PATIENTS DESERVE RIGHT TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA

In Illinois, people who suffer from cancer and smoke marijuana to
stem their nausea, reduce their pain or improve their appetite --
well, those folks are criminals.

This must end, and fortunately a proposal before state lawmakers
would bring much-needed common sense to the medical use of marijuana
by legalizing it.

People ravaged with cancer or AIDS or other horrible illnesses don't
smoke marijuana to get high.

They smoke pot to reduce the bone-shaking pain and the constant urge to vomit.

For them, marijuana is medicine.

This measure is not about whether lawmakers are sufficiently tough on
crime. It's about whether we as a society are caring enough to extend
compassion to people who are suffering.

Nor is this an extremist move. Thirteen other states already have
legalized the medical use of marijuana.

It makes little sense that patients in severe pain are denied access
to marijuana when they can obtain prescription drugs that can be much
more harmful when abused, such as OxyContin.

Nationally, polls show that roughly 80 percent of Americans support
legalizing the medical use of marijuana.

In Illinois, a key supporter of the measure is state Sen. William R.
Haine, who for 14 years was the state's attorney in Downstate Madison County.

Hardly a radical.

Also among the bill's supporters are dozens of clergy throughout the state.

Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the
Drug Enforcement Administration would stop raiding marijuana
dispensaries in states where they are legal, fulfilling a campaign
promise by President Obama.

Critics of the proposal fear that Illinois could become another
California, where the voters legalized the medical use of marijuana
in 1996 and have since had to deal with some unintended consequences.
California, in fact, has provided a number of horror stories that
critics of medicinal marijuana love to cite.

There are the large-scale illegal pot dealers hiding behind the
medical marijuana law as a legal defense.

There are the people with negligible aches and pains shopping around
for compliant doctors to get quickee prescriptions for pot.

There are pot vending machines -- marijuana at the push of a button.

While there are kernels of truth to such cautionary tales, they tend
to be exaggerated and sensationalized and should not be allowed to
derail the bill in Illinois.

The proposal in Illinois is much more narrowly drafted than the
general measure in California, precisely to safeguard against the
abuses seen in California.

Patients in Illinois would have to have relationships with their
doctors before getting their OK for medical marijuana, and that
prescription would have to be approved by the state.

If a patient abused their new right, it could be taken away.

State Sen. Haine has suggested that a commission be created to
monitor the impact of the law; if the commission detected serious
abuses of medicinal marijuana, the law could be fine tuned.

An additional safeguard is built into the proposal itself -- the law
would expire in three years. In the highly unlikely event that reefer
madness had descended upon the state, state lawmakers could then
refuse to extend the law.

We suspect many state lawmakers would like to vote for this measure
but fear the political backlash, though the vast majority of them
come from safe districts.

We suggest they consider a few facts.

By and large, voters are not stupid.

By and large, they understand the difference between legalizing
marijuana for severely sick people under tight controls and passing
out joints on playgrounds.

The vast majority of voters have a relative or friend who has
suffered greatly from cancer, AIDS or another brutal illness.

Are we a compassionate society?

If so, we will pass this bill.