Pubdate: Mon, 21 May 2001
Source: Star-Ledger (NJ)
Copyright: 2001 Newark Morning Ledger Co
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/starledger/
Forum: http://www.nj.com/forums/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/424
Author: David G. Evans, Pittstown
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ocbc.htm (Oakland Cannabis Court Case)
Bookmark:  http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Medical Marijuana)
Bookmark:  http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Note: The writer was counsel in a friend-of the-court brief in the 
Supreme Court case.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA HOAX

The Supreme Court has unanimously decided that smoked marijuana has 
"no currently accepted medical use."

The forces' seeking to legalize drugs want smoked marijuana listed as 
a medicine to legitimize marijuana. Marijuana as medicine has been 
rejected by the American Medical Association, the National Multiple 
Sclerosis Society, the American Glaucoma Society, the American 
Academy of Ophthamology and the American Cancer Society. The federal 
Institute of Medicine sees "little future in smoked marijuana as a 
medicine."

The major reason to reject smoked marijuana as medicine is that 
numerous safe and effective medicines are available for all the 
conditions marijuana supposedly helps. The scientific literature also 
shows that marijuana use is a major risk factor in the development of 
addiction and drug use among schoolchildren.

As a cancer survivor, I am appalled at how seriously ill people have 
been victimized by the cruel hoax of medical marijuana. It is not 
compassionate to give marijuana cigarettes to anyone, especially sick 
people. They may mistakenly choose marijuana instead of truly 
effective medicines. Medical marijuana is a fraud and I am glad the 
Supreme Court saw through it.
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe