TRAVERSE CITY AND MANISTEE -- With Proposal 1 on the election ballot, voters will decide whether to legalize medicinal use of marijuana, and some northern Michigan doctors are providing their views on the issue.

7&4 News spoke with two doctors about Proposal 1.  Both doctors agree that there are health benefits when it comes to the medicinal use of marijuana, but one is voting against proposal one.

"As a physician I'm not necessarily against the medical use of marijuana, but I am very much against Proposal 1 because as the bill is written there are too many loopholes and not enough regulation," says Dr. Jeffrey Wentzloff.

Dr. Wentzloff, a certified ophthalmologist says he doesn't agree with Proposal 1's goal of allowing patients to smoke marijuana to alleviate symptoms from various diseases.

"When you smoke a marijuana cigarette there's 20 times as much ammonia that's released as compared to tobacco cigarettes...There are alternative ways to take marijuana other than smoke it," says Wentzloff.

But Dr. George Wagoner, a retired OB-GYN who practiced medicine for three decades, has a different perspective.  His wife recently died from ovarian cancer and suffered from the effects of chemotherapy.

After trying various alternatives to medical marijuana, it was time for something different.

"She took all the usual anti-nausea medicines and they didn't work...When I finally obtained marijuana, it took two breaths and her nausea disappeared, it just disappeared miraculously.  That was as prompt and as dramatic of a response to medicine as I have ever seen in 30 years of practicing medicine," says Dr. George Wagoner.
    
But Dr. Wentzloff says he's also concerned because abuse of the drug is possible.

"The drug should be provided under safe regulations by our government or the FDA," says Dr. Wentzloff.

"It's a drug of abuse, there are many drugs of abuse, there are many medicines that have been abused...There was no medicine that relieved my wife's nausea and vomiting.  She couldn't eat, her quality of life was destroyed.  Two breaths of marijuana smoke and her nausea disappeared, that's reason enough for me.  It's an effective medicine," says Dr. Wagoner.
    
If Proposal 1 passes, Dr. Wentzloff says a prescription would not be required from doctors, a patient would simply need a doctor's recommendation.
    
Wentzloff also says he'd be concerned about a black market for marijuana if the proposal passes, But Dr. Wagoner says it's already proven effective, and sick patients shouldn't have to wait for government approval.

For more information on Proposal 1 you can check out the State Of Michigan Web site here.