MARIJUANA BENEFIT

To the editor:

I attend Baker University School of Nursing. The laws against medical
marijuana and the complicated rigmarole that lobbyists have had to
deal with have always baffled me, yet has become even more compelling
since I began my nursing endeavors. One primary responsibility of a
nurse is to ensure their patients' pain is minimized or eliminated.
Why should we or the state/federal government deny chronically and
terminally ill patients any treatment they desire to minimize their
agony? Simply put, medical marijuana should be changed from a Schedule
I substance to a Schedule II substance, thereby authorizing physicians
to prescribe the drug in certain medical situations.

Marijuana has several therapeutic uses. Many patients have testified
to the effectiveness of smoked and ingested marijuana to increase
their appetite, reduce nausea, reduce pain and decrease intraocular
pressure in patients with glaucoma.

Due to how cheap it is to grow, it would be more affordable and
obtainable by those patients in need, not to mention its legalization
would lead to tremendous local, state and federal profits due to
taxation. The government is spending an inordinate amount of money on
maintaining marijuana's illegality when they could be capitalizing on
its sales tax.

It is a fact that marijuana is safer than many medications being
prescribed by physicians on a daily basis. Downgrading the schedule
seems like a no-brainer, but the federal government is enforcing such
strict implementations on the studies of medical marijuana that the
progress of its legalization is stagnant. A change needs to be made
with our generation.

Sharrod Greene

Lawrence