MARIJUANA HAS MEDICINAL PURPOSE

There was a wonderful essay in The Birmingham News written by Dr.
Steven Rudd ("Weigh pros, cons of pot for medical purposes,"
Commentary, March 23).

Rudd wrote about Michael Phillips, who suffered from seizures. Rudd
said Phillips was arrested twice for using marijuana, which was
suggested by his doctor to help control his seizures. Rudd asked us to
do research and weigh the pros and cons about medical marijuana.

The research shows there has not been one documented death as a result
of marijuana use. How many pharmaceutical drugs can we say that about?

When we create laws that send people like Phillips to jail for using a
plant that can ease their suffering, it makes us look ignorant and
hypocritical with no sense of compassion. Especially when we have a
legal drug (alcohol) that causes some 85,000 deaths a year and is sold
for recreational use in every convenience store.

With laws like these, what kind of message are we sending about
ourselves as a society - one of ignorance and hypocrisy, or one of
compassion?

Dawn Palmer

Tarrant