Marijuana is Good Medicine

[superjoint]

Editorial
Source: Capital Times

Voters in the city of Detroit this month approved a measure written to eliminate restrictions on the use of marijuana by medical patients whose conditions can be aided by consuming the substance.
The vote makes Detroit the latest addition to a growing list of states and municipalities that have recognized the need to make it easier to use marijuana to quell nausea, provide pain relief, stimulate the appetite of AIDS patients, combat glaucoma, and ease the pain and suffering of people with multiple sclerosis.

Unfortunately, officials in many other states and municipalities cling to the misguided notion that marijuana is nothing more than an illicit drug that people want to decriminalize - or even legalize - so they can get high. But there is now a broad and serious body of research that confirms the medical benefits of cannibanoids, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Wisconsin is one of the states that have been slow to move to lift restraints on the use of medical marijuana. But some legislators are working to open a debate in the Badger State.

State Rep. Greg Underheim, R-Oshkosh, who chairs the Assembly's Public Health Committee, is again proposing legislation that would allow seriously ill or terminally ill patients to use marijuana for medical purposes if supported by their physician.

Underheim, who sponsored a similar bill that died in the last legislative session, has reworked the measure and said last week that he planned to make another attempt in the coming session.

Underheim deserves a great deal of credit for taking on this controversial initiative and for working to craft legislation that is at once sensible and humane. Now he needs allies. Some legislators from the Madison area, such as state Rep. Mark Pocan, are supportive. But to achieve the Assembly majority that will be needed to advance this legislation, more legislators are going to need to develop spines. And that won't happen unless they are prodded by citizens who recognize that the need for medical marijuana is genuine.

Source: Capital Times, The (WI)
Published: August 10, 2004
Copyright: 2004 The Capital Times
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