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Posted by FoM on August 01, 2001 at 18:08:13 PT Editorial Source: Daily Texan 
Canada has become the world's first country to allow the use of medical marijuana. Terminally ill patients in Canada are now permitted to grow their own cannabis, buy it from the government or have a friend licensed to grow it for them. Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock was right to call the move "a compassionate measure." The fact that the United States still continues to demonize marijuana and deny that it has any medicinal value is a shameful travesty, especially to patients lying on their death beds. For people with no hope, denying them a small measure of herbal relief is simply cruel, and devoid of any compassion. The Canadian law is not a broad-based promotion of marijuana as some would think. The new law states anyone with a terminal illness expected to live less than a year, who has tried other legal forms of treatment will be allowed to use medical marijuana with the procurement of a doctor's note. Kids may be able to get fake IDs, but the chances of a child faking a terminal illness in order to score some pot from their family's doctor is extremely unlikely. There is a highly-utilized black market that caters to such children. The debate over the use of medical marijuana has been distorted by critics more interested in squashing any remnants of the '60s than addressing the medical needs of people with no chance at survival. We are content with letting our sick go to seedy underground sources for relief from pain and suffering. We let drug dealers determine the quality, purity and availability of a drug many feel will allow them to live out their final days in relative comfort. Hopefully, Canada's brave step forward will encourage the United States to reconsider its primitive understanding of medical care and to accept the fact that total prohibition is a bankrupt concept. Since Reefer Madness Americans have been hell-bent on portraying cannabis in the worst-possible light. The U.S. Department of Justice remains mired in decades-old thinking and continues to churn along in the same, tired old ruts of criminalization and crusading. This isn't about a war on drugs. This about human decency and the right to live without pain and suffering. The government has already acknowledged the beneficial effects of marijuana when it allowed patients to be treated with Marinol, a synthetic, pill-form of THC. But opponents are fond of parroting the tired, old line of there not being any significant research on the effects of smoked cannabis. That there is no research on this subject should be an embarrassment to a society that prides itself on an undying faith in science that leads us to accept the inevitability of missile testing and biotechnology, but not simple pain relief for our sickest citizens. As on many other global issues, the United States is increasingly out of synch with other industrialized nations. While Ottawa gave $3.7 million to grow federally-sanctioned pot last December, the United States stands guard at the border, hoping to uncover a few packages of plants headed towards American smokers. Even the stodgy conservative British news magazine The Economist devoted a cover story last week calling for the legalization of drugs, noting that the war on drugs is racist and doomed to failure. But perhaps a full-scale legalization might be too far, too fast. For now, the United States. would do well to follow the example set by our northern neighbors and allow the terminally ill to smoke pot. It's the humane thing to do and would go far in getting the American Medical Association to change their reactionary anti-marijuana stance. Maybe then, when we've decided to let dying Americans medicate themselves, can we start a real debate about the shameful way we treat our sick and elderly in this country. Volume 101, No. 191 Source: Daily Texan (TX) Related Articles & Web Site: Canadian Links Canada Legalizes Marijuana For Medicinal Purposes History Has a Habit of Repeating Itself CannabisNews Articles - Canada Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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Comment #1 posted by AgentOrange on August 02, 2001 at 15:04:42 PT:
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| We've been reading the Texan for a while now and it is a great newspaper for drug war commentary. Recently they devoted almost the entire paper to the racist drug bust in Tulia, TX a few years ago. This was a great editorial. I would have liked to have seen more of a push for legalization but it was still good. [ Post Comment ] |
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