MEDICAL MARIJUANA YES, IN THE NAME OF COMPASSION

The state Senate has passed three bills that, if they become law, would
have New Mexico joining 12 other states that allow the medical use of
marijuana.

Currently, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland,
Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have enacted laws to
legalize medical marijuana.

It's not the first time lawmakers have dealt with the legislation - and it
wouldn't be the first such program in the state. In the late 1970s, New
Mexico set up a program linking the medical use of marijuana with a
research project, which eventually lost its funding and became defunct.

Former Gov. Gary Johnson, a Republican and a drug-reform proponent, pushed
medical marijuana legislation. The House and Senate approved separate bills
in 2001, but never agreed on the same version. It was tried again in 2002
in the Senate and in 2003 in the House, but it failed each time.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, said his proposal
would provide "one more opportunity for life for our loved ones."

Two of the bills would restrict it to patients with cancer, glaucoma,
multiple sclerosis, certain spinal cord damage, epilepsy and HIV-AIDS.

Under McSorley's bill, the Health Department would license producers to
provide the marijuana, which would be grown in secure facilities. Patients
whose doctors recommend it would apply to the department and, if approved
by a review board of physicians, be registered to possess the drug.

Sen. Steve Komadina, R-Corrales, sponsored an alternative measure that
would require the marijuana to be pharmaceutical grade, so that dosages
would be consistent and regulated. That would rule out smoking it, although
an atomizer or inhaler could be used, Komadina said.

The third bill, sponsored by Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, would
allow people with chronic or debilitating diseases marked by pain or severe
muscle spasms to use marijuana only topically - in a patch, lotion or gel,
for example.

A spokesman for Gov. Bill Richardson said he was studying the bills and was
encouraged by the safeguards they contained.

"For people who are living in a tremendous amount of pain as a result of
life-threatening diseases, this is a treatment that they should be allowed
to have," said Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for the governor.

Critics of the bills said they were concerned the state would appear -
especially to young people - to be promoting drug use.

"My question today ... is what kind of message are we going to be sending,"
said Sen. Carroll Leavell, R-Jal, who voted against the three measures.

We respond to this by seconding the sentiments of Gov. Richardson.

The message we are sending young people is that common sense and compassion
for those in pain is the lesson they should learn.

Common sense tells us that if marijuana can ease the suffering of someone
ill, in pain or dying, then compassion is the right choice.

If we're so worried about the message we're sending our children, then we
should send a message to our children about the causes of death in the
United States.

Tell them that while tobacco is legal, at 430,700 deaths per year, it is
the leading cause of substance-abuse deaths; that alcohol is legal and
110,600 die from it each year; that adverse reactions to legal prescription
drugs cause 32,000 fatalities a year; that 30,500 commit suicide; 18,000
are homicide victims; and that 7,600 people die each year from taking
anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin.

We're not saying to children to go out and do something illegal, but we are
saying that with the right restrictions in place, if marijuana is
prescribed and can ease the pain for someone or make their diminished
quality of life better, then how can that be wrong?

The written record on medicinal marijuana stretches back over 2,000 years.

The American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs said in a
report to the AMA House of Delegates June 2001 that "until such time as
rapid-onset cannabinoid (marijuana) formulations are clinically available,
our AMA affirms the appropriateness of compassionate use of marijuana and
related cannabinoids in carefully controlled programs designed to provide
symptomatic relief of nausea, vomiting, cachexia, anorexia, spasticity,
acute or chronic pain, or other palliative effects."

We all have to make choices in our lives, and the larger and more important
point is that it doesn't make any sense to punish sick people for trying to
relieve their own suffering.