Medical Marijuana

As an individual with advanced, inoperable cancer, I live daily with the many symptoms of my disease. Nausea is continuous, pain is exhausting and loss of appetite can cause weight loss.
While there are medications for these symptoms, my experience has been that they also can have significant side effects which can complicate my daily life as well as my cancer treatments.
At the suggestion of a doctor I have used marijuana as a treatment for my symptoms. It does reduce my nausea, it does lessen pain and it stimulates my appetite to maintain my body weight. It does all of this with essentially no side effects and I sense none of the addictiveness of many other drugs which I have been prescribed. I find this therapy to be worth the legal risks.
Can anyone tell me why this therapy should be denied to anybody who might benefit from it?

I'm glad to see that our new president has ceased spending hundreds of thousands of dollars raiding medical marijuana "clinics" in California, which are legal by CA law. I really believe that each state must make these choices, similarly to how they treat gambling and fireworks. As a native of Maine, I'm glad there aren't fireworks shooting off all over the place in Maine during the 4th of July. It makes me feel safer. Yes, some do get smuggled up, but the number is a fraction of what it would be if it were legal in Maine. State laws do work, and as a democratic union of independent states, we need to give more power back to the state gov.

One of the most important effects of medical application of marijuana is that of enhancing appetite. Persons undergoing chemo-therapies, suffering HIV/AIDS symptoms, and other illnesses affecting digestion and appetite have had their lives saved by the use of marijuana. Many doctors recognize these facts, and in the interest of helping their patients and others in similar straits they acknowledge that access for medical use should be granted.

It is unfortunate that many decades of misinformation has grown around marijuana and its use. How many people actually know that laws and attitudes about marijuana are founded in the fact that it was a "negro" drug for many years in the early 20th century? Rampant crime waves of people under the influence of marijuana have never materialized. However, the nation has accepted years of draconian law and legal action with respect to this substance. Why, then, do those who oppose marijuana use support a full unbiased research project to determine the true effects and risks of marijuana. In that way, at least the potential medical applications, the dangers to general use, and other important information could be ascertained. Is it in fact because many are afraid that what they "know" about marijuana use could be quite incorrect or inaccurate?

I'd like to reference a Supreme Court Decision earlier this month: Wyeth Pharmaceuticals vs. Levine, a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that approval of a medication by federal regulators does not shield the manufacturer from liability under state law. Notice that the drug with the potentially horrendous side effects was an anti-nauseant. It happens that cancer patients and oncologists have discovered that cannabis has anti-nauseant qualities when used by patients undergoing chemotherapy, which often leads to patients throwing up uncontrollably (and miserably) for hours and even for days. Yet it has virtually no unpleasant side effects. Many of the current drugs available as "alternatives" have inadequate warning and are unreliable, even when previously approved by the FDA. Cannabis, however, has been used medicinally for thousands of years and still remains in the same class of drugs as heroin. We need to realize that its benefits to some people are immediate, and with its lack of negative side-effects there is no reason why this plant should not be used medicinally.

I thought today's program was actually well-done, something I was not expecting with this particular topic. It's been so politicized, and part of our cultural divide. This is why it has to be a state matter; if enough states can come up with a sensible policy perhaps we can finally make some true progress. Cannabis is obviously a medicinal plant, one that has been with humans for thousands of years, and it should be studied freely to unlock it's potential as a modern medicine. Most modern drugs have their origins as "folk" or "herbal" remedies. Long human experience should not be discounted; just because humans only recently developed high-tech laboratories doesn't mean that folk medicine is backward superstition. Look at the opium poppy--another plant with ancient human connections; it is the source of the most important pain medications we have in our modern hospitals. Yes, some people do become addicted to heroin, which is derived from opium, but does that mean we should get rid of morphine? Of course not. Ask the soldier in Iraq who is grievously wounded on the battlefield. Medicines come from the plant world--this is why scientists are keen on saving the rain forests, right? To turn our backs on the knowledge that could be derived from this plant is plainly unreasonable, as is the fear of people smoking a joint in the privacy of their homes. Yes, Dr Voth, some humans like to buffer the hard realities of life by getting stoned, and you can look on that as a moral failing if you wish. But to deny a potentially helpful medicine to your fellow humans who are suffering greatly due to real terrible diseases for which we have no cure is inexcusable.

How about we just imprison all of the people who feel they have a right trespass on the sanctity of other people's freedom and rights to act as they please so long as it doesn't hurt others. Then there would be real justice.