Oregon is one of eleven states that have recognized the medicinal uses of marijuana. If you are a citizen of one of these states, you and your doctor are free to make your own medical decisions regarding this therapeutic plant without the heavy hand of government threatening your liberty.
That is, the heavy hand of state government. The federal government is a different story.
Some form of medical marijuana law covers twenty-three percent of the American population. Support for medical marijuana – even in the other thirty-nine states – reaches 80% in some polls. Yet the will of the citizens and legislatures in those eleven states mean nothing if federal police, prosecutors, and courts decide you and your doctor are breaking federal law. Even as our attention focuses on “the war on terror”, John Ashcroft’s Department of Justice continues to terrorize doctors, patients, caregivers, and providers who rigorously obey state laws.
The problem lies in drug categorization, or “schedules”. Schedule III drugs are those recognized for medical use and have low risk of abuse, like codeine and anabolic steroids. Schedule II drugs are also medicinal, but have a high risk of abuse, like cocaine, crank, and morphine. Schedule I drugs have no medical benefit and high risk of abuse, like heroin, acid, angel dust, ecstasy, and marijuana.
Yes, you read that correctly: the federal government believes marijuana has no medicinal benefit. The Drug Enforcement Agency treats marijuana the same as heroin, acid, angel dust, and ecstasy. John Ashcroft and the drug warriors declare that marijuana is worse for you than cocaine, crank, morphine, codeine, and anabolic steroids.
Yet Oregon, ten other states, and many municipalities have recognized what doctors and patients have known for decades: marijuana is an effective therapy for those afflicted with cancer, chronic pain, seizure disorders, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, nausea, and other illnesses.
This year, Oregonians have a ballot Measure 33 (OMMA2) to create a state-regulated supply system for its medical marijuana patients. Voting yes on 33 guarantees that seriously ill Oregonians will be able to obtain an unadulterated legal supply of medicine. Without it, patients too sick to grow marijuana are forced to buy their medicine from an unregulated criminal black market.
While voting yes on Measure 33 is a humane and positive step, it is irrelevant to the federal law. Even if it passes, patients and doctors still risk federal incarceration. The next logical step is to petition our government to recognize the irrefutable medical science and classify marijuana as a Schedule III drug.
Rescheduling marijuana is not a call to legalize recreational use. Doctors and pharmacists would control marijuana much like codeine and steroids. Non-medical-marijuana states would still be free to regulate the drug, while patients with prescriptions would avoid state and federal prosecution in all fifty states.
The insanity of medical marijuana is that the states had to bring it up in the first place. Vote yes on Measure 33, but also tell your representatives that the government needs to re-examine federal marijuana laws.
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_ | "RADICAL" RUSS BELVILLE | Read More at http://radicalruss.net/blog/
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