|
|
| Vote needed change to medicinal pot law |
|
Posted by FoM on March 21, 2002 at 19:16:44 PT Commentary Source: Connecticut Post 
Cut some desperate, dying Connecticut folks a little slack. Ease their pain. Prevent them from being criminals. Fix the irrational kink in our state medicinal marijuana law that in reality forbids them use of this drug under the care of a doctor. Common human decency demands it. The General Assembly's Judiciary Committee has until Monday to act upon a bill sponsored by state Rep. James Abrams, D-Meriden, in an attempt to bring reason and compassion to law. Abrams' bill would allow patients who have physician approval to grow a small amount of marijuana indoors. Solid scientific research shows that the herb's primary psychotropic ingredient has an array of beneficial medical effects, especially for patients enduring chemotherapy treatments for cancer. It relieves pain and, more important, counteracts the nausea that prevents chemo patients from eating enough. Weakness and weight loss from lack of food is a major, sometimes life-threatening complication. This bill died in committee last year. Members should make sure it gets to the floor this session. Then they should pass it. What makes this cruel little battle in America's surreal "war on drugs" really special is the fact that since 1983 state law has allowed doctors to prescribe pot. No kidding. The only catch is, no doctors do. That law would not protect them from federal arrest, a fear reinforced last May when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected state recognition of medical need for marijuana as a defense in federal court. Opponents who claim this act of compassion would be a major breach in the drug war should get a grip on reality. Even the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency admits, conservatively, that pot is about 98 percent legal in this country. It may be our second largest cash crop. Anybody who wants it can get it, if they are willing to break a law they know has almost zero chance of leading to arrest unless they are dealing in tonnage, if even then. The hundred million and more Americans who don't smoke pot don't smoke it because they don't want to, not because they fear the law. Any chemo patient who wants pot can get it illegally without risk of arrest. They're only at risk if they try to get it legally, under the care of a physician. That is dangerous as well as mean. What the potheads don't want to admit about this plant that is not nearly as benign as they try to claim, is street dealers aren't exactly abiding by the Pure Food and Drug Act. Those who buy street pot have no idea what they are getting, where it's been or what's on it. That may not be fatal for the average healthy pothead, but it could be fatal for someone with a weakened immune system, say from AIDS or chemotherapy. Experts contend smoking, at this time, is the most efficacious means of administering the drug. That's hard to believe, but until a useable pill hits pharmacy shelves, we're stuck with puffing. Commercial growers are ignoring tough federal and state laws now anyway. They ignore ruthless, violent competitors. They have to do a lot of hard labor over long, odd hours. To think terribly sick people would get into the business of growing pot just because they got notes from their doctors is ludicrous. Pass this law, Connecticut. Show a little compassion and a lot of common sense. Source: Connecticut Post (CT) Medical Marijuana Information Links State Talks Marijuana - Connecticut Post CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
 |
| Post Comment |  |
 |  |