10-24-2015
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| Brad Bradshaw |
Brad Bradshaw, a Springfield physician and lawyer who has an office in Kansas City, was among the leading opponents of a 2013 attempt to tax Jackson County voters to fund translational medical research.
The plan, which Jackson County voters ultimately rejected by a profound margin, sounded a bit like an idea he had at the time, except he wanted all Missourians to chip in for a research institute that would explore cures for severe medical conditions.
Bradshaw had hoped to someday get a statewide sales tax passed for his idea. But perhaps seeing how poorly voters received a statewide sales tax effort for highways last year, Bradshaw is changing his approach.
He's after a constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana for medical use. Bradshaw's proposal would tax marijuana prescriptions heavily at the point of sale — 75 percent. The plan also sets a high tax rate for those who cultivate marijuana and require steep licensing fees for dispensaries.
The initiative forecasts that it could raise between $45 million and $58 million a year. That money would repay bonds issued to build a research campus somewhere — counties could vie through public votes to host the campus — and fund ongoing research into conditions for which there's no cure.
The tax and the research institution would be governed by a research board, whose members would be nominated by a committee of doctors and physicians in Missouri and selected by the Missouri Lt. Governor. (Bradshaw, a Democrat, is running for Lt. Governor in 2016.)
If passed, Missouri would become the 24th state to legalize the drug as a treatment for medical conditions like cancer, glaucoma, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis, among others.
"We don't want to be state No. 24," Bradshaw says. "We want to accomplish something really good."
Bradshaw's goal is a laudable one. The federal government has cut funding for medical research since the Great Recession, and pharmaceutical companies have been less willing to devote their own resources to cures for diseases, preferring ongoing treatments for chronic conditions.
His plan runs into some headwinds, however. There are four states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use, with the possibility for more to come on the horizon. Broad legalization of marijuana in Missouri could undercut the need for medicinal marijuana, and thus the primary funding source for the research institute.
Bradshaw doesn't think Missouri would open its mind to recreational marijuana for at least 10 years. Even accounting for the possibility that it does, Bradshaw believes that the research institute could get a portion of taxes produced by sales of recreational marijuana. But that's no sure thing.
Bradshaw envisions Missouri making an ample sum — into the billions — if the research institute discovered a cure for a previously incurable disease as the state would hold the lucrative intellectual property rights for any discovery. Proponents of the Jackson County translational medical research tax made similar arguments. But there's no sure thing either that the institute would make such a discovery.
"There's no guarantee," Bradshaw concedes. "There was no guarantee that they [the Manhattan Project] would find an atomic bomb. There's was no guarantee that they would put a man on the moon. If you don't try, you never find out."
Bradshaw needs to gather 158,000 signatures by May from Missourians living in at least six of the state's eight congressional districts to get it on the November 2016 general election ballot, which promises to be a high-turnout election on account of the presidential race.
Bradshaw has a poll that shows support for medicinal marijuana in Missouri. In a poll taken between July 16 and July 20, 64 percent of respondents indicated support for the concept of using marijuana for medical treatments. Respondents were not asked about the research institute. When asked about recreational marijuana legalization, the same poll indicated 47 percent support.
Source: Pitch.com
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