Pubdate: Wed, 10 Oct 2007
Source: Indiana Daily Student (IN Edu)
Copyright: 2007 Indiana Daily Student
Contact:  http://www.idsnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1319
Author: Amanda Lowry
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

HAZY STANCES

I personally believe that there should be a requirement  that every 
politician who runs for public office must  have smoked pot at some 
point. Even if that experience  doesn't make the politician want to 
legalize it, he or  she will at least realize how dangerous it isn't.

My position on this issue was only strengthened this  week after 
watching a CNN video of Mitt Romney, in  typical 2008 Republican 
front-runner style, dismiss a  multiple sclerosis sufferer advocating 
that medical  marijuana arrests be stopped. The MS sufferer caught 
Romney on camera and explained to him that, although he  is against 
legalizing marijuana, the smoked form of the  drug is the only pain 
reliever for his lifelong illness  that he can use without getting sick.

His question, then, was "Will you arrest me and my  doctors if I get 
medical marijuana prescribed to me?"

Romney dodged the question, answering, "I'm not in  favor of medical 
marijuana being legal." After that, he  returned to his mission of 
shaking hands with as many  rally attendees as possible, ignoring 
journalists who  pressed him to answer the man's question.

Romney's attitude toward the MS patient exemplifies the  2008 
Republican front-running presidential candidates'  chronic dodging of 
the issue of medical marijuana  arrests and raids on medical 
marijuana dispensaries,  which have been common since the U.S. 
Supreme Court decided Raich v. Vernon in 2005. The verdict 
allowed  federal officers to arrest sellers and users of 
medical  marijuana, regardless of individual state laws.

Determined to at least appear concerned for everyone's  well-being, 
the candidates have tried to make their  anti-medical marijuana 
stance appear justified through  pointing out the drug's safety 
issues, health risks and  its potential to proliferate recreational drug use.

But that appearance falls apart when someone brings up  the topic of 
medical marijuana arrests and dispensary  raids. Standing firm in the 
belief that cancer patients  and well-meaning doctors should be 
tossed in the  slammer doesn't exude that same sense of 
compassion  about public health.

So to avoid the hypocrisy, the candidates draw  attention away from 
the arrests and toward the drug's  risks.

When a woman at a New Hampshire conference last week  asked John 
McCain whether he would legally allow her  use of medical marijuana, 
he replied:

"You may be one of the unique cases in America that  only medical 
marijuana can relieve pain from ... Every  medical expert I know of, 
including the (American  Medical Association), says there are much 
more  effective and much more, uh, better treatments for  pain."

And last week at another conference, when a woman asked  Rudy 
Giuliani about his position on the raids, he, too,  avoided the topic 
and talked about the FDA's evaluation  of cannabis alternatives.

The health and safety issues medical marijuana presents  are 
important topics for political discussion. But the  discussion that 
needs to come first is the one about  people who are getting arrested 
for trying to put  themselves out of agony while hurting no one else 
aE" and how to stop those arrests.