Eight months after her daughter's fatal heroin overdose, Joretta Hill contacted Amber Thompson's family to let them know they were not alone

Joretta Hill never had any doubt she would make the phone call. She had to.

The Thompsons were just starting to live her nightmare. They were grieving the death of their daughter, who died of a heroin overdose.

Hill knew a lot of the world would be ready to write her off as an addict who got what she deserved.

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Before approving any federal legalization of marijuana, it might be well to consider such questions as the following:

Companies, how would you like to be compelled to employ drug users whose use of marijuana makes them less productive and more often sick?

Workers, how would you like to be compelled to work with drug users whose marijuana use makes them open to various mental disorders?

Landlords, how would you like to be compelled to rent to mentally ill and sometimes violent marijuana users, who often steal to pay for their drugs?

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Two bills have been introduced in the Illinois Legislature intending to make legal the medicinal use of smoked marijuana. The companion bills, called the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, have been filed in both the Illinois House and Senate and are supported by a surprisingly large percentage of the Democratic caucuses in both chambers.

Legislative members, however, have been misinformed by supporters regarding both the effect the bills will have upon Illinois and the long-term motivations of the bill's supporters. Lobbyists are making no attempt to conceal their long-range goal for Illinois: cannabis legalization.

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As an HIV specialist, I treat patients who have neuropathic pain. Individual patients respond differently to medications, and it is therefore crucial for doctors to have as many safe and effective options as possible. This is why I think that a medical marijuana law is right for Illinois.

There is a great deal of evidence that marijuana can have therapeutic value in a wide range of circumstances, and I believe that doctors should be free -- indeed, should be encouraged and expected -- to recommend the treatment option they feel would be of most benefit to the individual patient.

It does not make sense for Illinois to use police resources to arrest and jail patients for using a medicine that can relieve suffering with a high degree of safety compared with addictive and side effect-prone prescription medications.

Roscoe Village

[end]

BLOOMINGTON -- "I have never used marijuana in any form," Scott Puckett said firmly. "I have never used anything not prescribed by my doctor."

Puckett, a 36-year-old former information technology communications analyst who wants to become a prosecutor, describes himself as a Republican with a strong Scotch-Protestant work ethic.

So even Puckett recognizes the irony of his position favoring the legalization of medical marijuana.

I never expected to find myself on this side of the issue," he said recently in his Bloomington apartment. "But why wouldn't anyone want to show mercy and compassion for cancer and AIDS patients?

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As someone with 40 years of legal experience, several of which were spent as a Cook County prosecutor, I find it unfortunate that a handful of law-enforcement lobbyists have claimed such a large stake in what is essentially a health-care issue: medical cannabis.

The reasons given by some law-enforcement lobbyists for opposing a medical marijuana law in Illinois are merely scare tactics designed to frighten legislators away from an issue that they should be embracing.

The claim that medical cannabis laws enacted to help the sick and dying will cause more youth to use marijuana is a mistaken view based upon the experience in the medical cannabis states.

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Opponents of the Illinois medical marijuana movement are taking potshots at its supporters.

The opponents are speaking out in response to several recent ads they're labeling "misinformation" as separate bills await their fate in the Illinois Senate and House.

"There are many casualties in the Marijuana Policy Project's campaign; the first is the truth," Dr. Andrea Barthwell, chief executive officer of the Human Resource Development Institute, said in a news release.

HRDI is one of the largest African-American behavioral health care organizations in the United States.

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The Illinois Senate is expected to vote on the medical cannabis bill -- SB 1381 -- next week. As a medical cannabis patient suffering from osteoarthritis and Dercum's disease, I don't just support this bill; I need it to become law.

I've advocated in support of this legislation for a couple of years now, and it saddens me when I hear an elected official say that he or she supports me in spirit, but can't vote for a bill that would protect me from arrest because of re-election concerns.

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Before accepting the notion that drug prohibitionists are rational people, we should remember that these are the individuals who have been throwing people in prison for decades because of laws based on racist fictions.

In 1934 Hearst newspapers nationwide wrote that "marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice."

In 1937, politician Harry Anslinger convinced Congress to make marijuana illegal, saying, "There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana can cause white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others." Federal Bureau of Narcotics Director Harry J. Anslinger issued a slew of racist condemnations of marijuana in the 1920s and 1930s. He said that "the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races," and "Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."

There is nothing reasonable and nothing honorable about enforcing a policy based on racial lies.

Ralph Givens

Former Waukegan resident

[end]

To the majority of Americans, a sane argument to continue caging responsible adults for using the relatively safe, socially acceptable, God-given plant cannabis doesn't exist (Opposing Views Clash Over Drugs, Apr. 24, 2009).

Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy advisor for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, would like to brainwash citizens into believing cannabis is a drug, using a derogatory term to perpetuate the farce. But hold some in your hand and you'll notice it's a plant. Plant. As in made by Christ God Our Father. The Ecologician indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants - saying they are all good - on literally the very first page of the Bible.

- - Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

In Illinois, people who suffer from cancer and smoke marijuana to stem their nausea, reduce their pain or improve their appetite -- well, those folks are criminals.

