MEDICINAL MARIJUANA SHOWS COMPASSION TO THOSE SUFFERING

Legalizing marijuana for medical purposes is a big step in the right
direction. It is critical to separate the "war on drugs" from public health
issues. Basic common sense demands allowing seriously ill citizens to use
whatever safe medication is most effective.

A poll conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union demonstrated that 85
percent of the public favors giving seriously ill patients access to
medical marijuana; in fact, 25 percent said they had a relative or a friend
using cannabis medicinally.

California recognized the benefits of marijuana for medical and passed
Proposition 215. Other states, including Washington with Initiative 692,
followed in the legalization of marijuana for medical use even though the
Supreme Court has ruled against it.

We are making criminals of people who would not normally be criminals
because they are trying to procure marijuana for a loved ones who is
suffering, or themselves, they are labeled outlaws by our societal rules.

A few years ago Will Foster was arrested in Oklahoma for growing marijuana
for his own medicinal use. His sentence is 93 years in prison with
murderers and rapists.

Marijuana is versatile. Glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness,
causes fluid pressure within the eyeball and increases until it damages the
optic nerve. Marijuana produces a clinically significant drop in
interocular pressure that lasts several hours. Cannabis cannot cure the
disease, but it can retard the progressive loss of sight when conventional
medication fails and surgery is too expensive.

A cannabis derivative that is most promising as an anti-convulsant for
seizures is "cannabidiol." It has produced improvements with grand mal
seizures.

The best alternative analgesics for pain, like headaches, migraines and
post-surgical discomfort, are addictive opiods. Marijuana is recognized as
the drug of choice for pain that causes muscle spasms, which is often
chronic and debilitating, as well as for paraplegics, quadraplegics and
other victims of traumatic nerve damage.

Marijuana relieves nausea caused by chemotherapy One study conducted for
the ACLU , reported that 83 percent of registered voters agreed with this
statement: "People who find that marijuana is effective for their medical
needs, like treating glaucoma and relieving nausea from chemotherapy,
should be able to use it legally." Only 11 percent disagreed.

Loren Siegal, former director of education for the ACLU said the government
was clearly out of step with the public's support for the compassionate use
of marijuana.

The Journal Of Pharmacological Review's reports that decades of research
proves.

"Compared with legal drugs, marijuana does not pose greater risks."

One Drug Enforcement Agency's own administrative judges, Francis Young,
said marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known
to man.

Prescription drugs defined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration have
killed up to 27,000 people a year. So far, marijuana has caused no known
fatalities according to a 1988 study conducted by the Bureau of Mortality
Statistics.

Aspirin and ibuprofen, the most widely used analgesics, are not addictive
but do have many side effects such as, ulcers and stomach bleeding.

Ibuprofen and acetaminophen in Tylenol can cause liver damage and kidney
failure. If used regularly for long periods of time, a study suggests that
10 percent of the cases result in end-stage renal disease, a condition that
requires dialysis or a kidney transplant.

The Harvard Medical School mental Health Letter reports the findings of
three other major cannabis studies. In major studies conducted in 1999 in
Jamaica, Costa Rica and Greece, researchers compared heavy long-term
marijuana users with non-users and found no evidence of intellectual or
neurological damage, no change in personality and no loss of the will to
work or participate in society.

Marijuana is also inexpensive. Cannabis could be as much as 100 times less
expensive than the best present day treatment for nausea caused by cancer
chemotherapy. The high cost of cannabis on the street is nothing more than
a prohibition tariff.

More than 10 million American citizens have been arrested in the last 30
years because they chose to puff a plant.

The years of effort devoted to showing that marijuana is exceedingly
dangerous have proved the opposite. It is almost certain that a serious
toxic reaction will not occur. The potential benefits are much greater than
any potential risk One third of all Americans, twelve years of age and
older have used marijuana at least once in their lifetime.

Marijuana is not a drug of addiction. To include it in the Schedule I drug
list with heroin and morphine is ludicrous. Marijuana may alter the moods
of a person, causing hilarity, including giggling and other euphoric
criminal behavior. It may calm and relax a person after a long day. In many
cases it will make a person's last days bearable.