Keep politics out of medicine

[grace]

The Obama administration this week showed that the President's inaugural promise to restore science to its rightful place in policy-making isn't limited to the issue of global warming.

 

Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement Wednesday that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal is a welcome sign that in medicine, too, the administration will defer to the experts. It is time to let doctors, scientists and patients guide medical policy. And time to get the pundits and politicians who would let the sick suffer out of a misguided sense of law and order off their backs.

 

Aside to New York lawmakers: It's time to act.

 

President Obama said during last year's campaign that he would not follow the Bush administration's practice of arresting medical marijuana patients and providers. Mr. Holder's statement marked a clear, official end to the Bush policy, at least in the 13 states where medical marijuana is effectively legal.

 

Advocates of medical marijuana, including a host of medical and legal organizations, point to a variety of diseases — cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and HIV/AIDS — for which the drug can relieve muscle spasms, pain and nausea.

 

In these and other cases, patients — the people who must live with the consequences of a prohibition based on politics, not medical evidence — say legal pharmaceutical alternatives simply don't bring the relief that smoking marijuana does.

 

It comes down to this: The issue of whether cannabis is the right drug for a person to use to relieve suffering should be a decision between patient and doctor. Politicians have no place in that discussion, except to clear the obstacles that make it illegal to use pot as a treatment.

More needs to happen now. Congress should reclassify marijuana so that using it for medical purposes is not a federal crime.

 

Meanwhile, New York lawmakers should follow the lead of a growing number of states, including New Jersey, whose state Senate last month passed legislation to legalize marijuana for medicinal use. The New Jersey Assembly has yet to pass the bill, which has bipartisan support. Listen to Republican Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, a prime sponsor:

 

"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."

 

New York's Assembly has passed such a bill before, but it failed to gain enough support in what was then a Republican-controlled Senate. But with Democrats now in charge of that chamber, too, the Legislature should, once and for all, pass the measure this session. And Gov. Paterson should sign it. It is time to set politics aside, and let science — not to mention compassion — lead the debate.

 

The issue: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said he'll defer to states on medical marijuana.

 

The Stakes: New York should to the compassionate thing and legalize medical pot, now.

 

To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com

 

Date: 20 March 2009

Source: Times Union

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story...ategory=OPINION

[Terry Wright]

Are the US actually over taking Australia with sensible drug polices? This was unthinkable just a few moths ago.

[mistyville]

Good on Obama. Will Krudd follow suite?

[Radic]

More needs to happen now. Congress should reclassify marijuana so that using it for medical purposes is not a federal crime.

 

much more obamma

pull yah finger out please

people are dieing and suffering

big time

no excuse now

tell the people propper

obamma

 

the whole world knows

secdual 1 is for no medicinal use which means no research nessary

 

get real

cannabis must be rescedualled to allow scientists to do the rescearch Cannabis deserves

so then the pollies can listen to reason

see de light

cannabis must free

heal the people

heal the land