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GOVERNOR SHOULD SIGN MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

To the Editor:

As the deadline nears for Gov.  Ehrlich to decide whether or not to sign Marylandis medical marijuana bill, I am dismayed that he is receiving pressure to veto this modest first step toward protecting our weakest citizens.  This bill will not legalize marijuana for anyone.  It will give patients who are arrested the right to tell the whole truth in court.  Further, it will allow judges to exercise common sense when sentencing these sick and dying people for their icrime.i Crohnis Disease used to leave me bedridden.  In spite of prescriptions for dozens of dangerous drugs like Demerol, and even surgical treatments, I found little relief without devastating side effects.  Fortunately, I discovered that marijuana was not only safe, but the only effective medicine I had ever tried.  Medical marijuana gave me back my life.  But I was left with an unacceptable dilemma o take my medicine and risk arrest, or burden my family by remaining disabled.  No one should be forced to make such a choice!

As a mother of five, I am concerned about reducing the chance that my children might ever abuse any drugs.  My kids have no trouble understanding that itis not okay to abuse marijuana, just as itis not okay to abuse Demerol.  They cannot understand, however, why their mom could be jailed for taking her medicine.

At a time when our state budget is stretched perilously thin, the very least we can do is to stop wasting our tax dollars by jailing people for taking medicine.  To continue this practice would not only be financially irresponsible, it would be obscene!

Please call the governor today at ( 410 ) 974-3591, and ask him to sign the medical marijuana bill.

Mrs.  Erin Hildebrandt

Smithsburg