COMPASSION GOES UP IN SMOKE

As the son of immigrants, I grew up hearing ugly stories about the old
country. They made me a patriotic lover of the Stars and Stripes like my
parents, even as they knew our beloved country was less than perfect. As an
adolescent, the nature of our World War II enemies added in intensity to
the excited tingle I had always felt when I saw our flag.

Of course, I enlisted after my 17th birthday. Flags and tingles were common
in the military. After the war I saw the flags less, but never without the
tingle. Until the 1970s, which is when my country forced me to break the
law to do the right thing.

Chemotherapy saved my daughter's life. But it was accompanied by lots of
vomiting, which could be decreased by inhaling marijuana. This was years
before today's legal availability of the pill form of marijuana's active
substance, Marinol. So, I did the right thing and broke the law. I got
Susie marijuana. And I have never felt that tingle from seeing the flag again.

Some might argue that I should have obeyed the law and let her tolerate the
disagreeable side effects of her treatment. I disagreed then and I still do
today.

Fast forward to the 21st century. Marinol has two problems. First, it is
expensive and second, it has a slow rate of absorption into the body. The
gastrointestinal tract is a lot slower than the weed's rapid absorption
through the lungs. That slow absorption of the pill means that those with
chronic diseases who had inhaled the weed for nausea and diminished
appetite before the pill was available may find Marinol to be useless.

Indeed, if the Supreme Court justices who are considering the legality of
California's medical marijuana law walked through a hospital's chemotherapy
unit today, they would smell odors that document that even those recently
diagnosed with cancer find inhalation of the weed to be more effective.

Of course, the weed is expensive, but that's only because it's illegal. If
it were legalized and classified with restricted medicines like morphine
and cocaine, it would be dirt cheap--literally costing little more than the
dirt in which it was grown. And it would be better quality and safer than
the expensive illegal weed. And our jails would be less crowded.

Shouldn't the Supreme Court consider those human truths while inspecting
federal and state laws. If they feel obliged to designate cancer sufferers
and their caretakers as criminals, I pray the justices append advice about
answering children's inevitable question: Why is medical marijuana illegal
while addictive and potentially lethal tobacco is OK if you are old enough.

Will I ever feel that Stars and Stripes tingle again.

Saul Issac Harrison, of Pacific Palisades, Is a Professor Emeritus at the
University of Michigan College of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor at UCLA