MEDICAL POT FOES OFF THE MARK

I oppose Senate Bill 94 because the proposed legislation imposes excessive
limitations on who may use marijuana for medication and under what
circumstances. The bill interferes with the physician/patient relationship
by legislating what disease conditions a therapeutic drug may be used for.
This is clearly beyond the realm of legislative responsibility.

Scientific evidence is revealing that there are illnesses for which
marijuana is legitimately indicated. Indeed, there are probably some
ailments for which marijuana should be the drug of choice for treatment, as
it would provide the greatest amount of benefit for the patient with the
least number of side effects. Placing legislative barriers in front of
patients or their physicians would seriously erode the confidence of the
population in the Alaska Legislature while preventing some patients from
receiving the level of medical care they require.

Marijuana is not the evil, dangerous drug that some
out-of-touch-with-reality legislators think it is, and legislators should
not be practicing medicine without a license.