IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP AND SEE THAT CANNABIS CAN HELP OTHERS

It is very unfortunate that a prominent senator from such a prominent
political family should be stricken with such a life-threatening brain
tumor. It is more unfortunate, however, that a real cure has not been
found for these types of cancers by now with all of the technology at
our disposal. Fifty percent of patients with this type of tumor die
within a year and most are dead within three years. It is also very
unfortunate that we have suppressed research into the one plant which
may be that cure.

Research on cannabis (marijuana) has been suppressed in this country
for more than 35 years. The only research that was allowed after the
Shafer Commission report told President Nixon that marijuana
possession should not justify criminalizing the American public, was
research to prove it was harmful. Since they couldn't find anything
harmful, they didn't allow any at all.

In the past decade doctors in Spain, Italy and Israel have published
dozens of medical research papers, showing that components of cannabis
actually stop the growth of cancer tumors and in many cases reduce
them to nothing, with no damage to living cells. A human trial has
even been conducted on the exact same kind of tumor as Sen. Ted
Kennedy's with great results. This information is readily available on
the Internet, yet our government sees fit to continue its war against
cannabis and therefore its war on patients.

Ted Kennedy may be cured of this brain cancer, but it won't happen in
the United States of America. He would have to "volunteer" for
"research" in another country. That makes it a hard decision for a
U.S. senator.

The most unfortunate thing of all is that we have millions of people
in this country who could benefit from this herb we call a drug, yet
they will go to jail if they use it. This is a plant that is proven
less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, less addictive than caffeine and
more beneficial than many, many dangerous pharmaceutical drugs. When
will we wake up and learn that Mother Nature will always be kinder to
us than we will be to ourselves?

(Snavely is a member of the Medical Cannabis Association of North
Dakota)