CONGRESS SHOULD MAKE MEDICINAL MARIJUANA LEGAL

Do we have to wait for marijuana-smoking cancer patients to be rounded
up, handcuffed and thrown in jail for Congress to take up the matter
of medical marijuana use?

Federal agents could start arresting terminally or seriously ill
patients in 11 states who previously had the right to smoke marijuana
under their doctors' supervision to relieve their symptoms.

THE U.S. SUPREME Court ruled Monday that people who use marijuana to
ease pain or symptoms of their illnesses can be prosecuted for
violating federal drug laws. That means that terminally and seriously
ill patients who formerly smoked doctor-prescribed marijuana to
relieve their symptoms could be arrested if they are caught using or,
they would say, taking their medicine.

These people could hardly be described as representative of the
nation's drug problems, which are considerable, by the way. There are
plenty of places to crack down on the drug trade, but cracking down
via this population is, simply put, just plain cruel.

Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, said the case
before them presented "troubling facts" about the potential harm
patients would suffer without the drug. However, the issue before the
court was not the appropriateness of medicinal marijuana, but
Congress' power to enforce federal drug statutes from state to state.
On that question, the court ruled 6-3 that it did.

We can buy that, except that the ruling made instant criminals of
people who are dying of cancer and use marijuana to ease their pain
and maintain their appetites. Other users suffer from painful brain
tumors, AIDS, wasting syndrome, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord
injuries, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and Tourette's
syndrome.

MARIJUANA HAS never been promoted as a cure for chronic or terminal
ailments but there seems to be evidence -- and many doctors believe --
that it can be therapeutic in relieving symptoms and stimulating
appetite when that's needed to improve health.

The Supreme Court threw the issue back at Congress, saying that
recognizing marijuana's medical value and carving out a safe zone for
its medicinal use is "squarely within Congress' commerce power."

But will Congress have the nerve to act? Why, of course. This is,
after all, a Congress that was so concerned about the welfare of one
woman, Terri Schiavo, that it spent millions of dollars convening a
special session and calling members back from all over the nation for
a weekend vote.

OUR FEDERAL lawmakers were so intensely compassionate and concerned
about her welfare that they were willing to draft and pass a special
law that related specifically to one citizen.

And so, people who use marijuana under doctors' supervision to ease
their pain and suffering surely have friends in Congress who will come
to their aide. Yet, there are some who doubt that the cacophony of
compassionate rhetoric in the Schiavo case will translate to this matter.

"I think support is strong, but people are still frightened a little
bit by the politics of it," Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, told The
Associated Press.

"If you had a secret vote in Congress, I'll bet 80 percent would vote
for it."

Members of Congress should have the courage to do the right thing for
people who are dying and people who are suffering. If they can get
some relief from doctor-prescribed marijuana, let them have it. Soon.