MEDICAL MARIJUANA: TIME TO QUIT TREATING IT AS A GAME

After reading the guest column by Ronald P. Skipper, I feel compelled
to speak out.

The Medical Marijuana Act is indeed flawed. It was crafted under less
than ideal conditions and, as with any law, requires adjustment as
conditions change.

If Skipper's solutions were to apply to the commercial drug market
dominated by corporate drug companies, any new medication would be
stuck in a limbo-like condition -- which is likely the objective.
Viagra, Oxycontin and Prozac can all be used in the presence of
children and impressionable youths. Ritalin is made to be used by
young developing minds. If a drug can be prescribed, it can be
over-prescribed.

My spouse has had the misfortune to require many doctor and hospital
visits in dealing with her multiple sclerosis. This has given me a
great deal of insight into the workings of the medical community.

I have injected or observed many types of chemicals being introduced
into her system by medical persons. Many of them had horrible side
effects and brought her near death at times. This is the nature of
medicine. Most doctor visits break down to a 30-minute wait in the
lobby, an interview of five to 10 minutes with a nurse or other office
assistant (not always medically trained) with a seven-minute follow-up
by the actual doctor.

The increase in qualified patients for medical marijuana is to be
expected as more who suffer are discovering it doesn't need to be that
way.

Marijuana was classified a Schedule I drug in the 1970s when hippies
became more influential than the U.S. government and were successful
in making sweeping changes in political policy. If read accurately
there is room within that law to make it a viable legal medicine as
well as a less psychotropic version of LSD.

You need only watch a happy, musically themed television commercial
that talks of death, organ tissue degradation and outright failure and
a host of other deadly effects that get too gruesome to listen to, no
matter how pretty the picture is. And these drugs are approved by the
Food and Drug Administration.

These laws were crafted by a nervous administration trying to stay in
power. All televisions were picture tubes and not all were in color.
If a law can be made to switch a television with minimal interruption,
why is it an antiquated drug law must slow the process of fear-free
pain management?

Boards, panels and focus groups often do more harm than good. People
who need medical marijuana do not speak up easily and are less
inclined to jump though the multitude of hoops put before them to get
the substance.

They do not want to further burden those who care for them, and they
give in easily. Medical marijuana has not killed its patients even
when over prescribed.

Hand guns may kill when in the wrong hands and obtained illegally, but
existing laws still allow ownership and safe management by owners.

This is a law that needs to be real, not the election football that
Medicare and related assistance programs have evolved into.

It's time to throw away the ball and quit treating this subject as a
game, so those who need it can get it without feeling further
ostracized by a well-meaning healthy society.

Mike Kaszula

Mike Kaszula, Great Falls, is an Air Force retiree who has run for a
number of public offices in the past decade.