cannabisnews.com: Medical Use of Marijuana: Humane, Sensible





Medical Use of Marijuana: Humane, Sensible
Posted by CN Staff on September 10, 2004 at 08:54:50 PT
Editorial Opinion
Source: Press of Atlantic City
Legalizing the medical use of marijuana is not really a liberal issue or a conservative issue. It's an issue about injecting some compassion - and rationality - into the nation's emotionally and politically charged war on drugs.The fact that two state legislators, one from the left and one the right, have joined forces to support legalizing medical marijuana in New Jersey underscores that fact.
Both have been touched by personal experiences involving friends or relatives who died painfully from cancer. And both rightly believe that the government should not come between a doctor and a patient, nor make criminals out of terminally ill people seeking relief.Marijuana has a legitimate medical use in easing pain and, particularly, in easing the nausea and loss of appetite that comes from cancer treatments.Assemblymen Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris, and Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton, plan to introduce a bill this fall that would set up a registry of patients whose doctors recommend marijuana to ease the symptoms of certain specific medical conditions - such as cancer and multiple sclerosis. Those people would not be prosecuted for using marijuana for that condition.New Jersey would be wise to join the nine other states that have passed similar laws.Of course, these state laws can only shield patients from state prosecution. The medical use of marijuana is still illegal under federal law. But the vast majority of arrests come under state law.Moreover, states are sending out the message to the federal government that the war on drugs can not be blind to the legitimate use of drugs in easing suffering. The federal law should be changed as well - and if enough states pass their own laws, perhaps federal lawmakers will gather the courage to take up the issue. "There is no such thing as an evil plant," Carroll said.Of course there isn't. Consider the poppy - which can be used to make codeine and morphine, both used for medicinal purposes, but can also be used to make heroin.Our war on drugs has, at times, blinded us to the fact that drugs can be used as well as abused. And that it is not only wrongheaded but cruel to deny people in pain the drugs that might help because we fear abuse. Those kinds of efforts become downright irrational in the cases of terminally ill patients. We urge local legislators to support the Carroll/Gusciora bill. It's a sensible, compassionate measure. And it sets up a mechanism that ensures that marijuana willbe used only by those with specific medical conditions with a doctor's recommendation."Physicians should be allowed to prescribe drugs as they see fit," Carroll said. "The less time we spend telling people what to do, the better."Spoken like a true conservative.Source: Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ)Published: September 9, 2004Copyright: 2004 South Jersey Publishing Co.Contact: letters pressofac.comWebsite: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Cheryl Hearthttp://www.cherylheart.org/Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmAssemblymen Seeks To Legalize Med Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19459.shtmlLegalize Medical Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19457.shtmlMedical Marijuana Use Has Bipartisan Support http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19420.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by Max Flowers on September 12, 2004 at 08:45:26 PT
That's right Mr. Zuckerman
Most of the time, those (natural laws and rights) are the only laws I pay any heed to. My own moral compass works fine and gets me through all situations. Federal government needs to recede far more to the background, get out of people's private lives completely, and only be involved in matters of major national logistics (transportation, etc).I think one huge problem we have is that our current incarnation of federal government has no concept of the demarcation between private life and public matters. MOST matters are local or state matters and all of that is what the feds need to get their noses out of.Another problem we have is that we have many hundreds of thousands (millions perhaps?) of people who are hurting the rest of us greatly by not understanding that there should be a separation there... they invite and perpetuate these federal intrusions into our sovereign private lives out of the fear of thinking for themselves. It's such a mess.
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Comment #2 posted by Richard Paul Zuckerm on September 11, 2004 at 07:32:30 PT:
SELF- PRESERVATION IS A LAW OF NATURE!!
Whether or not people believe there is a "natural law" or "divine law", the urge for self-preservation is or should be considered more important than any government made law, more important than the pharmaceutical cartel's interests, too! Medically sick people should disregard the state and federal laws and ingest whatever helps their illness! I find it hard to believe that after all of this time people continue to believe that government is the answer to our problems!!!!???!! Especially after reading the article about the Bush Family, in this month's issue of Cannabis Culture magazine!!
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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on September 10, 2004 at 09:12:54 PT
He said something that needed saying
Legalizing the medical use of marijuana is not really a liberal issue or a conservative issue.I am sick of the liberal use of the word liberal. People use it and have no idea what it means. Besides that conservative ideals call for a small federal government and one that does not intervene in lifesytles. It is the conservatives that ought to be mad as hell, because it is their cause that is being hijacked and twisted.Opiates have proven that one plant can do a great deal to eliminate pain in the human body. Why is it so hard to believe that there could not be a superior plant, one that can take up pain relief where opiates leave off and one that is not physically addictive?It is not hard to believe at all. Cannabis has been there since the dawn of the historic age and the first writings would advise cannabis for things that ail the human vehicles that carry us through life. The keyword is Ayurveda. The health wealth of is more precious than the financial wealth of a billionaire that would gladly give up one fortune for riddance of the misfortune of the other.It really seems that the one in three probability of being hit by cancer would have gotten to the elders of Congress in a much more dramatic way. The individuals of Congress seem very lucky with cancer. The country on the otherhand is stricken with a Congress that is a cancer on us all.
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