Pubdate: Fri, 18 May 2007
Source: Dispatch, The (Moline, IL)
Copyright: 2007 Moline Dispatch Publishing Company, L.L.C.
Contact:  http://www.qconline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1306
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

POT, POLITICS AND INHUMANITY

Illinois lawmakers missed an opportunity that just  might have
prolonged, and perhaps saved, the lives of  some seriously ill
citizens. Instead, the state  Senate's failure to legalize the use of
medical  marijuana did just the opposite, dashing the hopes of  some
terminally and seriously ill, their families and  friends.

We had hoped lawmakers would at last abandon the hollow
law-and-order, anti-drug political arguments of  opponents, especially
after the Senate Public Heallth  Committee approved SB650. The bill
would have protected  from arrest seriously ill pateitns who use
medical  marijuana on their doctor's recommendation. Under the  bill,
patients or their primary caregivers could  legally possess up to 12
marijuana plants and 2.5  ounces of usable marijuana

If approved, Illinois would have joined 13 enlightened  states who put
preserving public health before scoring  political points. Courts,
then, can continue to  sentence to jail the very ill who use medical
marijuana  to improve their quality of life or to prolong it.

What a pity we can't sentence the 22 senators who voted  against
medical marijuana to spend even a day in the  wheelchair of AIDS
patient, vomiting life-saving  medications because of nausea. Or maybe
they could walk  a few miles in the shoes of Gretchen Steele, the
Coulterville nurse who has multiple sclerosis. She told  lawmakers
last month, "I can tell you from firsthand  experience that marijuana
works better to control the  spasticity, neuropathic pain, and tremors
than do any  of the myriad prescription medications that I currently
take. The fact that it is perfectly legal for my  doctors to prescribe
morphine, OxyCodone, diazepam,  hydrocodone, and other drugs that are
not only highly  addictive but have many unpleasant side effects, yet
it  remains illegal to recommend marijuana, is beyond  reasoning."

Funny isn't it, that so many senators are so absolutely  sure she and
other sufferers, and their doctors, don't  know what they're talking
about.
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MAP posted-by: Derek