WILL GOOD MEDICINE GO UP IN SMOKE?

As citizens of a free country, most Americans doubtless view the government
as supportive of patients' rights and of innovative medical treatments. And
this is largely a good view, unless your doctor believes that the best
medicine for you is marijuana, in which case the only thing you'll receive
from the federal government is jail time and a criminal record.

There is, however, hope of change on the horizon.

This October, Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) will introduce the Truth in
Trials Act in the Senate. For the first time ever, Congress will entertain
a bill proposing a federal law to recognize the validity of state medical
marijuana laws.

The claim that marijuana has no medicinal value is an illegitimate one.
Marijuana can limit the muscle pain and spasticity caused by multiple
sclerosis. It can alleviate pain and can retard - and sometimes, even halt
- - the progress of glaucoma, which is the leading cause of blindness in the
United States. Marijuana can also be used to treat AIDS, cancer, epilepsy
and chronic pain.

All of these applications have been deemed legitimate by at least one
court, legislature and/or governmental agency in the United States. At
least two states, in fact, have legalized the use of marijuana for medical
purposes. Unfortunately, due to the federal prohibitions against marijuana,
people who need this substance for medical reasons have one of two options:
to continue to suffer from the ailment, perhaps attempting to alleviate
their symptoms through some other drug or procedure, or to obtain and use
marijuana and risk federal criminal charges.

Prior to 1937, at least 27 medicines containing marijuana were legally
available in the United States. That year, however, the federal government
began to regulate the use of marijuana by a series of laws. Through the
Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, it increased the penalty for the use of
marijuana by adding another federal count (failure to pay the marijuana
tax) onto the charges against anyone who possessed or sold marijuana.

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 placed all illicit and prescription
drugs into five categories called schedules.

Marijuana was labeled a Schedule 1 drug, which is defined as one that has a
high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medicinal use, and a lack
of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. This is a vastly
erroneous classification for a drug that in reality has multiple medical
uses and that has never caused a death from overdose.

Court battles over the medical use of marijuana have raged since the
passage of the Act. In 1972, a petition was submitted to the Bureau of
Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, now known as the Drug Enforcement Agency,
requesting that the classification of marijuana be rescheduled and that it
be available by prescription. After sixteen years of courts wrangling over
the issues, the DEA's chief administrative law judge, Francis Young, ruled
that, "It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the DEA to
continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this
substance...."

But top DEA officials rejected Young's ruling and refused to reschedule
marijuana. In 1994, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the DEA is allowed
to reject its judge's ruling and set its own standards; this ruling enabled
the DEA to keep marijuana in Schedule 1 and deny patients its medical benefits.

However, Congress has the power to override the DEA and to reschedule
marijuana through its own legislation. This is why it is so important that
Sen. Durbin's Truth in Trials Act pass. This act would create an
affirmative defense for those patients and caregivers who are using medical
marijuana in accordance with state laws. It is wrong to harass and arrest
people who are fighting for their lives simply because they resort to a
treatment that they and their doctors find effective.

A Pew Research poll conducted in February 2001 found that 73 percent of
American adults supported permitting doctors to prescribe marijuana for
their patients.

It is time for the federal government to catch up to the American public
and change the draconian drug policy that has plagued this nation for too
long. The federal government should be in the business of supporting those
with illnesses, not of adding to their burdens.