MEDICAL PAWNS by Col. R. Michael Smith Cleveland
Copyright (c) 1997, Times Printing Company

The Clinton administration's decision to prosecute doctors
who recommend or prescribe marijuana as a therapeutic agent
for the treatment of various serious ailments according to
California and Arizona law is an assault against states'
rights and the will of voters. It's also an assault on the
First Amendment and the privileged relationship between
physician and patient.

Such blatant interference on the part of federal
bureaucrats warrants public outcry from liberals and
conservatives alike. Eight states have laws allowing
physicians to prescribe marijuana to seriously ill
patients. Another 19 recognize its medical utility. The
voters are ahead of Washington on this issue.

Marijuana is medicine, and several published
scientific studies attest to this fact. It has been used
for thousands of years to treat a wide variety of ailments.
Marijuana was legal in the United States and prominent in
the pharmacopoeia until 1937, when its possession and use
were outlawed by the federal government.

Today, eight patients receive marijuana legally from the
government; for all other Americans who could benefit from
its therapeutic value, it remains a forbidden medicine. The
provisions passed in California and Arizona were attempts
to amend this injustice.

Doctors and medical patients must not be used as pawns
in the " war on drugs. "