Other Views: Law banning pot for medical use gives wrong idea

(U-WIRE) STOCKTON, Calif. -- The House of Representatives recently passed a resolution which said that marijuana, as an addictive and hazardous drug, should not be legalized for medical use.

A statement released by the House Republican Conference said, "The resolution is based on numerous committee hearings, testimony and research presented, all of which conclude that marijuana not only contains no plausible medical benefits, but is harmful to one's health when smoked."

Other supporters of the resolution argued that legalizing marijuana for medical use would give teenagers the wrong idea.

This is a strange argument. The assumption is that if marijuana is legalized for medical purposes, more teenagers will smoke marijuana or think that smoking marijuana is a healthy habit. The legalization of cocaine for medical use didn't rouse a crowd of teenagers to rush for the nearest drug-dealer, so why would the legalization of marijuana do this?

It's interesting that one of the reasons given for passing this bill is that marijuana is a highly addictive drug with "no plausible medical benefits."

Aren't morphine and cocaine highly addictive drugs which are legal for medical use?

Isn't alcohol a highly addictive drug with no medical benefits? (except that red wine may reduce the risk of heart disease)

Morphine is a narcotic prescribed to patients with chronic pain. It has side effects including respiratory depression and nausea, but is still a legal medical drug. Marijuana's only side effect is an increase in appetite.

Cocaine is used as a local anesthetic and a vassal constrictor. Recent research at the University of California, San Francisco shows that marijuana eases pain by shutting down nerves and preventing pain signals from being transmitted to the brain.

Chemotherapy patients assert that marijuana relieves nausea after a chemotherapy treatment, and people who suffer from glaucoma, a disease of the eye, are given marijuana to relieve inter ocular pressure.

In spite of these medical benefits, Congress still refuses to legalize marijuana for medical use. Their justification of this is that marijuana "is harmful to one's health when smoked."

This seems like a ridiculous argument, considering that cigarettes are the leading cause of heart disease and lung cancer. How many people have died from cigarette smoking? How many people have died from marijuana smoking?

If Congress is trying to save our lives, smoking cigarettes should be illegal, not smoking marijuana. If alcohol, morphine, cocaine, and tobacco are legal, then marijuana should be as well.

I'm not arguing that all marijuana smoking should be legal, but for medical purposes, it definitely should be allowed.

It is unfortunate that in our representative democracy the representatives don't really represent the people and their ideals.