MEDICAL POT: DETROIT HAS IMPORTANT VOTE AHEAD ON ISSUE

Detroit voters will enter the national debate over legalizing the
medical use of marijuana in August, when the issue will be on the
city's primary ballot. The idea of permitting physicians to recommend
the drug to relieve chronic pain, reduce nausea, restore appetite and
treat multiple sclerosis and glaucoma makes sense.

Make no mistake, marijuana is a drug that can have harmful side
effects. But so do many prescription drugs, including the painkillers
Vicodin and OxyContin, to say nothing of legal drugs like alcohol and
nicotine.

The fact that a drug can be abused does not mean physicians shouldn't
be allowed to prescribe it when the benefits to a suffering patient
outweigh the potential harm. A doctor trying to alleviate the pain
suffered by a cancer or brain tumor patient should not have to fear
getting busted by police officers or federal drug agents.

The Bush administration has doggedly opposed the medical use of
marijuana, fighting state laws that permit it. But the courts have
increasingly ruled that the federal government is overstepping its
authority in overriding such laws. In December, a federal appeals
court in California affirmed the right of seriously ill patients to
use and obtain medical marijuana. The medical use of marijuana has
been approved in nine states, including California and Maine, and also
in Canada.

Providing the law is properly crafted, approving the use of medical
marijuana in Detroit would allow local doctors to alleviate
unnecessary suffering, and it would take the nation a step closer to a
more enlightened and humane drug policy.