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 - --- MAP posted-by: Tom