Pubdate: Sun,  1 Jun 2003
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2003 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.sunspot.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Erin Hildebrandt

MEDICAL MARIJUANA SHOULDN'T BE ILLEGAL

Michael Olesker's column "Marijuana law makes a humane distinction" (May 
25) brought me to tears. I've sat with doctors, tiptoeing around the same 
subject with some, completely avoiding the word marijuana with others. I've 
also laid, doubled over in my bed, sobbing, and knowing that no doctor in 
this state could give me a medicine that would help me feel better. Gov. 
Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is to be commended for courageously signing our 
medical marijuana bill. He lived up to his campaign promise to protect the 
patients of Maryland, and I'm very grateful to him for his honorable stand 
on this issue. Still, this bill is the smallest step toward justice and 
common sense. We need to be free to be honest with our health care 
providers. Honesty is a foundation for that terribly intimate relationship, 
yet we're afraid our doctors will deny us care or turn us in if we tell 
them we've used marijuana. I'm grateful I won't have to go to jail. Is it 
too much to ask that I not be arrested, either?

Erin Hildebrandt

Smithsburg
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens