MEDICAL MARIJUANA OFFERS HEALTH, FINANCIAL BENEFITS

To the Times:

There is a need across this great country for better medicine.
Medical marijuana has shown in the past and continues to show its
benefits still to this day.

The American Medical Association has urged the federal government to
reconsider the status of marijuana as a Class 1 drug. This means the
AMA recognizes that marijuana has serious medical benefits. The AMA
wants the government to remove marijuana from the Class 1 listing
because marijuana does have beneficial qualities with doctor supervision.

The AMA also has suggested to doctors they should look into
prescribing marijuana where applicable. It is time to help the
seriously ill and dying with their pain management, not having to
fear overdose, violent withdraws, gray skin tone - among other side
effects too numerous to mention.

I am talking about patients that would like to enjoy their days
living, not sick from the side effects of Oxycontin and the other
overly prescribed pills currently being the only options doctors have
at this moment in time.

Medical marijuana is a fantastic substitute for those much more
addictive prescription drugs these patients are forced now to take.
What I and millions of others across this great nation are saying is
this: Whether you agree or disagree is irrelevant. A patient and his
or her doctor should not fear imprisonment from the law or the
addictive qualities of prescription pills.

This is about compassion. This is about giving patients and doctors
the right to pursue happiness. A patient would not have the fear of
dying from side effects of prescription pills and a doctor would be
more at ease prescribing a natural plant with little to no side effect.

The laws must change. We must urge our lawmakers to change the laws.
We must help our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our
grandmothers and grandfathers, our aunts and uncles, our sons and
daughters, and help people we don't even know.

To help, contact your representatives, urge them to support medical
marijuana. Get your friends to do the same. Fifteen states have
already changed their laws in support of helping our countrymen and
women manage their pain with better medicine, so call those you know
in other states. Get them to contact their reps.

Medical marijuana will also bring millions of dollars to our state's
economy through tax generation. California generates $8 million per
year solely from the taxing of medical marijuana.

Think of the good that money would bring. Think of the money medical
marijuana would bring if all of the 50 states united on this matter.
Think of the schools that could benefit or the infrastructure or
hospitals or any other state financed organization.

Medical marijuana could help more people than just patients and
doctors. Think of the possibilities.

Join us in making this country greater than we already are.

Christopher David Moore

West Chester