BETTER THINGS TO DO

While there have been studies showing that marijuana can shrink
cancerous tumors, medical marijuana is essentially a palliative drug.
If a doctor recommends marijuana to cancer patients undergoing
chemotherapy and it helps them feel better, then it's working. In the
end, medical marijuana is a quality-of-life issue best left to
patients and their doctors.

Federal bureaucrats waging war on noncorporate drugs contend that
organic marijuana is not an effective health intervention. The
federal government's prescribed intervention for medical marijuana
patients is handcuffs, jail cells and criminal records. This
heavy-handed approach suggests that drug warriors are not well-suited
to dictate healthcare decisions.

It's long past time that Congress showed some leadership on the issue
and passed legislation reaffirming the Constitution's 10th Amendment
guarantee of states' rights. States that prefer to cage sick patients
for daring to feel better can continue to do so. The more enlightened
states that have passed compassionate-use legislation should not be
stymied by a federal government that really should have better things to do.

- -- Robert Sharpe, Washington, D.C.

(The writer is policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy. -- Editor)