Pubdate: Sun, 02 Jan 2005
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Note: Does not publish letters outside its daily home delivery circulation
area.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Cited: AARP http://www.aarp.org
Cited: AARP magazine http://www.aarpmagazine.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/AARP

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The baby-boom generation, which brought marijuana use into public view
in the 1960s, still thinks that smoking weed is OK - at least for
medicinal purposes.

They're right.

A survey conducted for the AARP found that almost three-fourths of
older Americans think that marijuana should be a legal medical therapy.

Advocates of legalized medical marijuana use say that it can relieve
nausea and vomiting related to AIDS and cancer therapies, and that it
is a useful therapy against anorexia, arthritis, chronic pain,
epilepsy, glaucoma, migraines and multiple sclerosis. There is no
scientific evidence to prove these claims, however.

That lack of scientific evidence stems directly from the federal
government's unwillingness to allow scientists to study medicinal
marijuana. There is anecdotal evidence that THC, the psychoactive
chemical in marijuana, achieves these medicinal goals. The Canadian
health service has just begun a study to gather scientific evidence on
the question. Medical marijuana use is legal, but controlled, in Canada.

The U.S. government's determination to stop medicinal marijuana use
borders on the obsessive and illogical. The Bush administration is
fighting 11 states that have approved, in many cases by referendum,
the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Among those states are
Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada and Montana, all Western states
known for their dislike of government intervention in private lives
and for their conservative politics.

The states will tell the U.S. Supreme Court that the feds have no
authority to interfere with state-approved medicinal marijuana use.
This is the correct constitutional stand. This is an issue of states'
rights, not national drug control or interstate commerce. If a state
approves medicinal marijuana, the federal government should stay out.
If a state's program allows recreational use of the drug, or sends it
into interstate commerce, a federal role is justified.

It is clear that politics, not medical logic, drives the federal
crusade against medicinal marijuana. If made a prescription drug, it
could be controlled just like any other. Nothing about marijuana makes
it more dangerous as a prescription therapy than other drugs.

The Supreme Court won't rule on the effectiveness of marijuana as a
drug. It will have to rely on the Constitution to settle this issue.
If the court reads that document correctly, a great many Americans
will have a new, and possibly very effective, pain remedy.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin