Very soon we will know if Ohio is the first state in recent years to step
back from a compassionate concern for the sick, who upon a doctor's
recommendation, use marijuana as medicine.

The current very limited law allows a court to review a doctor's
recommendation and, when the court finds it appropriate, find a defendant
not guilt of marijuana use by reason of medical necessity. Because doctors
who make such a recommendation could face federal removal of their right to
prescribe medicine no doctor is likely to make such a recommendation
lightly. Indeed, the law has never even been used.

So the law simply sends a message that in this state, like many other
states, doctors and their patients are not the enemy in the War on Drugs.
It says the we have common sense. Even children can figure this out.

If we repeal the law why shouldn't children believe we lack common sense
and compassion. Would it give us increased credibility when we say anything
else about drugs? Like the representatives in Virginia recently, our
representatives should just put this one on hold.

Richard Lake
Sylvania