IS IT TIME TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?

To help battle pain and other problems caused by his debilitating
bone disease, Irv Rosenfeld used to take multiple doses of at least
eight prescription medications, including strong pain pills Dilaudid
and Percocet.

Rosenfeld no longer takes any of those medications to curb the
effects of his disease, multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses.

Nowadays, the Florida-based stock broker, who routinely takes
disabled children sailing and plays softball, relies on just one
medication: Cannabis sativa, commonly known as marijuana.

Without cannabis, most likely I would be homebound and on disability.
That's if I was alive," Rosenfeld said this week in a phone
interview. "It has literally made my life bearable."

Rosenfeld is one of just four participants grandfathered into the now
closed federal Compassionate Investigational New Drug program.

The 56-year-old has been in the program nearly 30 years, during which
time he has continued to push for cannabis to be legalized for medicinal use.

Rosenfeld is not alone, as there has been a surge in recent months by
pro-medicinal cannabis activists pushing for changes in law.

One local activist group, Patients Out of Time, for years has been at
the forefront of the fight to make cannabis legal medicinally.

Based in Nelson County, just across the Albemarle line, POT is run by
Al Byrne and Mary Lynn Mathre, and Rosenfeld is on the group's board
of directors.

They think that, with a presidential administration that appears to
be open to their cause, now is the time to win the fight to make
cannabis a legal medication -- and they believe the change can come
at the federal level. Yet there are still many activists and
government agencies that condemn marijuana as a dangerous drug that
should remain illegal.

For more than 30 years, cannabis has remained a Schedule 1 drug,
meaning it is considered to have the highest potential for abuse;
there is no medically accepted use for it; and it is unsafe for use
under a doctor's supervision.

Byrne considers the government's stance absurd.

The myth out there by the government and people who believe the
government is that (cannabis) hasn't been recognized as a medicine
yet," he said. "There is no logical explanation for the government's approach."

He said research has proven cannabis' medicinal value, noting a study
sponsored by POT in which four of the federal Compassionate
Investigational New Drug program patients were thoroughly tested and
the results showed that cannabis helped relieve their symptoms with
minimal side effects.

There also is the Center for Medical Cannabis Research at the
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

Researchers there have reported positive results of smoked marijuana
in HIV patients and in a study focused on alleviating nerve pain, for instance.

There is much more medicinal cannabis research being conducted worldwide.

But others are not convinced of cannabis' medicinal value or they
believe science can isolate the herb's medicinal properties and
thereby create a safe drug.

Steven Steiner, founder of Dads and Mad Moms Against Drug Dealers,
believes legalizing cannabis is a bad idea.

My stance on marijuana is it is not a benign drug that people equate
it to be," he said. "It's a drug that intoxicates people who make bad choices."

He admits that cannabis seems to help some with their health
problems, but said science can, and has in the form of Sativex,
isolated marijuana's medicinal properties without the need to smoke it.

Mathre and Byrne believe the federal government for too long has used
propaganda and lies to keep cannabis illegal.