Pubdate: Sat, 28 Mar 2015
Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN)
Copyright: 2015 Chattanooga Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/992
Note: Paper does not publish LTE's outside its circulation area

TENNESSEE SHOULD MOVE AHEAD ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Medical marijuana will soon be legal in Georgia, and that's a good thing.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Friday signed the hard-fought bill that 
was two years in the making. Now state agencies will prepare to 
implement it. The Peach State becomes one of 24 states plus 
Washington, D.C., to legalize marijuana for certain medical uses.

The Georgia House voted 160-1 to approve a Senate compromise. The 
bill originally made people with nine medical conditions eligible for 
treatment with cannabis oil that has a minimal level of 
tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical that makes pot users feel 
high. The compromise deleted one illness - fibromyalgia. The 
remaining eight conditions are seizure disorders, sickle cell anemia, 
cancer, Crohn's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis, 
mitochondrial disease and Parkinson's disease.

A medical marijuana bill was expected to be introduced this week in 
Tennessee, but politicians and even lobbyists have suddenly gone 
quiet in the Volunteer State. Perhaps next week, some politicians 
suggested. The measure is expected to allow cannabis to be ingested 
or applied externally through oil, or its vapors used like an asthma 
inhaler. It's aim is to help people with conditions such as cancer, 
HIV glaucoma or MS, but "not those with chronic pain or PTSD." A 
lobbyist told reporters that the bill will be crafted "so conditions 
can't be faked or gamed."

It's too bad - actually cruel - that so many Tennessee lawmakers 
appear to have such cold feet.

Medical marijuana can be grown to accentuate medical cures and lower 
or even eliminate the "high" of ordinary pot.

Plenty of medications already on the market are far more harmful than 
medical marijuana. It is cruel and foolish not to use for good 
purpose what nature and improving research and technology has given us.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom