SUPPORT LEGALIZATION OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

MADISON -- Regarding your article, "Woman says she euthanized cancer
sufferer," May 16, the recent Supreme Court ruling against medical
marijuana could trigger more suicides and assisted suicides by patients and
caregivers if conventional treatments cannot ease their suffering.

Marijuana has been shown to ease pain and combat the side effects of
chemotherapy. Forcing terminally ill patients to break the law to regain a
little quality of life is not just cruel but immoral.

With the Supreme Court ruling that federal law prohibits the medical use of
marijuana, even for those with a medical necessity for this therapy, the
only option is for lawmakers to change the law.

Legislation was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives earlier
this year that would allow individual states to set their own policies on
medical marijuana and reschedule it so physicians could prescribe it. HR
1344, the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, currently has 11
co-sponsors including Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

Hopefully, the Supreme Court's ruling will trigger a groundswell of public
support for changing the law so patients and caregivers do not have to risk
arrest and jail to ease their suffering. Interested parties should contact
their congressional representatives and ask them to co-sponsor this bill.

Legislation is also being mulled at the state level, and again those
wishing to end the cruel status quo that criminalizes the sick and dying
should also contact their Assembly and Senate representatives and ask that
they support a state medical marijuana law.

Gary Storck