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Legal Marijuana Would Help Millions
Ron Hutchinson | Joplin Globe | 10/15/2006

Have you heard the news? There is now a low-cost drug proven to ease a cancer patient’s suffering. Not only does this drug reduce the physical and psychological pain of cancer, but, more importantly, it restores a chemotherapy patient’s appetite.

The drug, of course, is marijuana.

Unfortunately, in a 6-3 ruling last year, the U.S. Supreme Court turned thumbs down on the drug, overturning laws in 11 states which allowed doctors to prescribe the medication to their cancer patients.

Pouring salt into the wound, the U.S. House of Representatives — in a preposterous 273-152 vote — opted likewise to outlaw the drug for cancer patients. Representative Roy Blunt, R-Mo., turned his back on cancer victims, as did Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., and Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ariz., also agreed that marijuana had no earthly medical benefits, despite the anecdotal evidence from thousands of cancer patients. (Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see M.D. behind any of these congressmen’s names.)

One of the amendment’s co-sponsors, Rep. Rohrabacher, R-Calif., broke down in tears during his speech in support of the bill. Talking of his mother who died of cancer, Rep. Rohrabacher questioned the rationale of jailing people whose only crime was the overpowering need to relieve their pain.

I’m guessing none of the shortsighted lawmakers voting against the amendment has ever been attached intravenously to a chemotherapy drip. Probably never been in a room full of bone-weary cancer patients — expressions grim, hair thinning — stretched out on recliners as the chemo-poison drips into their vein. (Oncologists don’t like to talk about it, but a chemotherapy patient can die from the complications of starvation. The thing is, you don’t have an appetite when you’re on chemo. Patients often lose 20 percent of their body weight thanks to an unwelcome companion: debilitating nausea. Marijuana helps to restore this loss of appetite.)

This archaic intolerance for doctor-prescribed marijuana is even more difficult to swallow given the results of a recent Gallup Poll. The poll revealed 80 percent of Americans favor doctor-prescribed marijuana for cancer patients. Apparently, neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor the U.S. House of Representatives are reading polls these days. Or they simply don’t care.

Remember, this is doctor-prescribed marijuana. I’m not talking about a cancer patient making a desperate, late-night drug buy in some seedy downtown Joplin alley. It is prescribed by a doctor in a clinically controlled environment like any other drug. Why is this concept so difficult to accept?

I’ve heard the argument against condoning doctor-prescribed marijuana. It goes something like this: Providing medical marijuana to cancer patients is the first step toward legalizing the drug. Nonsense! That’s like saying morphine should be outlawed as a pain reliever for fear it, too, will become legalized. Both arguments are classic examples of circular logic. A person makes an assumption that can’t be proven, then derives a result from this assumption to prove a point. Political doublespeak.

To say the argument for outlawing medical marijuana is dangerously flawed is like saying the sinking of the Titanic was an unfortunate accident — a towering understatement.

I’m not suggesting marijuana be legalized. Not now. Not ever. But honestly, can’t our elected officials show some compassion for the 1.4 million new cancer patients each year who have no voice of their own.

To deny medical marijuana to cancer patients is simply wrong. The objections are irrational. The suffering is needless.

Ron Hutchinson is freelance writer and lives in Joplin.