The Case for Legalizing Medicinal Marijuana
When 21-year-old Shawn Thomas nausea caused by acid reflux was at its worst, the only thing that would relieve his pain was smoking marijuana. Unfortunately, North Carolina is not a state that allows the use of medicinal marijuana.
Marijuana is known to help illnesses such as: hypertension, multiple sclerosis, hepatitis C, tourettes syndrome, sleep apnea, glaucoma and more (www.norml.com). It is also given to chemotherapy patients to relieve their nausea and it helps people with migraines and aches and pains throughout the body.
If marijuana helps people with illnesses and relieves their pain, why is it illegal?
According to the documentary In Pot We Trust (2007) the government at one point did have a program for people to obtain medical marijuana. President George H. Bush Sr. decided to close the program, except for 13 people who were grandfathered into the law so they would not sue the government.
Even though there are several states that now have decriminalized medicinal marijuana, including North Carolina, only these 13 people can legally smoke marijuana with out fearing possible prosecution by the federal government.
Robert Randall, a participant in the federal medicinal marijuana program, was to first person to smoke medicinal marijuana legally due to his glaucoma. It was the only medication that could prolong his sight successfully. “They (politicians) want to pretend marijuana is evil,” he says. (In Pot We Trust).
“The issue of medical marijuana should be decided by doctors and scientists not by popular referendum,” says Joseph A. Califano Jr.; chairman and president of a National center on addiction and substance abuse (In Pot We Trust).
In fact, there is a grave difference in the opinions amongst our nation’s medical professionals over the medical usefulness of marijuana.
Some states, such as California, have decriminalized medicinal marijuana in spite of federal law. This state has chosen not to deny the ill or dying a medication which has been proven to ease their pain.
The use of medical marijuana is currently allowed in thirteen states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington (www.NORML.com). Yet, the federal government is still prosecuting people in these states who have medical marijuana licenses because it is not legal under federal law.
NORML was an organization established in 1970 to help decriminalize the possession of marijuana for those Americans who smoke marijuana responsibly. The organization lobbies federal and state legislature to help reform federal and state marijuana laws including ones dealing with medical marijuana.
In recent years the fight for the reform of marijuana laws has greatly intensified by organizations like NORML and other medicinal and liberating groups. Our states like California are circumventing federal law to supply their citizens with the best possible medical solutions for their illness. The fight has even reached Congress with proposed amendments to the U.S. constitution, [as we have seen] in 2006 with the amendment by Representative Maurice Hinchey a democrat from New York (In Pot We Trust).
The fight for the reform of marijuana laws seems to many to be nearing its turning point, ending decades of conflict between states and medicinal marijuana proponents and the federal government.
Sources:
NORML.com (2007, October 17). Working to reform Marijuana laws. Retrieved October 9, 2000, from http://www.norml.com/
In Pot We Trust. (2007). “[Documentary].” Showtime Networks Inc. Star Price.
Shawn Thomas, mentor of NORML
Interviewed: Oct 9, 2007
30 minutes
Filed under: Hard News