Pubdate: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC) Copyright: 2002 Evening Post Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.charleston.net/index.html Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567 Author: Stephen Levine MEDICAL MARIJUANA Thank you for publishing the Debra Saunders column about medical marijuana on Nov. 19. According to the results of the Spring 2002 South Carolina State Survey, performed by the University of South Carolina's Survey Research Laboratory, two-thirds of South Carolina adults agree with Ms. Saunders that medical use of marijuana should be legal. As a matter of fact, in 1980 the South Carolina General Assembly even found "that recent research has shown that the use of marijuana may alleviate the nausea and ill effects of cancer chemotherapy and radiology, and, additionally, may alleviate the ill effects of glaucoma." It was with that in mind that they enacted, and the governor signed, the "South Carolina Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act of 1980." The act created a program within the Department of Health and Environmental Control to allow seriously ill South Carolinians access to legal marijuana. Unfortunately, that program has never been funded. So, 22 years later, sick and dying South Carolinians continue to suffer under threat of criminal prosecution if they choose to smoke marijuana to relieve their pain. Enough is enough. Now is the time for those who support allowing seriously ill patients to have access to medical marijuana to stand up and be counted. Since September 2001, with the War on Terrorism in full swing, the federal government has wasted scant resources in a futile attempt to quash the rapidly growing medical marijuana movement in California. Let's tell the feds to back off this states' rights issue, like President Bush said he would during his campaign. Let's tell our own state legislators to fund our medical marijuana program. This isn't a War on Drugs. It's a war on patients, on people. STEPHEN LEVINE Executive Director Charleston Chapter, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws - --- MAP posted-by: Beth