Marijuana is medicine. It has been used for thousands of years
to treat a wide variety of ailments. Marijuana (cannabis sativa l.)
was legal in the United States for all purposes – industrial and recreational,
as well as medicinal – until 1937. Today, only eight Americans are
legally allowed to use marijuana as medicine. Even though Marijuana,
in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances
known. No one has ever died from an overdose. It is also extremely
versatile.
Four of its general therapeutic applications include:
(1) Relief from nausea and increase of appetite;
(2) Reduction of intraocular ("within the eye") pressure;
(3) Reduction of muscle spasms;
(4) Relief from mild to moderate chronic pain;
Marijuana is often useful in the treatment of the following conditions:
* Cancer: marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting, and loss
of appetite caused by chemotherapy treatment.
* AIDS: marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting, and loss of
appetite caused by the disease itself and by treatment with AZT and other
drugs.
* Glaucoma: marijuana, by reducing intraocular pressure, alleviates
the pain and slows or halts the progress of the disease.
* Multiple sclerosis: marijuana reduces the muscle pain and spasticity
caused by the disease. It may also relieve tremor and unsteadiness
of gait, and it helps some patients with bladder control.
* Epilepsy: marijuana prevents epileptic seizures in some patients.
* Chronic pain: marijuana reduces the chronic, often debilitating
pain caused by a variety of injuries and disorders.
Each of these uses has been recognized as legitimate at least once by
various courts, legislatures, government, or scientific agencies throughout
the Untied States. Many well-respected organizations and associations
at federal and state levels, have supported the use of marijuana as medicine.
In addition, anecdotal evidence exists that marijuana is effective in
the treatment of arthritis, migraine headaches, pruritis, menstrual cramps,
alcohol and opiate addiction, and depression and mood disorders.
Marijuana could benefit as many as five million patients in the United
States. However, except for the eight individuals given special permission
by the federal government, marijuana remains illegal – even as medicine!
Even with recent state initiatives, individuals currently suffering
from any of the aforementioned ailments, for whom the standard legal medical
alternatives have not been safe or effective, are left with two choices:
(a) Continue to suffer from the effects of the disease;
(b) or Obtain marijuana illegally and risk the potential consequences,
which may include:
- an insufficient supply because of the prohibition-inflated price or
unavailability;
- impure, contaminated, or chemically adulterated marijuana;
- arrests fines, court costs, property forfeiture, incarceration, probation,
and criminal records.
Background
The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 established the federal prohibition of
marijuana. Dr. William C. Woodward of the American Medical Association
testified against the Act, arguing that it would ultimately prevent any
medicinal use of marijuana.
The controlled substances act of 1970 established five categories or
"schedules", into which all illicit and prescription drugs were placed.
Marijuana was placed in schedule I, which defines the substance as having
a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment
in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical
supervision.
This definition is simply not accurate. However, at the time of
the controlled substances act, marijuana had been illegal for more than
30 years. Its medicinal uses had been forgotten and its "reefer madness"
stigma was still prevalent. Marijuana's medicinal uses were rediscovered
as a result of the tremendous increase in the number of recreational users
in the 1970s:
The struggle in court
In 1972, NORML initiated efforts to reschedule marijuana by submitting
a petition to the bureau of narcotics and dangerous drugs – now the drug
enforcement agency (DEA). After 14 years of legal maneuvering, the
DEA finally acceded to NORML's demand for the public hearings required
by law. Following the hearings, which lasted two years and included
thousands of pages of documentation as well as the testimony of numerous
physicians and patients, a decision was reached.
On September 6, 1988, the DEA's chief administrative law judge, Francis
L. Young, ruled:
"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically
active substances known. …
" … [T]he [provisions of the [controlled substances] Act permit
and require the transfer of marijuana from schedule I to schedule II.
"It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to
continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance.
…" [Docket no. 86-22]
Marijuana's placement in schedule II would allow doctors to prescribe
it to their patients. Bureaucrats in charge of the DEA rejected Judge
Young's ruling and simply refused to reschedule! It seems as long
as the DEA – a law enforcement agency – is allowed to set it's own criteria
to determine what is "medicine", the courts will be unable to require the
DEA to reschedule marijuana.
However, Oregonians want seriously ill medical patients to be able to
use medical marijuana in a way that doesn't encourage drug abuse.
The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (OMMA), passed in Nov. 1998 as Measure
67, a state initiative, now allows patients to possess and grow small amounts
of medial marijuana within this state.
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Speaking before public interest and
community groups.
The government's own statistics show Portland has at least 
