MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Re "FDA's reefer madness: Dismissing medicinal marijuana, with
prejudice," May 1:

I thank The News-Journal for its accurate editorial on medicinal
marijuana. Not many small papers have the courage to publish the
truth about marijuana. I am a registered nurse and therefore know all
the side effects of alcohol, and yet we still allow people to get
drunk, drive and kill people. I spent many years detoxing people with
alcohol problems but never anyone with a marijuana problem. Why then
are so many people who have never experienced marijuana so quick to
condemn it?

You can be arrested for having one joint on your person, but no one
will ever be arrested for coming home from the liquor store carrying
a case or more of booze. We all know someone who abuses alcohol and
has serious medical problems associated with the abuse, but I bet not
one reader knows a person who has medical problems created by marijuana.

It has some very real medicinal effects. It increases appetite,
produces euphoria, and relieves pain and anxiety. Many chronic
illnesses could benefit from these effects, yet the moral majority
denies this drug to cancer patients, AIDS sufferers, and even those
with an inflammatory arthritis like rheumatoid.

Why is this allowed when each year the Food and Drug Administration
approves drugs that cause serious side effects and death? Think about
this the next time a relative or friend must undergo chemotherapy or
when your mother or dad develops an inflammatory arthritis.

SUSAN IGOU, New Smyrna Beach