PRESCRIPTION FOR PAIN

A dozen states are already bucking the federal government and giving
the chronically ill access to medical marijuana. Now residents of New
York and Connecticut who are ill or dying may soon have that chance to
find relief from their pain or nausea.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell has a bill awaiting her signature -- one
she should sign quickly to allow those with "debilitating medical
conditions" to obtain marijuana for "palliative use." And earlier this
week, Gov. Eliot Spitzer suddenly gave the issue a boost when he said
that he has changed his mind about the usefulness of marijuana for
relief of chronic illnesses. Before he was thinking as a prosecutor,
he explained. Now he says he is open to signing a bill "if it is
properly structured."

Fellow Democrats in New York's Assembly quickly passed a bill similar
to laws already in place in other states. Assemblyman Richard
Gottfried of Manhattan, the bill's key sponsor, acknowledges the whole
concept is not perfect. For one thing, the federal government views
marijuana as an illegal substance and presumably could prosecute any
official or even unofficial trafficking of the drug. Like other
states, the legislation in New York and Connecticut would seek to make
it legal for a doctor to prescribe -- and for a patient to smoke or
ingest -- a limited amount of marijuana to ease pain or nausea or
other chronic conditions like glaucoma. How the patient or caregiver
manages to fill that prescription falls in an unfortunate gray zone.

Although there are other prescriptions that are designed to relieve
pain and nausea and there is concern about the health effects of
smoking marijuana, there are some truly ill people who find peace only
that way. This is not about rampaging abuse of narcotics; this is
about a humane way to relieve pain. As one sufferer told The Daily
News, "If they can prescribe a morphine drip, why not marijuana?" That
is a good question for the states, and someday, if they are ever brave
enough, the Congress.