Pubdate: Wed, 13 Mar 2013
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2013 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: William Smith, Baltimore
Page: 16

MEDICAL MARIJUANA COMES TO MD. - 10 YEARS TOO LATE

It's nice the governor is dropping his opposition to the medical 
marijuana law now being considered by the legislature. It would have 
been an important first step if this were 2003 ("O'Malley 
administration backs medical marijuana bill," March 8).

However, it's 2013, and Maryland is once again behind the curve. The 
front lines in the battle between big government and individual 
rights are being waged in Colorado and Washington state, where state 
governments have the courage to listen to a majority of the 
electorate rather than to the big pharmaceutical companies and their 
million-dollar bribes. But perhaps I'm being too cynical.

At least Maryland is finally going to join the 18 states and the 
District of Columbia that have at least enacted some sort of reform. 
And anyone doubting the efficacy of medical marijuana can go look up 
the double blind, placebo-controlled study just published in this 
month's The Journal of Pain, conducted at the prestigious University 
of California at Davis, which found reductions in pain comparable to 
the opiates for all varieties of marijuana tested.

So when you start getting the letters of condemnation from Drug 
Enforcement Administration agents, members of the police/prison 
industrial complex and, of course, the random "experts" from the 
government (who are really just paid hacks for Big Pharma), remember 
this latest study that proves their objections to be just as 
dishonest as the "campaign contributions" they've been using to keep 
politicians doing their bidding all these years.

William Smith, Baltimore
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom