Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jul 2001 Source: Capital Times, The (WI) Copyright: 2001 The Capital Times Contact: http://www.thecapitaltimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/73 Author: Lili Kilfoy, Madison NOT ALLOWING MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS SICKENING Members of the American Medical Association should be ashamed to call themselves doctors. On the same day they rejected a proposal to endorse the limited use of medical marijuana for seriously ill patients, the National Scientific Panel urged an increased focus on relieving symptoms of cancer patients and their distress. How disgustingly ironic. It makes me sick to live in a country that we call free, where dying people will go to jail if they smoke a non-addictive herb. The pharmaceutical companies are reprocessing drugs that they know are addictive and have horrible side effects. Morphine, which kills many people every year, is a very common painkiller. No one would say that morphine should not be legal for medicinal purposes because others might abuse it. That would be ridiculous. But that's our country's excuse for keeping marijuana illegal, because it might be abused. Like millions of people don't smoke it anyways. I'll tell you why our government won't legalize marijuana -- because pharmaceutical companies own them. They don't want to legalize it since they can't keep the truth of marijuana away from the people, they can't make money by being your dealer and selling processed, packaged pills. Since we can easily grow marijuana in our gardens or in our homes, they would have no way to make money. Lili Kilfoy Madison - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens