WISCONSIN NEEDS TO PASS MEDICAL CANNABIS LAW

Editor: I couldn't agree more with a recent letter, "Time to elect moderates
in state Legislature who will deal with citizens' issues" (Jan 17).

One of these issues is medical marijuana. When illness strikes a family,
government should not stand in the way of anything that can help the
affected family member recover or manage chronic or terminal medical
conditions. State residents overwhelmingly support legal access: A February
2002 poll showed 80.3 percent support statewide with little difference by
party affiliation.

Legislation to allow state residents to use cannabis for medical use under
the care of a physician has died in committee in each of the last four
sessions, without a hearing, a word of debate or a single vote cast. Is this
democracy? Where is the outrage?

Each year an estimated 10,000 Wisconsinites die of cancer, another 300 from
multiple sclerosis, and close to 80 die from HIV/AIDS. Cannabis has been
shown to be useful in treating symptoms and managing these ailments along
with hundreds more including glaucoma, chronic pain, ALS, Parkinson's,
epilepsy, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, migraines and Crohn's disease.

Ten U.S. states with 20 percent of the U.S. population now have working
medical marijuana laws that allow patients to cultivate, possess and use
medical cannabis. Is Wisconsin going to be the first of the remaining 40 or
the last?

Gary Storck Director of Communications Is My Medicine Legal YET?
www.immly.org