Pubdate: Sun, 07 May 2006
Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
Copyright: 2006 News-Journal Corporation
Contact:  http://www.news-journalonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/700
Note: gives priority to local writers
Author: Susan Igou
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n577/a05.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Re "FDA's reefer madness: Dismissing medicinal marijuana, with  
prejudice," May 1:

I thank The News-Journal for its accurate editorial on medicinal  
marijuana. Not many small papers have the courage to publish the  
truth about marijuana. I am a registered nurse and therefore know all  
the side effects of alcohol, and yet we still allow people to get  
drunk, drive and kill people. I spent many years detoxing people with  
alcohol problems but never anyone with a marijuana problem. Why then  
are so many people who have never experienced marijuana so quick to  
condemn it?

You can be arrested for having one joint on your person, but no one  
will ever be arrested for coming home from the liquor store carrying  
a case or more of booze. We all know someone who abuses alcohol and  
has serious medical problems associated with the abuse, but I bet not  
one reader knows a person who has medical problems created by marijuana.

It has some very real medicinal effects. It increases appetite,  
produces euphoria, and relieves pain and anxiety. Many chronic  
illnesses could benefit from these effects, yet the moral majority  
denies this drug to cancer patients, AIDS sufferers, and even those  
with an inflammatory arthritis like rheumatoid.

Why is this allowed when each year the Food and Drug Administration  
approves drugs that cause serious side effects and death? Think about  
this the next time a relative or friend must undergo chemotherapy or  
when your mother or dad develops an inflammatory arthritis.

SUSAN IGOU, New Smyrna Beach
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