ALLOW MARIJUANA FOR MEDICAL USE IN N.J.

Drug has been proven effective in treating some medical conditions
and should be legal to use for those patients.

New Jersey lawmakers took a key step toward allowing those suffering
with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other conditions to legally use
marijuana to relieve their pain.

Last week, the state Senate's Health, Human Services and Senior
Citizens Committee, by a 6-1 vote, approved the Compassionate Use
Medical Marijuana Act.

Legalizing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes remains
controversial in part because it runs counter to federal drug laws
regarding marijuana, and also because there are many people who do
not want to see any door opened toward legalizing drugs.

However, there is overwhelming documentation and heartfelt testimony
from people from all walks of life who have lived in tremendous pain
and say that marijuana, more than any other medicine, helps reduce
their pain, take away their nausea, clear up their vision, stop their
muscle spasms, etc. These people are not drug abusers; they're
regular Americans who are just desperate to live without the pain of
often incurable diseases and conditions.

Who are we, and who is the government, to stop people from
alleviating their suffering?

Thirteen states -- Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine,
Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont
and Washington -- allow people, with a doctor's consent, to possess
small amounts of marijuana and/or grow marijuana plants for their
personal medicinal use.

The law New Jersey proposes would be similar. The state Department of
Health and Senior Services would register people with debilitating
conditions such as HIV, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, etc. and issue
them a photo identification card. They would be able to possess as
many as "six marijuana plants and an ounce of usable marijuana." The
law would bar them from operating a motor vehicle while under the
influence of marijuana or from smoking in many public areas.

At the committee hearing in Trenton on Monday, Joyce Nalepka,
president of the national organization Drug Free Kids: America's
Challenge, worked to convince lawmakers that legalizing medical
marijuana would make children and young adults more aware of
marijuana and that using it is acceptable. State Sen. Jim Whelan,
D-Atlantic, was dead on in his response: "I think our youth are
pretty much aware of marijuana today. I think we are kidding
ourselves if we don't think that," Whelan said.

The fact is, the same laws and penalties we have for criminal
marijuana use and distribution can be kept in place and enforced just
as they are now.

But people who are in pain, some in their last days, deserve to be
able to take whatever medicine works to help them. For certain
conditions, marijuana has shown itself time and again to be a
powerful medicine. There's no reason for New Jersey or any other
government to stand in the way of people looking to ease their suffering.

We don't ban OxyContin or Percocet altogether because some people
abuse those medicines and use them just to get high. Why? Because
OxyContin and Percocet help many people with real medical
condidtions. For the same reason, marijuana should be legalized
strictly for medical use.