This must end, and fortunately a proposal before state lawmakers would bring much-needed common sense to the medical use of marijuana by legalizing it.

People ravaged with cancer or AIDS or other horrible illnesses don't smoke marijuana to get high.

They smoke pot to reduce the bone-shaking pain and the constant urge to vomit.

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The Illinois Senate could vote as early as next week on a bill that would allow patients who are seriously ill to use medical marijuana for treatment with a doctor's approval.

In a further attempt to get the bill passed, the Washington, D.C.-based group Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative claims to have obtained the support of more than 60 religious leaders statewide. In a list provided to the Sun-Times, the faiths range from Jewish and Methodist to Baptist and Roman Catholic. Several lead Chicago parishes.

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Medical marijuana could be headed to your living room.

The Marijuana Policy Project started airing commercials Tuesday promoting legislation in the General Assembly that would legalize marijuana for medicinal use.

The commercials depict two Illinois women who say they use marijuana to deal with painful medical conditions. They will air more than 100 times in the Chicago area, Peoria, Champaign, Decatur and Springfield. The campaign runs for a week.

The Senate is expected to vote on SB 1381 later this week or early next week. The bill would allow someone diagnosed with a debilitating medical1 condition to legally possess up to seven dried cannabis plants and 2 ounces of marijuana. Qualifying individuals would receive a registration card from the Illinois Department of Public Health that would allow them and their caregiver to obtain and possess the marijuana.

[end]

During a heated debate in Fisk Hall on Thursday, two experts could agree on only one point: Drug policy in the United States needs reform. About 40 students attended the discussion on drug policy in the United States sponsored by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws-Students for Sensible Drug Policy. The event was the culmination of Drug Week, which aimed to raise awareness on campus about drug policy.

Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy adviser for the Office of National Drug Control Policy under the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, advocated more effective law enforcement policies. The other debater was Jim Gierach, a semi-retired criminal defense attorney and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, who supported drug legalization.

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I'm a former police officer and stage-4 cancer survivor (colon, lymph, and liver), and I fully support the medical cannabis proposal now before the Illinois General Assembly.

When I was battling cancer, I used cannabis to help me through the debilitating nausea that otherwise rendered me nonfunctional. It was a godsend in its effectiveness. The decision to obtain and use medical cannabis illegally weighed heavily on me and is a situation that no patient who needs this medicine should ever have to face.

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Happy belated 4/20 from NU NORML-SSDP, Northwestern's home to the ever-growing drug policy reform movement. We hope that you enjoyed the day and played it safe so that you can join us this week as we present Drug Week here on campus. Every night, Monday through Thursday, we'll be hosting a different event to entertain and educate you about the harms of continuing the "War on Drugs." Like alcohol prohibition before it, drug prohibition only exacerbates the problems it hopes to solve, a topic we'll be discussing later this week. First, though, a little history of Monday's epic holiday:

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Two years after scaling back Wheaton's DARE program, city leaders are poised to eliminate the drug and alcohol prevention program.

As part of the 2009-10 budget the city council is expected to approve Monday, all funding for DARE - Drug Abuse Resistance Education - will be stopped.

If that change is approved, the Wheaton police officer who teaches the DARE curriculum in local elementary classrooms will be reassigned to patrol duties.

"The general consensus of the council is that it's desirable to have a police presence in the schools in some form, whether it's DARE or some other way," City Manager Don Rose said. "But the economic times are such that that's something difficult to support financially."

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I was one of the "masterminds" behind the importation and sale of approximately 75 tons of pot from Southeast Asia to the U.S. in 1986 and 1987. It was the culmination of a 20-year career as a drug smuggler, a deal that netted in excess of $180 million wholesale. And the only thing the government got out of those drug hauls was the sales tax from the cash my gang spent. There were, of course, some financial forfeitures once my gang was finally rounded up some years later. However, had rational minds prevailed over the past 70-plus years, the U.S. government would have reaped huge benefits from organizations like ours.

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"First Off, The Easiest Distinction To Be Drawn Is That There Is No Nicotine In Marijuana, Nor Is There Any THC In Tobacco, However, Many Of The Dangerous Components Are Found In Both." -Noah Conrad, Alcohol And Drug Interventionist For Student Health Ser

Though many people may see the potential benefit that the legalization of marijuana could provide to the economy, concerns over health effects from the use of the drug have prohibited many from supporting such actions.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, does not think that the drug poses a significant health threat to users.

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The State Journal-Register recently published two Chris Britt cartoons" in the March 25 and 27 editions offering his perspective on the relationship between illegal drug consumption and the social problems associated with the illegal drug trade.

Britt's cartoons jokingly imply that the character smoking a joint in his living room is responsible for guns and money flowing into Mexico, in exchange for drugs coming back across the border. Britt's cartoon ignores the fact that U.S. drug policies have created an environment in which marijuana that costs about $10 per ounce to produce, can sell for as much as $1,000 per ounce in America. These policies have created the most lucrative black market the world has ever known.

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