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MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL WOULD BE TRIBUTE TO CHERYL

Thanks for Jim Miller's impassioned letter about the struggles he and his late wife Cheryl underwent in trying to manage her multiple sclerosis -- "Medical marijuana bill pending introduction" on Dec.  1. 

I was among the attendees at a candlelight vigil memorial for Cheryl at the U.S.  Supreme Court last September, which concluded with Jim asking the hundred or so folks gathered to shout, "We love you, Cheryl," toward the court building in front of us. 

The sound came echoing back through a misty D.C.  night toward the U.S.  Capitol across the street. 

Fifteen months later, it is fitting that medical marijuana is both before the U.S.  Supreme Court and awaiting introduction in New Jersey's Legislature. 

Hopefully the court will finally put an end to this decidedly un-American practice of withholding medicine from sick people by force. 

Now it is up to New Jersey lawmakers to act with urgency to ensure Cheryl's sacrifices were not in vain and that there is hope for those suffering today. 

Some sources report Assembly Majority Leader Joe Roberts, D-5th, will not allow the medical marijuana bill to move until the needle exchange bill is passed. 

If this is true, Roberts ought to be ashamed. 

While needle exchange has its merits, it is a completely different issue, and to hold sick and dying New Jerseyans health hostage for political reasons is an insult to anyone who has ever faced serious illness or cared for someone who has. 

Gary Storck

Wisconsin