cannabisnews.com: Spotlight On Medical Marijuana Spotlight On Medical Marijuana Posted by FoM on December 04, 1999 at 09:09:25 PT A weekly feature edited by J.D. Tuccille Source: Free-Market.Net Despite a flood of successful state ballot initiatives allowing marijuana to be used for medical purposes and growing evidence of cannabis' beneficial effects, the federal government shows no signs of backing off its crusade against the dread weed. As Peter McWilliams and Todd McCormick can testify, the feds are willing to go to cruel lengths to demonstrate their conviction that it's better to suffer that to light up a joint. Peter McWilliams is the best-selling author of such books as "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do" and a passionate spokesman for the libertarian viewpoint. He's also an AIDS patient who until his arrest smoked marijuana to help him keep down his medications. Todd McCormick is a writer and researcher, who uses marijuana himself to offset the after-effects of childhood cancer treatments. Through his publishing company, McWilliams funded McCormick's research efforts into pot growing techniques. That research involved a little home horticulture, and that's where the legal troubles began. Despite their undisputed medical needs, and the passage of Prop. 215, the California initiative that started the wave of ballot-box marijuana efforts, Judge George H. King forbade McWilliams and McCormick from using a medical necessity defense. Judge King said that federal law trumped the state initiative. With few alternatives left, the two pled guilty in a bid for a show of mercy by the court. That's a harsh version of justice for two sick men who were just using the medicine of their choice. It's especially unfortunate since medical marijuana users seem to have science -- and considerable medical sentiment -- on their side. While the U.S. government has done all that it can to stifle research (and then argue that the lack of modern research is a good reason to keep dope on the street corner where it belongs), some promising work has surfaced. A 1979 study from the land downunder, published in The Medical Journal of Australia, showed that marijuana is effective in keeping patients' lunches on the inside, where they'll do some good. In fact, a survey that appeared in The Journal of Clinical Oncology found that a large number of cancer doctors have been illegally recommending the stuff to their patients for years for that purpose. And as any toker could tell you, dope is great at helping you feel no pain. That's undoubtedly why it was a traditional treatment for migraine headaches up until the current round of prohibitionist fervor kicked in. Marijuana has shown promise for treating a variety of ailments ranging from glaucoma to depression. Given the medical promise shown by a plant that will grow itself if left to its own resources, the British Medical Journal has editorialized for a loosened legal stance toward pot, and the Journal of the American Medical Association published a letter calling for a similarly relaxed approach. Of course, from a libertarian perspective, loosening the rules for medical use of marijuana isn't the same as ditching the whole morally outrageous experiment in prohibitionism. Replacing an outright ban with doctors' prescription pads might be an improvement, but it's hardly a return to common sense. Along that line of reasoning, such luminaries of the liberty movement as Dr. Thomas Szasz have argued that halfway steps just replace police handcuffs with hospital restraints, and threaten to stall progress toward full freedom of choice. On the other hand, the prospect of police being forced to return marijuana stashes to AIDS and cancer patients (which has happened in California) rather than dragging the "malefactors" off to prison would seem to be a real improvement. And the medical marijuana movement may accustom people to the idea that legal dope isn't necessarily a greased slide to the fall of the republic. For example, two competing Alaskan initiative efforts seek to re-legalize marijuana for whatever uses Alaskans might fancy. For the time being, the medical marijuana movement seems to be leaping forward at the ballot box, with state after state approving measures to allow some sort of legal use of the weed. Of course, the feds and local drug warriors have been largely successful in hampering implementation of the new laws, but it's hard to see federal intransigence as anything more than doomed windmill-tilting, bound to fail once the current batch of drug warriors have been disabused of their Elliott Ness pretensions. But until the tide is fully turned, people like Peter McWilliams and Todd McCormick will continue to fill jail cells, with their medicine well out of reach on the other side of the bars and the law. For updated information, browse the resources to the right or click over to:The Freedom Network Directory on Medical Marijuanahttp://www.free-market.net/directorybytopic/marijuana/Related Articles:AIDS Victim Hammered By Pot Charge - 11/20/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3742.shtmlActivists Plead Guilty to Drug Charges - 11/20/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3734.shtmlMedical Marijuana Activists Plead Guilty - 11/19/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3733.shtmlLA Drug Case Bars Medical Marijuana Defense - 11/07/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3585.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #1 posted by Anastasi Cheliotis on January 24, 2000 at 06:53:53 PT We love to smoke weed Smokeing bud is the best thing that humans can do with there time. WE LOVE WEED [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: