LEGALIZE PAIN RELIEF FOR CANCER PATIENTS

Give state Rep. Gregg Underheim credit for courage and compassion. The
Oshkosh Republican has broken with party leaders to endorse marijuana
for cancer pain relief - a position that makes more sense every day.

Underheim changed his mind the hard way: through a battle with
prostate cancer. It was while he was waiting for test results that
would show whether the cancer had spread (it had not) that he started
thinking about chemotherapy patients, and how many claim the use of
marijuana combats chemo's attendant nausea and loss of appetite.

Underheim knows the odds are stacked against him. The State Medical
Society opposes medicinal marijuana, arguing that its medical efficacy
has not been proven and that there are legal ways for cancer patients
to obtain marijuana's active ingredients without smoking a joint.

However, anecdotal evidence from patients who've tried synthetic
marijuana say it doesn't work as well as old-fashioned Maui wowie. If
there is insufficient evidence whether marijuana works, the medical
community is at least partly to blame for not pushing the government
to conduct comprehensive tests. It's not as if this is a new issue.

Underheim is right that "the public is much more comfortable with this
than policy makers are now." Wisconsin policy makers are behind the
times. Ten states have already approved the use of medical marijuana
for patients suffering from terminal illnesses and certain other
debilitating diseases; it's time Wisconsin took the same small step
toward easing pain and suffering.

Federal drug authorities are fighting the medicinal marijuana
movement. The feds argue the state medical marijuana laws interfere
with enforcement of federal drug laws. However, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled recently that the feds cannot punish doctors for recommending
marijuana to their ill patients.

Other Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin should show the same courage
and compassion as Underheim, and agree to co-sponsor his bill. The
medical marijuana issue deserves a public hearing and, given the lack
of alternative treatment for patients, prompt legislative passage.