Pubdate: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) Copyright: 2004 Sun-Sentinel Company Contact: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159 Author: Bill Broadway, The Washington Post Cited: Coalition for Compassionate Access http://www.compassionateaccess.org/ Cited: Office of National Drug Control Policy http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) BLESSING MEDICAL MARIJUANA Several major religious denominations have joined a growing movement to legalize the medical use of marijuana, asserting an ethical responsibility to help ease the pain and other debilitating effects of such diseases as cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma. Such statements have come from the United Methodist Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ. "According to our tradition, a physician is obligated to heal the sick," begins a resolution adopted in November by the Union for Reform Judaism. The statement acknowledges the medical use of marijuana as a 5,000-year-old tradition and encourages the federal government to reclassify marijuana from a prohibited substance to a prescription drug. The denominations have called for a reassessment of penalties for marijuana users trying to increase their appetites during chemotherapy or alleviate chronic pain. "We believe that seriously ill people should not be subject to arrest and imprisonment for using medical marijuana with their doctors' approval," asserted a Coalition for Compassionate Access statement endorsed in 2002 by the United Church of Christ. Although they support medicinal marijuana, some denominations still reject its recreational use -- parting company with secular marijuana lobbying groups that seek to decriminalize it. "We urge all persons to abstain from the use of marijuana, unless it has been legally prescribed in a form appropriate for treating a medical condition," reads a statement approved last month at the general conference of the United Methodist Church in Pittsburgh. Significant opposition to medical marijuana comes from the Justice Department, which enforces federal laws prohibiting cultivation and distribution of marijuana, and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake