Pubdate: Mon, 21 May 2001
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2001 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Jane Marcus

WRONG MESSAGE

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Our daughter's Sunday school teacher, a close family 
friend, contracted HIV through a blood transfusion in 1982. Diagnosed more 
than a decade later, AIDS eventually caught up with her. The side effects 
of the medications she took forced her to stop teaching. She couldn't eat 
and was being fed through a tube. She wasted away and looked like a 
skeleton. After visiting her, my daughter had nightmares.

In January of 1997, California's Compassionate Use Act, Proposition 215, 
went into effect, and we encouraged our friend to try cannabis because she 
clearly qualified for its use. As a Sunday school teacher, she thought it 
would send the wrong message to her students. We finally convinced her to 
try it in private. Within weeks she was eating voraciously. She was out 
enjoying herself. She returned to the classroom.

This unique medicine gave our friend two more years of life. In May of 
1999, our friend died from a ruptured pancreas, a result of the highly 
toxic AIDS medications she took.

My daughter fully understands that Congress has made possession of 
marijuana a federal crime. I recently asked her whether the mixed messages 
confused her and how she could reconcile the government's stance with her 
own direct experience. "No, I'm not confused," she said. "They're just stupid."

My daughter sees through the government's stubborn refusal to admit to 
marijuana's obvious medical benefit and the misinformation campaign used to 
support that position. And that sends the wrong message to my kid.

Jane Marcus
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D