POT, POLITICS AND INHUMANITY

Illinois lawmakers missed an opportunity that just might have
prolonged, and perhaps saved, the lives of some seriously ill
citizens. Instead, the state Senate's failure to legalize the use of
medical marijuana did just the opposite, dashing the hopes of some
terminally and seriously ill, their families and friends.

We had hoped lawmakers would at last abandon the hollow
law-and-order, anti-drug political arguments of opponents, especially
after the Senate Public Heallth Committee approved SB650. The bill
would have protected from arrest seriously ill pateitns who use
medical marijuana on their doctor's recommendation. Under the bill,
patients or their primary caregivers could legally possess up to 12
marijuana plants and 2.5 ounces of usable marijuana

If approved, Illinois would have joined 13 enlightened states who put
preserving public health before scoring political points. Courts,
then, can continue to sentence to jail the very ill who use medical
marijuana to improve their quality of life or to prolong it.

What a pity we can't sentence the 22 senators who voted against
medical marijuana to spend even a day in the wheelchair of AIDS
patient, vomiting life-saving medications because of nausea. Or maybe
they could walk a few miles in the shoes of Gretchen Steele, the
Coulterville nurse who has multiple sclerosis. She told lawmakers
last month, "I can tell you from firsthand experience that marijuana
works better to control the spasticity, neuropathic pain, and tremors
than do any of the myriad prescription medications that I currently
take. The fact that it is perfectly legal for my doctors to prescribe
morphine, OxyCodone, diazepam, hydrocodone, and other drugs that are
not only highly addictive but have many unpleasant side effects, yet
it remains illegal to recommend marijuana, is beyond reasoning."

Funny isn't it, that so many senators are so absolutely sure she and
other sufferers, and their doctors, don't know what they're talking
about.