Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jan 2006
Source: Daily Lobo (U of NM, Edu, NM)
Copyright: 2006 Daily Lobo
Contact: http://www.dailylobo.com/main.cfm?include=submit
Website: http://www.dailylobo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/766
Author: Richard Mason
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

BUSH NEEDS TO CONSIDER MEDICAL MARIJUANA REFORM

Editor,

I am disabled due to bipolar disorder. As an American, I do my best to
contribute to our society and try to make things better for those
around me. I try to do what the doctors say - I take the Prozac, I try
to interact with those around me, and I fight tooth and nail with this
illness. Yet most days I am demoralized because I grew up watching
people like Ward Cleaver and Mr. Brady go to work, raise kids and buy
houses.

I am here to ask why the Bush administration will not consider the
benefits of medical marijuana. With so much positive anecdotal
evidence of such benefits, and the overwhelming voice of the people in
favor of it, why does the Bush administration turn a blind eye to this
issue?

I am not a doper. I am not a junkie. I know what works. For me, I
know. I have obtained tiny bits of this substance from desperately
shady characters in the past, and I know relief when I see it. I know
how my appetite returns. The groceries don't go bad. I sleep. I am
interested in life and active.

I do not get this from Prozac or Tegretol. I get nothing from those
things. I get wobbly. I get numb. I become a robot.

I do not have kids. I am not married. I do not drive a train or a
plane. I just do a little job as a crossing guard. I don't know what I
would give to feel relaxed just once in 2006; if I could have an
appetite like I used to have; if I could sleep like a normal person.

It's not a matter of counseling. It's not a matter of switching pills
for me. It's a matter of right and wrong. Marijuana helps. I have
tried lithium. I have tried Paxil. I have tried them all. They do not
work.

Yes, marijuana in our schools is a bad thing. It does our young kids
no good. I believe the law is correct in that regard. But what about
people with cancer or people like me, who are suffering every day with
things that cannot be controlled by conventional means?

Why will Bush not listen to the people? Why will he not consider the
facts presented by the Marijuana Policy Project and actual sufferers?
Is it because the issue may cost a few votes?

On that score, taxing marijuana for people like cancer patients would
do a world of good for the economy. It would also take a heck of a lot
of shady pot peddlers off the streets and away from our schools.

I am a person. I am a human being. Please stop turning a blind eye to
this real issue.

President Bush, I beg my God that you will have an open mind. People
are suffering. I am suffering. I don't want to hurt anybody or take
from society. I just want to tell you how I feel.

Richard Mason

Daily Lobo reader 
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