BLESSING MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Several major religious denominations have joined a growing movement
to legalize the medical use of marijuana, asserting an ethical
responsibility to help ease the pain and other debilitating effects of
such diseases as cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma.

Such statements have come from the United Methodist Church, the Union
for Reform Judaism, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the
Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the
Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
and the United Church of Christ.

"According to our tradition, a physician is obligated to heal the
sick," begins a resolution adopted in November by the Union for Reform
Judaism. The statement acknowledges the medical use of marijuana as a
5,000-year-old tradition and encourages the federal government to
reclassify marijuana from a prohibited substance to a prescription
drug.

The denominations have called for a reassessment of penalties for
marijuana users trying to increase their appetites during chemotherapy
or alleviate chronic pain.

"We believe that seriously ill people should not be subject to arrest
and imprisonment for using medical marijuana with their doctors'
approval," asserted a Coalition for Compassionate Access statement
endorsed in 2002 by the United Church of Christ.

Although they support medicinal marijuana, some denominations still
reject its recreational use -- parting company with secular marijuana
lobbying groups that seek to decriminalize it.

"We urge all persons to abstain from the use of marijuana, unless it
has been legally prescribed in a form appropriate for treating a
medical condition," reads a statement approved last month at the
general conference of the United Methodist Church in Pittsburgh.

Significant opposition to medical marijuana comes from the Justice
Department, which enforces federal laws prohibiting cultivation and
distribution of marijuana, and the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy.