Pubdate: Tue, 22 Feb 2011
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2011 The Billings Gazette
Contact: http://billingsgazette.com/app/contact/?contact=letter
Website: http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Author: Tom Daubert
Note: Tom Daubert is founder/director of Patients & Families United, 
a public education group.
ALERT: Will Montana Repeal Its Medical Marijuana Law? 
http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0464.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/states/MT/ (Montana)

REPEAL OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW MAKES NO SENSE

Why is repealing medical marijuana backward and mistaken?

Because cannabis is making a huge, positive medical difference in the 
lives of thousands of good Montanans. Because it makes no moral or 
economic sense to redefine these genuine patients as criminals and to 
force them back onto the narcotics that helped them less and caused 
worse side effects. Because a patient who has had no seizures since 
switching to cannabis (and used to have a dozen every day) can't 
fairly be asked to go back to a "life" on the drugs that didn't work.

Because a patient who has lost more than 200 pounds in a year since 
ceasing the use of narcotics and switching to cannabis can't be 
expected to happily stop. Because pain patients who used to be unable 
to do much of anything meaningful when needing gobs of narcotics -- 
and who now can function, even work and pay taxes -- shouldn't be 
required to go backward. Because people who are enduring chemo, or 
who have survived cancer and know of the evidence showing that 
cannabis has anti-cancer effects, shouldn't be required to ignore the 
scientific facts. Because people with glaucoma or multiple sclerosis 
or rheumatoid arthritis, who know that research shows cannabis can 
slow and even halt the progression of these diseases, shouldn't be 
expected to ignore what they've learned, what they can feel in their 
own bodies.

Because the law's loopholes and gray areas that have allowed 
exploitation and abuse can easily be fixed and closed, with problems 
stopped -- in ways that meet the needs of true patients as well as of 
law enforcement and local communities. Because it makes no sense at 
all, and flies in the face of democracy and the notion of individual 
freedom, to repeal a voter-adopted policy of compassion without ever 
first trying to make the law work as intended. Because thousands of 
Montanans suffer the common but generally permanent, progressive 
medical conditions specified in this law -- and many can benefit 
enormously from cannabis.

Because thousands of Montanans who would otherwise currently be 
unemployed today feed their families and pay their rents and 
mortgages solely because they are able to work producing 
medical-grade cannabis for legal patients. Because many hundreds of 
long-established Main Street businesses like garden supply and 
hardware stores are still operating partly because of the new 
business they do serving medical cannabis producers. Because it makes 
no sense for Montana to lose these jobs and the nourishment they 
supply to local economies and the state's tax base.

Because elected officials who campaign for individual freedom, less 
government intrusion and smarter economic development should uphold 
these principles during their service in office. Because none of them 
campaigned on a platform of interfering with a patient's relationship 
with a licensed physician or on the theme of knowing more about 
health care than doctors do.

Because honest Montanans, who can better address their medical 
challenges with this God-given natural plant, shouldn't be treated as 
criminals -- and the rest of us shouldn't have to pay for cops to 
find and arrest them, or for prosecutors and courts to punish them -- 
when all that these good patients seek is a better, more comfortable 
life . and to be left alone by big government. Because patients, 
working with their physicians, deserve the right to life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake