MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS COMPASSIONATE CHOICE

In their June 2 column, Dora Dixie and Peter Bensinger, two persons
who earn their living tending to the drug disaster caused by
zero-tolerance prohibition and its multifaceted dire consequences -
including death, disease, overdose, drug contamination, addiction,
gang proliferation and rampant crime - repeat a number of misleading
predictions should Illinois become the 15th state to stop arresting
seriously ill patients who use marijuana with their doctors'
recommendations.

First, they claim medical marijuana states have the highest rates of
teen marijuana use, implying that somehow medical marijuana laws lead
to more teen use.

In fact, the data suggest that medical marijuana laws are actually
associated with decreases in teen use. In all 11 of the states with
before-and-after data, teen use rates have fallen after medical
marijuana laws were passed.

The authors also expressed concern about quality control of medical
marijuana, even though a number of labs now test medical marijuana in
Colorado and Montana.

Unlike California, Illinois' proposed law would require dispensaries
to grow their own marijuana according to state Department of Health
regulations.

The authors expressed concern about fictitious harms to employers who
would not be allowed to fire seriously ill patients who are not
impaired at work, even though employers currently cannot fire people
just for testing positive for prescription Vicodin when they are
allowed to use it.

There is no rational reason for medical marijuana patients who are
not impaired to be treated any differently.

SB 1381 is endorsed by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, the state
chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and the Illinois Nurses
Association.

The bill cautiously creates only a three-year pilot program and
provides strict penalty enhancements in the event of diversion. It
provides for state oversight and regulation. Legislators should look
at the facts and into their hearts, and then vote to pass this
compassionate and narrowly tailored bill.

James E. Gierach

Palos Park