MERCY AND MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The debate over medical marijuana's legality inevitably carries Drug War
overtones. Certainly no responsible or persuasive appeal for allowing the
medicinal use of marijuana should be confused with an appeal for removing
all legal prohibitions against that drug. But neither does any reasonable
assessment of marijuana's dangers support depriving the terminally ill and
glaucoma patients from its use as a prescription drug under a doctor's care.

The terminally ill often suffer chronic pain that can be eased only by such
powerful drugs as morphine. In many cases, however, smoking marijuana is
said to ease that suffering in an even more effective manner. Attempts to
deliver an equal degree of pain alleviation through methods other than
smoking by creating a synthetic form of THC, the active ingredient in
marijuana, have failed.

Ten states have legalized marijuana for medical use in restricted,
prescription-only circumstances. But last week, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that because of the federal prohibition, the federal government could
prosecute medical marijuana users in those states.

That means states can't regain the right to set their own medical-marijuana
policies without an act of Congress. Unfortunately, on Wednesday the U.S.
House of Representatives, by a 264-161 vote, rejected an amendment that
would have blocked Justice Department prosecutions of such cases.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., sounding a tired, old theme, opposed the
amendment on the grounds that marijuana "can increase the risk of serious
mental health problems, and in teens, marijuana use can lead to depression,
thoughts of suicide and schizophrenia."

But as a letter on this page points out, other drugs that have long been
prescribed for the terminally ill have serious side effects of their own.
Granting those in intense physical torment access to morphine but not to
the comparatively mild alternative of marijuana is a cruel contradiction of
logic -- and a blatant denial of mercy. Any risk that some Americans would
take improper advantage of medical marijuana's legality is dwarfed by the
relief it would grant to those who desperately need it.

Being "tough on drugs" shouldn't require being tough on the terminally ill.
The public increasingly recognizes that common-sense concept. So should
Congress.