Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jul 2005
Source: Daily Iowan, The (IA Edu)
Copyright: 2005 The Daily Iowan
Contact:  http://www.dailyiowan.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/937
Author: Tim Knab
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

MARIJUANA HELPS THE ILL

Women in their teens and early 20s are currently and actively being 
prescribed questionable - possibly fatal - synthetically medicated patches. 
Clinics are prescribing them, and pharmaceutical companies are making money 
from their manufacture,distribution, and use - legally. Meanwhile, people 
who are terminally ill or have no hope for recovery are prescribed massive 
amounts of pain medications and synthetically derived opiates.

Something seems so backwards about young women dying from mystery drugs 
made by big companies, and elderly people munching down pills, while a 
plant with proven medical benefits, proven health benefits, something that 
has been used for thousands of years by so many cultures - including our 
own (hemp) - is illegal. The attempt for its legalization - by thousands of 
Iowa City citizens - is belittled and discredited.

There is something wrong with fatal drugs being legally prescribed and 
profited from, while naturally occurring medicines that have less harmful 
effects on the body are illegal. There is something wrong with old women 
high on oxycodone and hydrocodone, or finding Grandma's medicine cabinet 
full of codeine while she has a destroyed liver. I worked in an 
oncologist's office and have never before seen so many 
disoriented,suffering adults.

Our nation's drug policy is backwards and influenced by large 
pharmaceutical corporations. Politicians, doctors, and pharmaceutical 
companies all make lots of money, while those in pain suffer financially, 
physically, and emotionally. The public needs to continue educating itself 
about the truths behind medicinal marijuana so that those in pain and those 
with nothing else can get help from something other than a bottle full of 
pills or patches. Anyone with a logical mind can see that pharmaceuticals, 
especially in the quantity in which they are produced, are far more 
damaging than a medication older than their great-great-grandparents.

Tim Knab
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MAP posted-by: Beth