OK'ING MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA IS WISE

How heartening to learn of Delegate Don Murphy's (R- Balt. Co.) sponsorship
of the revised bill being introduced now to our legislature. Apparently
most Marylanders (over 70 percent according to a recent University of
Maryland survey) support marijuana's controlled, legal use when prescribed
by a physician for a litany of beneficial uses.

Our laws need to distinguish between recreational and prescribed use
intended to help patients; to mitigate their chronic pain, nausea, muscle
spasms, or help with glaucoma and deleterious appetite loss to name the
most common applications.

We need to give suffering patients and their physicians legal access to
these tools without fear of harassment from authorities who we know have
more pressing matters to handle.

I applaud Del. Murphy and encourage his Eastern Shore counterparts to study
the bill and then join him in support of this refined new legislation. As
drafted, this law would help keep government from unduly interfering in the
doctor/patient relationship. Eight states already have similar laws on the
books. Maryland lawmakers can help encourage more to follow. This, in turn,
could set a broad-based, reasoned, workable precedent for federal
legislation. We should change our laws from unworkable prohibition to
allowing limited, controlled, yet compassionate access to this ancient,
often beneficial substance... without a patient's fear of imprisonment or fine.

I encourage Maryland patients, physicians, and their relatives or friends
who have witnessed marijuana's medical benefits to contact their Maryland
legislators to support enactment of this sensible legislation.

John G. Schreiner, St. Michaels