SENATOR ADVOCATES LEGAL MEDICAL MARIJUANA

State Senator Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, will try to legalize medical
marijuana next year.

If he succeeds, Tennessee will join a handful of states that have legalized
the drug for medical purposes. Eleven states have passed medical marijuana
laws, according to NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws.

Passing a medical marijuana law won't be easy. If newly elected senator Jim
Tracy, R-Shelbyville, has anything to say about it, Cohen's bill doesn't
have a prayer.

"I wouldn't be for it, at all," Tracy said. He wants to see the details of
Cohen's proposal, but he generally opposes medical marijuana. There are
already prescription pain relief drugs available, he said, so patients
don't need marijuana.

Tyler Smith, vice president of MTSU's Raider Republicans, echoed his
sentiments.

"I don't agree with medical marijuana," Smith said. He harbors serious
doubts about the state's ability to control the drug. If Tennessee can't
even administer TennCare effectively, he said, how can it expect to
regulate marijuana?

"I think there are alternatives out there," he said. "I don't see why
anyone would need to step out and use marijuana."

Bobby Bush, vice president of the College Democrats, said marijuana should
be an option for seriously ill patients.

"The decision to use marijuana as opposed to other pain medications is a
decision to be made between a doctor and a patient, not a politician," he
said. He believes that opposition to medical marijuana is based on "moral
values" and "gets in the way of decisions between doctors and patients."

Lynn Parsons, director of MTSU's school of nursing, supports medical marijuana.

"As long as it is physician supervised, I am for it," she said. The people
who would use the drug, such as cancer patients, endure tremendous pain,
she said. "We should do anything we can to alleviate their suffering."

According to Parsons, prescription pain medications, including marijuana,
all have advantages and disadvantages. The side effects of pain medications
like Fentanyl and Oxycodone can cause "profound respiratory distress, " and
marijuana users could experience hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.

In addition to pain relief, marijuana is prescribed to chemotherapy
patients for nausea suppression and AIDS patients for appetite stimulation.