COURT'S MARIJUANA RULING WAS NO SURPRISE

The Supreme Court's decision on May 14 that marijuana "has no currently
accepted medical use" was no surprise. The members of the Supreme Court,
like the rest of America, have spent decades under the thrall of propaganda
against the "evil weed." Following the Supreme Court's ruling, Norma
Anderson, state senator from Lakewood, said, "I'm going to assume our law
will also be overturned. I will not shed any tears. In fact, I'm quite
gleeful." I am continually saddened that politicians like Anderson place
political posturing above the health and comfort of the sickest among us.

As a physician I was initially taught about marijuana only in the category
of drugs of abuse. It was lumped in with the far more dangerous drugs
heroin and cocaine.

Once leaving the classroom, my own patients began to open my eyes. One of
the first to admit to me to using marijuana was an AIDS-infected,
soft-spoken mother of two. She brewed tea from the flowers and used it to
combat the nausea that came with the drugs she had to take to stay alive.
Concerned about her well-being and the safety of her children I urged her
to stop and gave her prescriptions for marinol, a synthetic derivative of
marijuana, and different anti-nausea drugs. Over the next few months she
lost weight and the "T-cell" count that reflected the health of her immune
system dropped dramatically. She could no longer hold down the medications
she needed to live. I felt I had violated medicine's primary rule of "First
do no harm." I relented on my discouragement of marijuana use for her. As
she began to improve, I began to research the issue on my own.

There is evidence that marijuana can be helpful in a variety of ailments
including glaucoma, the nausea and loss of appetite that people undergoing
cancer and AIDs treatment suffer from, and muscle pain and spasms from
diseases like multiple sclerosis. It has risks, certainly, but no more than
many other commonly prescribed medications.

The harmful effects of marijuana have been grossly overstated to the
general public. It does not drive people mad or cause instant addiction. I
have never once seen or read of a death due to pure marijuana overdose
while I have seen patients die from overdoses of several different
prescription and over-the-counter medications.

Every day, doctors prescribe potentially addicting opiates such as codeine.
In doing so they do not encourage drug abuse, alcoholism, or drunk driving.
Similarly, as a society, we must distinguish between medical use and abuse
of any substance.

When an elected official such as Sen. Anderson says she is "quite gleeful"
about the defeat of medical marijuana legalization, one wonders why. Would
she be gleeful to watch patients face a choice between the risk of jail or
taking medicine that decreases pain and prolongs lives? I pray she never
has to make such a decision in her own life.

We must look at who wins and who loses from keeping marijuana illegal. The
winners include the pharmaceutical companies that synthesize less effective
and more expensive medications. Also benefiting are law enforcement
agencies, which seize property of marijuana users and keep the proceeds.

The losers are the critically ill and their families. Some, like the young
woman above, are fortunate not to run afoul of the law. Others are not so
lucky. Activist Peter McWilliams suffered from both cancer and AIDS. He
kept in decent health with the use of marijuana as an anti-nausea medicine
- -- that is until drug enforcers arrested him and stopped him from taking
marijuana. Peter then choked to death on his own vomit.

It is time as a society to make decisions on a higher level, decisions
based on scientific research and respect for the individual. Like alcohol
prohibition, marijuana prohibition has done more harm than good. Medical
decisions belong in the laboratory and the exam room, not the courtroom.