Wisconsin can harness marijuana's benefits
Thank you for Krissy Oechslin's article (""Medical marijuana bill deserves real consideration,"" Jan. 23), and good luck to Wisconsin citizens in overcoming the discredited racist cannabis laws. Many citizens use cannabis responsibly and are tired of the various forms of government discriminatory deceit directed toward them. To cage sick citizens using cannabis for relief of pain is vile, morbid and spiteful for a civilization in the year 2002.
It was discomforting witnessing my 16-year-old dying of cancer be allowed self-induced morphine every six minutes for pain but denied cannabis use.
In 1989, DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young concluded not only that marijuana's medical usefulness had been adequately demonstrated, but that the plant had been shown to be ""one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.""
Christ God gave us cannabis and put cannabinoid (THC) receptor sites in our brains: Who prohibits man from making that connection? Hint: Check 1 Timothy 4:1-5.
Assembly bill would help to ease suffering
Marijuana is not violent. People do not get high and start fights or lose their sense of self. The idea that alcohol is legal while marijuana can be classified as serious an offense as a felony is ridiculous (""Medical marijuana bill deserves real consideration,"" Jan. 23). Furthermore, if marijuana can help those who are ill and in constant and severe pain, why should anybody deny them? The sick people who need to use medical marijuana are not criminals or drains on society'they are simply people who are in need of a little peace, a little sanctity from the day-to-day pain of their illness. Yet, those who do currently choose to use marijuana for medical purposes are risking their freedom, their standard of living and perhaps even their livelihood for a little reprieve. That is not right.
People should not be able to lose everything for trying to feel a little better. While I do not agree with it, I can understand why marijuana is not legal for the general public. However, it is unfathomable to me why the government would allow its ailing people to suffer so unnecessarily. The states that have already legalized medical marijuana have been met with success and Wisconsin, too, can be successful in this endeavor. Wisconsin has the chance to be a leader in the fight for legalized medical marijuana. I hope the Assembly can put its trepidations behind it and vote to end our sick people's suffering.
