Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Patients deserve right to medical marijuana

Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Patients deserve right to medical marijuana
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times
April 28, 2009
http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/1546659,CST-EDT-edit28a.article


In Illinois, people who suffer from cancer and smoke marijuana to stem their nausea, reduce their pain or improve their appetite -- well, those folks are criminals.

This must end, and fortunately a proposal before state lawmakers would bring much-needed common sense to the medical use of marijuana by legalizing it.

People ravaged with cancer or AIDS or other horrible illnesses don't smoke marijuana to get high.

They smoke pot to reduce the bone-shaking pain and the constant urge to vomit.

For them, marijuana is medicine.

This measure is not about whether lawmakers are sufficiently tough on crime. It's about whether we as a society are caring enough to extend compassion to people who are suffering.

Nor is this an extremist move. Thirteen other states already have legalized the medical use of marijuana.

It makes little sense that patients in severe pain are denied access to marijuana when they can obtain prescription drugs that can be much more harmful when abused, such as OxyContin.

Nationally, polls show that roughly 80 percent of Americans support legalizing the medical use of marijuana.

In Illinois, a key supporter of the measure is state Sen. William R. Haine, who for 14 years was the state's attorney in Downstate Madison County.

Hardly a radical.

Also among the bill's supporters are dozens of clergy throughout the state.

Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Drug Enforcement Administration would stop raiding marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal, fulfilling a campaign promise by President Obama.

Critics of the proposal fear that Illinois could become another California, where the voters legalized the medical use of marijuana in 1996 and have since had to deal with some unintended consequences. California, in fact, has provided a number of horror stories that critics of medicinal marijuana love to cite.

There are the large-scale illegal pot dealers hiding behind the medical marijuana law as a legal defense.

There are the people with negligible aches and pains shopping around for compliant doctors to get quickee prescriptions for pot.

There are pot vending machines -- marijuana at the push of a button.

While there are kernels of truth to such cautionary tales, they tend to be exaggerated and sensationalized and should not be allowed to derail the bill in Illinois.

The proposal in Illinois is much more narrowly drafted than the general measure in California, precisely to safeguard against the abuses seen in California.

Patients in Illinois would have to have relationships with their doctors before getting their OK for medical marijuana, and that prescription would have to be approved by the state.

If a patient abused their new right, it could be taken away.

State Sen. Haine has suggested that a commission be created to monitor the impact of the law; if the commission detected serious abuses of medicinal marijuana, the law could be fine tuned.

An additional safeguard is built into the proposal itself -- the law would expire in three years. In the highly unlikely event that reefer madness had descended upon the state, state lawmakers could then refuse to extend the law.

We suspect many state lawmakers would like to vote for this measure but fear the political backlash, though the vast majority of them come from safe districts.

We suggest they consider a few facts.

• • By and large, voters are not stupid.

• • By and large, they understand the difference between legalizing marijuana for severely sick people under tight controls and passing out joints on playgrounds.

• • The vast majority of voters have a relative or friend who has suffered greatly from cancer, AIDS or another brutal illness.

Are we a compassionate society?

If so, we will pass this bill.