Pubdate: Sun, 12 Apr 2015
Source: Patriot-News, The (PA)
Copyright: 2015 The Patriot-News
Contact: http://www.pennlive.com/mailforms/patriotletters/
Website: http://www.pennlive.com/patriotnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1630
Author: Charlie Gerow

THERE'S NO DEBATE - IT'S TIME TO MAKE MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGAL IN
PA.

Several years ago Tony May and I wrote a side-by-side column in
support of medical marijuana.

At the time I mused that agreeing with Daylin Leach, one of the most
liberal legislators, should cause me to re-think my position.

That was before state Sen. Mike Folmer, one of the legislature's most
conservative members, added his strong support to Leach's proposals.

A lot has happened since then. Support for the legalization has grown
across the commonwealth and within the General Assembly.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll says that 88 percent of
Pennsylvanians support the legalization of marijuana for medical use.
Eighty-eight percent! You'd have a hard time getting 88 percent
support for motherhood or apple pie.

Yet marijuana remains illegal in Pennsylvania, even for medical
purposes. With the support that exists everywhere you have to wonder
what the roadblock is.

I suffer with glaucoma. I've already lost a frightening percentage of
my eyesight. My condition is currently controlled with daily dosages
of eye drops. If that should fail, I sure as heck would want every
therapy available to me, including marijuana.

Of course there are many illnesses much more debilitating than
glaucoma that can be treated with marijuana, from Alzheimer's to
fibromyalgia to HIV/AIDS to cancer. Many people with conditions far
worse than mine are asking for the right to use marijuana legally.

Listening to the parents of kids with cancer and other horrible
diseases pleading for the right to use medical marijuana to ease their
children's suffering is heartbreaking.

You have to ask, "Why are they not allowed to try something that could
ease their burden even a little bit?"

Many in the medical community are also asking for legalization of
marijuana for medical use.

Years ago, a National Institutes of Health panel concluded that
smoking marijuana could help treat a number of chronic conditions
including pain and nausea. It could also help people who failed to
respond to other remedies the study said.

In one older survey, more than 70 percent of U.S. cancer specialists
said they would prescribe marijuana if it were legal.

Nearly half of those interviewed said they had already recommended
that their patients break the law to use marijuana.

Sanjay Gupta, CNN's medical guru and a well-renowned neurosurgeon,
once spoke out against legalization of marijuana for medical purposes.

But two years ago he wrote a piece entitled, "Why I changed my mind on
weed," in which he apologized for his earlier stand.

His further research, he said, had convinced him that he was simply
wrong. He discussed the anti-cancer effects of marijuana and cited
another study in which 76 percent of the physicians surveyed said they
would approve the use of marijuana to help ease the pain of a woman
suffering from breast cancer.

Medical marijuana is legal in about half the states. The largest state
in the union, California, made it legal by popular vote nearly two
decades ago.

In the intervening years none of the "scare" issues raised during the
referendum has manifest themselves.

As the New York Times reported, "Warnings against partial legalization
- -- of civil disorder, increased lawlessness and a drastic rise in
other use -- have proved unfounded."

Support for legalization now runs exceptionally high (no pun intended)
across every demographic. Although some once called it a "liberal"
position, that characterization isn't altogether historically accurate.

William F. Buckley, the godfather of modern conservatism and the
founder of National Review, argued for the legalization of medical
marijuana (and marijuana in general for that matter). Another National
Review icon, Richard Brookhiser, used marijuana (not legally at the
time) when he battled cancer.

His testimony in favor of medical usage of marijuana before the House
Judiciary Committee sums up my own thoughts: "My support for medical
marijuana is not a contradiction of my principles, but an extension of
them. I am for law and order. But crime has to be fought intelligently
and the law disgraces itself when it harasses the sick.

"I am for traditional virtues, but carrying your beliefs to unjust
ends is not moral, it is philistine.

Most importantly, I believe in getting government off people's backs.
We should include the backs of sick people trying to help
themselves."

With the support of so many, hopefully it's only a matter of brief
time before the General Assembly moves and the governor signs
legislation to make medical marijuana legal.

Charlie Gerow is CEO of Quantum Communications, a Harrisburg-based
public affairs firm.
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MAP posted-by: Matt