Pubdate: Tue, 17 Jul 2001
Source: Western Front, The (WA)
Copyright: 2001, The Western Front
Contact:  http://westernfront.wwu.edu/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/994
Author: Marilyn Levan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICINAL MARIJUANA SHOWS COMPASSION TO THOSE SUFFERING

Legalizing marijuana for medical purposes is a big step in the right 
direction. It is critical to separate the "war on drugs" from public health 
issues. Basic common sense demands allowing seriously ill citizens to use 
whatever safe medication is most effective.

A poll conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union demonstrated that 85 
percent of the public favors giving seriously ill patients access to 
medical marijuana; in fact, 25 percent said they had a relative or a friend 
using cannabis medicinally.

California recognized the benefits of marijuana for medical and passed 
Proposition 215. Other states, including Washington with Initiative 692, 
followed in the legalization of marijuana for medical use even though the 
Supreme Court has ruled against it.

We are making criminals of people who would not normally be criminals 
because they are trying to procure marijuana for a loved ones who is 
suffering, or themselves, they are labeled outlaws by our societal rules.

A few years ago Will Foster was arrested in Oklahoma for growing marijuana 
for his own medicinal use. His sentence is 93 years in prison with 
murderers and rapists.

Marijuana is versatile. Glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness, 
causes fluid pressure within the eyeball and increases until it damages the 
optic nerve. Marijuana produces a clinically significant drop in 
interocular pressure that lasts several hours. Cannabis cannot cure the 
disease, but it can retard the progressive loss of sight when conventional 
medication fails and surgery is too expensive.

A cannabis derivative that is most promising as an anti-convulsant for 
seizures is "cannabidiol." It has produced improvements with grand mal 
seizures.

The best alternative analgesics for pain, like headaches, migraines and 
post-surgical discomfort, are addictive opiods. Marijuana is recognized as 
the drug of choice for pain that causes muscle spasms, which is often 
chronic and debilitating, as well as for paraplegics, quadraplegics and 
other victims of traumatic nerve damage.

Marijuana relieves nausea caused by chemotherapy One study conducted for 
the ACLU , reported that 83 percent of registered voters agreed with this 
statement: "People who find that marijuana is effective for their medical 
needs, like treating glaucoma and relieving nausea from chemotherapy, 
should be able to use it legally." Only 11 percent disagreed.

Loren Siegal, former director of education for the ACLU said the government 
was clearly out of step with the public's support for the compassionate use 
of marijuana.

The Journal Of Pharmacological Review's reports that decades of research 
proves.

"Compared with legal drugs, marijuana does not pose greater risks."

One Drug Enforcement Agency's own administrative judges, Francis Young, 
said marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known 
to man.

Prescription drugs defined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration have 
killed up to 27,000 people a year. So far, marijuana has caused no known 
fatalities according to a 1988 study conducted by the Bureau of Mortality 
Statistics.

Aspirin and ibuprofen, the most widely used analgesics, are not addictive 
but do have many side effects such as, ulcers and stomach bleeding.

Ibuprofen and acetaminophen in Tylenol can cause liver damage and kidney 
failure. If used regularly for long periods of time, a study suggests that 
10 percent of the cases result in end-stage renal disease, a condition that 
requires dialysis or a kidney transplant.

The Harvard Medical School mental Health Letter reports the findings of 
three other major cannabis studies. In major studies conducted in 1999 in 
Jamaica, Costa Rica and Greece, researchers compared heavy long-term 
marijuana users with non-users and found no evidence of intellectual or 
neurological damage, no change in personality and no loss of the will to 
work or participate in society.

Marijuana is also inexpensive. Cannabis could be as much as 100 times less 
expensive than the best present day treatment for nausea caused by cancer 
chemotherapy. The high cost of cannabis on the street is nothing more than 
a prohibition tariff.

More than 10 million American citizens have been arrested in the last 30 
years because they chose to puff a plant.

The years of effort devoted to showing that marijuana is exceedingly 
dangerous have proved the opposite. It is almost certain that a serious 
toxic reaction will not occur. The potential benefits are much greater than 
any potential risk One third of all Americans, twelve years of age and 
older have used marijuana at least once in their lifetime.

Marijuana is not a drug of addiction. To include it in the Schedule I drug 
list with heroin and morphine is ludicrous. Marijuana may alter the moods 
of a person, causing hilarity, including giggling and other euphoric 
criminal behavior. It may calm and relax a person after a long day. In many 
cases it will make a person's last days bearable.
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