a requirement for the doctor to determine there is no other “comparable or satisfactory” FDA-approved drug to treat the patient.
Brewer said that, everything else aside, her views come down to a question of options — and hope.
“You reach a certain point with terminal illness, and I’ve lived it, that there is no hope,” she said, noting she watched the death of not only parents but also the 2007 death of her son, John, of cancer at age 38.
“You fight for everything in life,” the governor explained. “Why can’t you fight till the end?”
And Brewer said that means letting terminally ill patients look at all options, including those not considered safe and effective by the FDA.
“If there’s something out there that you believe or you’ve been advised of that can make a change in your health, why shouldn’t you be able to take it?” Brewer asked.
The governor said that, along the same lines, she has been rethinking her opposition to the 2010 ballot measure which allows patients with certain medical conditions and a doctor’s recommendation to obtain marijuana.
“I’ve been reading a lot about it,” she said. “And it certainly looks like it probably does help people.”
Brewer said she would be a lot more comfortable with the whole concept of medical marijuana if doctors had to write actual prescriptions which could be filled only at state-regulated pharmacies. Instead, doctors write “recommendations” which entitle patients to get a state-issued card which allows them to purchase up to 2ƒ ounces of the drug every two weeks at state-regulated but privately run “dispensaries.”
“I don’t understand why we have to have little stores like little Circle K’s or AMPM markets to dispense this,” she said.
But there actually is a legal and practical reason.
The state’s original medical drug law, approved in 1996, actually required physicians to write prescriptions for the drug. But no doctor would go along after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration threatened to revoke all prescription-writing privileges of any doctor who actually wrote one for marijuana or any other drug that is illegal under federal law.
It took until 2010 to come up with the alternative “recommendation” method and dispensary system to keep doctors and pharmacies out of the picture and out of legal risk.
Brewer said there’s an answer to all that.
“Change the law at the federal level.”
