cannabisnews.com: Md. Legislator Wants Medical Marijuana Legalized 





Md. Legislator Wants Medical Marijuana Legalized 
Posted by FoM on November 12, 1999 at 06:21:35 PT
By Shannon Lynch, Capital News Service 
Source: Journal Online
Marylanders with some medical conditions would be allowed to smoke marijuana to ease their pain if legislation proposed this session by Del. Donald Murphy, R-12A-Baltimore County, passes to make medical marijuana legal. 
``My Republican colleagues think I'm nuts,'' he said. ``It must be the Libertarian in me.'' Murphy said he's pushing the legislation on his own after a constituent approached him. He said he has no connection to Libertarian-leaning George Soros, who has donated millions to fund drug legalization efforts in this country. Marijuana possession is illegal in Maryland, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of $1,000, whether it's for medical purposes or not. Murphy's legislation would remove criminal penalties in Maryland for patients using marijuana with a doctor's approval. Marijuana has no therapeutic benefits, said Joyce Nalepka, president of America Cares, a Silver-Spring based organization trying to stop legalization of drugs. ``Many people argue they need marijuana for cancer and AIDS patients,'' Nalepka said. ``But the National Institutes of Health has said marijuana use impedes the body's ability to fight off infection. These people should not smoke marijuana.'' Murphy said decisions about whether patients will benefit from marijuana are best left to their doctors. Federal law would still prohibit marijuana use and ban doctors from prescribing the drug. But doctors can give patients a written recommendation to use marijuana that is protected by free speech laws, and Maryland could use that recommendation as verification that a patient needs marijuana, said Chuck Thomas, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. Because pharmacists could be prosecuted under federal law for prescribing marijuana, Thomas said patients would have to grow their own plants. Nalepka said any person who gets a doctor's prescription for marijuana should ``fill it with a new doctor.'' Marijuana contains harmful chemicals and has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as an effective medicine, the National Office on Drug Control Policy has said. The government also worries that making marijuana available to patients will increase illegal drug use. ``Like anything else, there could be abuses, but we need to err on the side of patients,'' Murphy said. His chief concern is that patients in pain get the medication they need. Murphy connects his proposal to a law that took effect in Maryland Oct. 1 that made assisted suicide illegal in Maryland, and provided for limited pain management by physicians, to medical marijuana use. ``If we're going to keep people alive and manage their pain, we need access to all the drugs available to do that,'' he said. ``The government ought to stay out of it.'' Published: November 12, 1999Related Article & Web Site:Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/What Are They Smoking? - 11/10/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3635.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by observer on November 12, 1999 at 10:51:58 PT
myth: 'impedes body's ability to fight infection'
> ``Many people argue they need marijuana for cancer and AIDS patients,'' Nalepka said. ``But the National Institutes of Health has said marijuana use impedes the body's ability to fight off infection. These people should not smoke marijuana.'' Another prohibitionist falsehood. From the US Government (ONDCP), 1999:''the short-term immunosuppressive effects are not well established but, if they exist, are not likely great enough to preclude a legitimate medical use.''-- Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Health, Institute of Medicine, March 17, 1999 (the study was supported under contract No. DC7C02 from the Executive Office of the President, Office of the National Drug Control Policy.)(from the IOM Report, Executive Summary, http://www.drugsense.org/iom_report/ )In other words, any distortion excuse or plain old-fashioned lie will do, when it comes to preventing adult Americans from regaining their traditional liberties, freedoms stolen by a corrupt government in the 1900s, using racism and deceit to do so.> Joyce Nalepka, president of America Cares, a Silver-Spring based organization trying to stop legalization ofdrugs. See her site:  http://www.americacares.org/You also may let her organization know what you think by writing to her here:  info americacares.org
take action to regain your freedom! see: DrugSense Activism
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