Pubdate: Wed, 26 Mar 2008
Source: Herald News, The (Fall River, MA)
Copyright: 2008 The Herald News
Contact:  http://www.heraldnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3604
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

MEDICAL INJUSTICE

What if there were a natural medicine that could help reduce pain, 
relieve nausea, increase appetite and decrease stress, all with 
minimal side effects?

What if it could help cancer patients deal with the impacts of 
chemotherapy, help glaucoma patients retain their sight by relieving 
pressure around the eyes, help AIDS sufferers maintain their strength 
by stimulating their appetites, and ease the effects of multiple sclerosis.

What if research of the drug, say by the prestigious Scripps Research 
Institute, demonstrated it slowed the progression of Alzheimer's Disease?

Not only does that medicine exist, it is abundant and affordable, 
even for those who lack health insurance. So why don't more people 
take it (or at least admit publicly to doing so)? Because the federal 
government won't let them.

Marijuana has been outlawed since the 1930s when the Federal Bureau 
of Narcotics designated it a narcotic, putting it on par with 
cocaine, heroin and morphine.

Yet, 11 states - including Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont and most 
notably California - have legalized the use of marijuana as a 
treatment for disease. But the federal government refuses to 
acknowledge the state laws, instead specifically targeting 
law-abiding citizens providing the medicine for patients. Especially 
in California, the Drug Enforcement Agency is shutting down "grow 
houses" and medicinal marijuana dispensaries, and charging their 
operators with federal felonies.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is trying to stop that injustice.  He 
says the decision whether to allow the use of marijuana should be up 
to the states, not a federal mandate. Frank plans this week to file 
legislation decriminalizing on the federal level the possession of 
small amounts of marijuana. That would leave states like Rhode Island 
and California to allow patients to receive treatment without 
worrying about ending up in jail for following their doctors' orders.

"I don't think smoking marijuana should be a federal case. There's no 
federal law against mugging," Frank said. "It does not appear to me 
to be a law that society is serious about. It's one area where the 
public is ahead of the elected officials."

Not only is the federal government behind the times, it's hypocritical.

The Food and Drug Administration approves use of Marinol, which is a 
synthetic version of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Marinol 
is prescribed to treat nausea and vomiting for cancer patients and to 
stimulate the appetites of AIDS patients, according to the drug's Web 
site. But patients report it is not as effective as natural THC.

Marinol lacks several therapeutic benefits of natural cannabis and 
costs significantly more - upwards of $800 a month, compared with 
less than $100 a month for marijuana. Legalizing medicinal marijuana, 
which can be grown easily and inexpensively, would undoubtedly hurt 
the pharmaceutical companies that produce synthetic THC for profit, 
perhaps betraying the federal government's true motives behind the ban.

It is unfair for the federal government to continue prosecuting sick 
people whose states tell them they are legally treating the symptoms 
of their diseases. Granted, there are a myriad of issues involved in 
legalizing, or even decriminalizing, marijuana. But, those are issues 
that are more easily and appropriately hammered out at the state level.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake