CANCER PATIENTS, OTHERS NEED MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Editor, the Tribune:
I am writing as a grandmother and mother of two daughters, and I support
the marijuana ordinance. We have learned that the same number of people in
society will use marijuana no matter whether the punishment for possession
is a 10-year prison sentence or a small fine. We know this because a third
of our country already gives small fines for marijuana. Use will stay the
same under the proposed law, so one cannot truthfully say that the proposal
encourages marijuana use. Young people do not consult our law books before
deciding to use marijuana. They do, however, remember the warnings parents
teach them about drugs.

Every current survey indicates that an overwhelming majority of Americans
believe that medical marijuana should be legal. Now is the time to stand up
for cancer patients and others who need medical marijuana to improve the
quality of their lives - and sometimes to save their lives when legal drugs
do not work.

I resent the claim that the medical marijuana provision was included as a
sneaky way to gain more votes. Our police do not have the time to arrest
medical marijuana patients and pot smokers when there are murderers,
rapists, child molesters and other violent criminals at large. This
ordinance is about patients' rights and making our streets safer, rather
than helping students evade consequences. It is time we correct our laws
that waste valuable police resources and time and unnecessarily harass the
lives of so many people.

Name withheld upon request