LIGHTEN UP ON MARIJUANA

To the editor:

As momentum builds behind the movement to legalize marijuana for medicinal
uses nationwide, Indiana has shown no progress in granting physicians and
patients the right to use one of the safest therapeutic substances known to
man.

Nine states currently have medicinal marijuana legislation, with two more
bills pending in Maryland and Vermont. A federal court last week overturned
a law preventing the District of Columbia from enacting their medicinal
marijuana ballot initiative that passed with 69 percent of the popular vote
in 1998. Canada has legalized medicinal use nationwide. Personal use has
been fully decriminalized in Great Britain, Switzerland, and several other
European countries. The FDA has even approved Marinol, a synthetic THC
pharmaceutical, indicating that the most active cannabinoid in marijuana is
effective at treating AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, anorexia, and
chronic pain. Unfortunately, Marinol is too strong psychoactively to be
practical for regular use.

Smoked or vaporized marijuana, on the other hand, is very practical, and
has been used for centuries all over the world. But instead of
self-administering a natural herb in the privacy of their own home to
alleviate suffering, arrest and imprisonment are two side effects that have
forced many patients to use less effective and less healthy alternatives.
Police officers, prosecutors, and legislators: stop punishing the ill,
listen to scientific evidence, and legalize and/or decriminalize medicinal
marijuana in Indiana.

Dustin Sulak