Pubdate: Wed, 01 Oct 2003
Source: Sentinel, The (GA Edu)
Copyright: 2003 Kennesaw State University
Contact:  http://www.ksusentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2908
Author: Grant Voyles

WILL GOOD MEDICINE GO UP IN SMOKE?

As citizens of a free country, most Americans doubtless view the government 
as supportive of patients' rights and of innovative medical treatments. And 
this is largely a good view, unless your doctor believes that the best 
medicine for you is marijuana, in which case the only thing you'll receive 
from the federal government is jail time and a criminal record.

There is, however, hope of change on the horizon.

This October, Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) will introduce the Truth in 
Trials Act in the Senate. For the first time ever, Congress will entertain 
a bill proposing a federal law to recognize the validity of state medical 
marijuana laws.

The claim that marijuana has no medicinal value is an illegitimate one. 
Marijuana can limit the muscle pain and spasticity caused by multiple 
sclerosis. It can alleviate pain and can retard - and sometimes, even halt 
- - the progress of glaucoma, which is the leading cause of blindness in the 
United States. Marijuana can also be used to treat AIDS, cancer, epilepsy 
and chronic pain.

All of these applications have been deemed legitimate by at least one 
court, legislature and/or governmental agency in the United States. At 
least two states, in fact, have legalized the use of marijuana for medical 
purposes. Unfortunately, due to the federal prohibitions against marijuana, 
people who need this substance for medical reasons have one of two options: 
to continue to suffer from the ailment, perhaps attempting to alleviate 
their symptoms through some other drug or procedure, or to obtain and use 
marijuana and risk federal criminal charges.

Prior to 1937, at least 27 medicines containing marijuana were legally 
available in the United States. That year, however, the federal government 
began to regulate the use of marijuana by a series of laws. Through the 
Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, it increased the penalty for the use of 
marijuana by adding another federal count (failure to pay the marijuana 
tax) onto the charges against anyone who possessed or sold marijuana.

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 placed all illicit and prescription 
drugs into five categories called schedules.

Marijuana was labeled a Schedule 1 drug, which is defined as one that has a 
high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medicinal use, and a lack 
of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. This is a vastly 
erroneous classification for a drug that in reality has multiple medical 
uses and that has never caused a death from overdose.

Court battles over the medical use of marijuana have raged since the 
passage of the Act. In 1972, a petition was submitted to the Bureau of 
Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, now known as the Drug Enforcement Agency, 
requesting that the classification of marijuana be rescheduled and that it 
be available by prescription. After sixteen years of courts wrangling over 
the issues, the DEA's chief administrative law judge, Francis Young, ruled 
that, "It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the DEA to 
continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this 
substance...."

But top DEA officials rejected Young's ruling and refused to reschedule 
marijuana. In 1994, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the DEA is allowed 
to reject its judge's ruling and set its own standards; this ruling enabled 
the DEA to keep marijuana in Schedule 1 and deny patients its medical benefits.

However, Congress has the power to override the DEA and to reschedule 
marijuana through its own legislation. This is why it is so important that 
Sen. Durbin's Truth in Trials Act pass. This act would create an 
affirmative defense for those patients and caregivers who are using medical 
marijuana in accordance with state laws. It is wrong to harass and arrest 
people who are fighting for their lives simply because they resort to a 
treatment that they and their doctors find effective.

A Pew Research poll conducted in February 2001 found that 73 percent of 
American adults supported permitting doctors to prescribe marijuana for 
their patients.

It is time for the federal government to catch up to the American public 
and change the draconian drug policy that has plagued this nation for too 
long. The federal government should be in the business of supporting those 
with illnesses, not of adding to their burdens.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens