MARIJUANA SHOULD BE LEGALIZED FOR MEDICINAL USE

Marijuana should be legalized for medicinal use because it provides
many suffering patients relief that they do not get from other
medications.

Granted, there are serious possible side effects, including dependency
and impairment of memory, concentration and motor coordination.

However, many legally prescribed sedatives, painkillers, cough
suppressants and tranquilizers have similar and other serious and
undesirable effects. If unintended harmful effects are not reason
enough to prohibit the use of codeine, morphine and other beneficial
drugs, why should similar effects be reason to prohibit marijuana?

Perhaps it is because marijuana is also used as a recreational drug,
and many people associate its use with lifestyles that do not conform
to traditionally acceptable norms.

But marijuana should not be denied to patients who need it just
because some use it for recreation.

It is inhumane to allow a patient to suffer when there is an available
drug that can alleviate his or her symptoms.

Whether the potential harm of a drug outweighs the benefits should not
be determined by the government. That decision is best left to
physician and patient.

Elaine Bind,

Pikesville