Pompo

Allow marijuana for medical use in N.J.
12/21/08|Courier-Post| Opinion



Drug has been proven effective in treating some medical conditions and should be legal to use for those patients.

New Jersey lawmakers took a key step toward allowing those suffering with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other conditions to legally use marijuana to relieve their pain.

Last week, the state Senate's Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, by a 6-1 vote, approved the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.

Legalizing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes remains controversial in part because it runs counter to federal drug laws regarding marijuana, and also because there are many people who do not want to see any door opened toward legalizing drugs.

However, there is overwhelming documentation and heartfelt testimony from people from all walks of life who have lived in tremendous pain and say that marijuana, more than any other medicine, helps reduce their pain, take away their nausea, clear up their vision, stop their muscle spasms, etc. These people are not drug abusers; they're regular Americans who are just desperate to live without the pain of often incurable diseases and conditions.

Who are we, and who is the government, to stop people from alleviating their suffering?

Thirteen states -- Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington -- allow people, with a doctor's consent, to possess small amounts of marijuana and/or grow marijuana plants for their personal medicinal use.

The law New Jersey proposes would be similar. The state Department of Health and Senior Services would register people with debilitating conditions such as HIV, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, etc. and issue them a photo identification card. They would be able to possess as many as "six marijuana plants and an ounce of usable marijuana." The law would bar them from operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of marijuana or from smoking in many public areas.

At the committee hearing in Trenton on Monday, Joyce Nalepka, president of the national organization Drug Free Kids: America's Challenge, worked to convince lawmakers that legalizing medical marijuana would make children and young adults more aware of marijuana and that using it is acceptable. State Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, was dead on in his response: "I think our youth are pretty much aware of marijuana today. I think we are kidding ourselves if we don't think that," Whelan said.

The fact is, the same laws and penalties we have for criminal marijuana use and distribution can be kept in place and enforced just as they are now.

But people who are in pain, some in their last days, deserve to be able to take whatever medicine works to help them. For certain conditions, marijuana has shown itself time and again to be a powerful medicine. There's no reason for New Jersey or any other government to stand in the way of people looking to ease their suffering.

We don't ban OxyContin or Percocet altogether because some people abuse those medicines and use them just to get high. Why? Because OxyContin and Percocet help many people with real medical condidtions. For the same reason, marijuana should be legalized strictly for medical use.