MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Back in the 1980s, a common-sense proposal to require commercial trucks to
cover their loads, a precaution mainly against the sand and gravel that
bounced out of trucks on Maryland roads and cracked the windshields of
other vehicles with alarming regularity, took years to get through the
Maryland General Assembly.

After a great deal of shouting and screaming and delaying, the proposal
finally made it.

Maybe the same will be the case with another common-sense proposal:
allowing the medical use of marijuana in Maryland.

For the third consecutive year, Del. Donald Murphy, a Baltimore County
Republican (of all things), is proposing that the state legalize marijuana
for people who suffer from certain debilitating medical conditions.

A similar bill died in a House committee two years ago and in a Senate
committee last year. This year, the bill has 53 sponsors (three times as
many as last year), the support of most Marylanders, according to surveys,
and the precedent of eight other states that already allow the medical use
of marijuana and have not run afoul of federal prosecutors concerned about
federal laws against marijuana.

The proposal also got a lot of support at a hearing this week in the
Maryland House. But all of this backing doesn't guarantee success in
Annapolis, where archaic thinking and powerful lobbyists (remember covered
trucks) can doom even the most logical proposals.

Someday, we are certain, medical marijuana will be allowed in Maryland, as
it should be. Sooner rather than later would be nice.