As many of you know, I was released back in May from an eighteen month stay in a federal Bureau of Prisons halfway house as part of my sentence for providing medical marijuana free of charge to sick and dying people in Tennessee for the past twenty years.
In April and May, my case received much local ( www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Cover_Story/2007/04/26/Marijuana_Martyr/ ) and national ( www.commonwonders.com/archives/col391.htm ) attention. (The details are available on a web-site that was funded and established for me by Brad Friedman and many other friends: www.saveberniesfarm.com )
As a result of the outpouring of support that the publicity on my case brought to the issue, a medical marijuana bill that had languished in our state legislature for years passed through one House sub-committee, though no more action was taken before the legislature adjourned. However, a study committee of the full House committee accepted five hours of testimony two weeks ago on the bill and I was allowed to testify for 45 minutes myself. That hearing also received considerable local media attention. On one Nashville television station's web-site, an on-line poll drew over 4-to-1 support for re-establishing a medical marijuana program in our state.
This morning, I awoke to find the entire editorial page of the Nashville Tennessean devoted to medical marijuana. In the middle of that page was the following editorial from the paper itself, wholeheartedly endorsing medical marijuana.
----------
Friday, 11/30/07
Opinion: Allow marijuana to serve a purpose and ease suffering -- Our View
Tennessee lawmakers should not only consider legislation allowing the medicinal use of marijuana, they should pass it into law.
A study committee of the General Assembly recently heard testimony on the issue, where various voices from interest groups and the medical profession expressed their opinions. Rep. Sherry Jones, D-Nashville, has a draft version of a bill for consideration. Efforts to legalize the use of the drug for medical reasons should move straight ahead, and caring citizens should urge legislators to approve the legislation.
Marijuana is legal for medicinal purposes in 12 states. Even many of its detractors acknowledge some of its benefits in easing suffering. But opposition to legalizing the use of the drug to help seriously ill patients find comfort seems to dwell more on the stigma associated with marijuana than anything else. Arguments against medical marijuana dwell frequently on what is heard about the drug's use elsewhere, frequently using California as an example, with tales of marijuana becoming a storefront for drug business or that use of the drug gets out of hand.
Regardless of what happens in California or any other state, this is Tennessee, and if the state cannot effectively administer a drug under carefully drawn regulations, that's a reflection on this state, not another. Pharmaceutical painkillers are often obtained illegally and abused, but that's no reason to prohibit the prescription use of painkillers. Marijuana should be no different.
Arguments based on fear:
Legalizing marijuana for medical purposes is not an automatic precursor to rampant drug activity. Arguments against medical marijuana seem based more on fear and exaggeration than the logic of reducing suffering. Marijuana isn't nearly as risky as the objections make it sound.
The marijuana issue came up last year in the legislature. A House subcommittee approved the bill, but the measure did not get out of a Senate committee. The issue should be brought back. Testimony in the recent legislative hearing suggested that marijuana is not as preferable as some synthetic drugs available. But it is always pertinent to ask about the cost of other drugs, and people respond in different ways to different treatments.
Opposition to medicinal marijuana is making the issue far more complicated than it should be. It is a substance that can be grown naturally and can bring some relief to people who desperately need it. It makes little sense for it to be illegal when used strictly for medical purposes.
------------
You can find the complete editorial page and a growing volume of on-line debate on the issue at
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=OPINIONI would encourage you to visit this link and to read the op-ed piece authored by Rep. Sherry Jones, the House sponsor for the bill. (She had a little help from a certain "fly" on the wall, so to speak.)
In preparation for printing this full-page editorial debate on medical marijuana, the Tennessean had asked readers for the past week to submit their own opinions on whether medical marijuana should be legalized in our state. It is quite heartening to see that every letter they received from readers that they printed on-line today was in favor of that idea.
Today, sanity finally broke out in the Southland. Here's hoping Tennessee becomes the first Southern state to help return cannabis to the honored and appreciated place it has held in our medical pharmacopeia for 5,000 years of recorded history.
It is high time we admitted a 70 year mistake. Peace out.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
