LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

The American Medical Association is being urged to endorse marijuana as a
last-resort pain relief for seriously ill patients. Marijuana has been
scientifically studied for decades, and has proven to be good for stress,
nausea, chronic pains and eye disorders but is not addictive or lethal.
Why are the AMA and our government having trouble legalizing marijuana?
Cigarettes are addictive and rob us of oxygen and affect our ability to
think, causing mood swings due to nicotine cravings, yet we can legally buy
and consume them. We can legally be worked long, stressful hours that cause
fatigue, which has the same symptoms as being legally drunk. We can legally
buy 151 proof alcohol and drink ourselves into an alcohol-induced coma and
die, but we can't smoke a non-addictive, non-lethal marijuana cigarette in
our own back yard over the weekend. Marijuana is good for so many medical
reasons that it threatens the pharmaceutical industry. If marijuana were
legalized and people could grow a few plants a year for personal use, the
pharmaceutical companies would lose millions. This whole drug war is really
about protecting rich people's investments. Otherwise, all alcohol and
nicotine products as well as caffeine would be illegal, too.

J. Daniel Walker
North Charleston