Times of Trenton

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

EDITORIAL: LEGALIZE MEDICAL POT

Thousands of patients have borne witness to the fact that smoking marijuana helps stimulate hunger and relieve nausea caused by chemotherapy or AIDS.
Sadly, federal law forbids this kind of humanitarian use of the drug. The production, sale and possession of pot is illegal, even when the user seeks not a high but relief from symptoms related to a debilitating illness.

Worse, George Bush's Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft has displayed a zealous dedication to enforcing this inhumane statute. The department even threatened to punish doctors in California who recommended pot to their patients until the courts ruled such action a violation of free speech.

In spite of it all, nine states have legalized the use of marijuana for appropriate medical purposes. New Jersey would become the 10th state to do so under a bipartisan bill that will be introduced in the Legislature this fall. The value of this kind of independent action by state governments is twofold. It protects patients and caregivers from the state prosecution that constitutes 99 percent of the marijuana-law enforcement in the United States, and it helps encourage those U.S. senators and representatives whose hearts are in the right place, even if their backbones are weak, to support a change in the federal law.

Drug warriors blinded by their own ideology argue that carving out a medical
exemption for pot would put the country on the slippery slope to legalizing drugs, but that isn't true. Statutory language has been carefully crafted in the nine states that are out front on this issue to ensure that marijuana can be obtained only by those with a legitimate medical need for it. And Canada has been able to maintain its defenses against recreational use of pot while allowing patients to grow the plant for medical purposes with a doctor's approval, or even obtain it free from the government.

The promised sponsors of the New Jersey bill, Assemblymen Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton, and Patrick Carroll, R-Morris Township, have been touched by cases like that of 28-year-old Sean McGrath. Mr. McGrath died last June after a two-year battle with cancer during which his weight fell to 97 pounds because the disease and heavy doses of chemotherapy robbed him of his appetite.

"It was devastating to watch," said Sean's father, Don McGrath of Washington Township. "The medicine they gave him to combat the effects of the chemotherapy didn't work. The only thing that did work was when he started smoking marijuana. That brought back his appetite and gave him some comfort.

"He would have preferred to use a legal drug, but there was no alternative. He felt uncomfortable because it was illegal, but he was more concerned about the college kids who were delivering it to him. He didn't want them to
get arrested."

As Assemblyman Gusciora says, "We're talking about people with terminal illness who deserve some comfort before they pass away. We shouldn't make criminals of people on their deathbeds." Adds Assemblyman Carroll: "If you can go to your doctor and get a derivative of the poppy to treat pain, why can't you get a derivative of the cannabis plant to treat your symptoms?
There is no such thing as an evil plant. If a doctor using his or her best medical judgment thinks marijuana is the best thing for the patient, he or she should be allowed to prescribe it."

Their common sense - and their compassion - are clear and compelling. We
hope these attributes can be found among their colleagues in the New Jersey
Legislature, and in the United States Congress.