Pubdate: Fri, 17 Jun 2005
Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC)
Copyright: 2005 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.charleston.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567
Cited: Gonzales v. Raich ( www.angeljustice.org/ )
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)

MERCY AND MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The debate over medical marijuana's legality inevitably carries Drug War 
overtones. Certainly no responsible or persuasive appeal for allowing the 
medicinal use of marijuana should be confused with an appeal for removing 
all legal prohibitions against that drug. But neither does any reasonable 
assessment of marijuana's dangers support depriving the terminally ill and 
glaucoma patients from its use as a prescription drug under a doctor's care.

The terminally ill often suffer chronic pain that can be eased only by such 
powerful drugs as morphine. In many cases, however, smoking marijuana is 
said to ease that suffering in an even more effective manner. Attempts to 
deliver an equal degree of pain alleviation through methods other than 
smoking by creating a synthetic form of THC, the active ingredient in 
marijuana, have failed.

Ten states have legalized marijuana for medical use in restricted, 
prescription-only circumstances. But last week, the U.S. Supreme Court 
ruled that because of the federal prohibition, the federal government could 
prosecute medical marijuana users in those states.

That means states can't regain the right to set their own medical-marijuana 
policies without an act of Congress. Unfortunately, on Wednesday the U.S. 
House of Representatives, by a 264-161 vote, rejected an amendment that 
would have blocked Justice Department prosecutions of such cases.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., sounding a tired, old theme, opposed the 
amendment on the grounds that marijuana "can increase the risk of serious 
mental health problems, and in teens, marijuana use can lead to depression, 
thoughts of suicide and schizophrenia."

But as a letter on this page points out, other drugs that have long been 
prescribed for the terminally ill have serious side effects of their own. 
Granting those in intense physical torment access to morphine but not to 
the comparatively mild alternative of marijuana is a cruel contradiction of 
logic -- and a blatant denial of mercy. Any risk that some Americans would 
take improper advantage of medical marijuana's legality is dwarfed by the 
relief it would grant to those who desperately need it.

Being "tough on drugs" shouldn't require being tough on the terminally ill. 
The public increasingly recognizes that common-sense concept. So should 
Congress.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom