Pubdate: Sat, 11 Oct 2008
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2008 Detroit Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n908.a04.html
Author: Zach Jarou

COMPASSIONATE TREATMENT

Twelve states have successfully implemented medical marijuana
programs, and this carefully crafted initiative learns from their
experience. It creates a statewide registry system, complete with ID
cards, so that law enforcement officials can easily distinguish
legitimate patients from those who are breaking the law, and it
provides steep penalties for attempting to game the system.

Finally, numerous prestigious organizations, like the Michigan Nurses
Association and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, have endorsed
medical marijuana. And while an orally administered synthetic exists,
it contains only one of the 60-plus therapeutic chemical compounds
found in marijuana, and pills pose obvious problems for cancer
patients suffering from chemotherapy-induced nausea.

Proposal 1 is a compassionate law that will bring relief to some of
the most vulnerable members of our community.

Zach Jarou

East Lansing
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake