a. I am not a criminal; I am a person living with a medical condition and use cannabis to alleviate my suffering; I am capable of making fundamental decisions about my health.

b. I have the right to live free of unnecessary suffering, social stigma and interference from the state, and should not have to choose between my personal liberty and my health.

c. I have the right to produce my own medicine if I am willing and able to do so, or to access it from a safe source without fear of arrest and persecution.

d. It is the federal government's moral, legal and constitutional obligation to defend these basic and inalienable human rights, and to ensure that no organization or individual unduly interferes with them.

This may represent one of the clearest statements of how I - and I'm sure you and many others - feel about the way we're increasingly treated with respect to our chosen medicine.

The reasons we need such a Bill of Rights become clearer everyday, and recent headlines tell why:

From Nevada: SENATE CONSIDERS MARIJUANA, KIDS BILL, Reno Gazette-Journal (NV), February, 20, 2007. "Nevada parents who grow a single marijuana plant in their home where children live could be subject to a prison term of up to 15 years, according to a bill that was debated Monday at the Nevada Legislature."

Short version: For one marijuana plant (!) in a home where children live, you will go to jail for a ridiculously long time.

From West Virginia: DRUG TESTING EFFECTIVENESS DEPENDS ON THE DRUGS, Charleston Daily Mail (WV), February 19, 2007. "If lighting up a marijuana joint is in your evening plans, you'd better hope you're not screened for drugs within the next 30 days. <snip> Last month, Gov. Joe Manchin expressed interest in requiring all agencies in the executive branch to screen job applicants for drug use. And at the Capitol, a few drug-testing-related bills have been introduced, notably one that mandates screening for coal miners."

Short version: If you work in mining and possibly other jobs if the governor has his way, your therapeutic use of cannabis use will cause you to lose your job, along with your health and retirement benefits.

From Oregon: BILL WOULD ALLOW MEDICAL-MARIJUANA USERS TO BE FIRED FOR FAILING DRUG TESTS, Statesman Journal (Salem, OR), February 8, 2007, "Employees who legally use marijuana under Oregon's voter-passed medical-cannabis laws could be fired for flunking a drug test under a proposed Senate bill under committee consideration Wednesday." http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n152/a03.html?317964

Short version: Like in West Virginia, use cannabis, even legally, and you're fired. Period. It doesn't matter whether or not you are lucid, sick, or the best, longest-employed person at the company. Terrorist, OK. Medicinal cannabis user, get lost.

The United States used to be based on granting rights to its citizens. But somewhere along the way, people became convinced that technology in the form of a drug test could draw a straight line to character. Although drug testing was originally designed to detect impairment and thus protect against accidents, it has morphed into a black and white rubber stamp that takes no prisoners. The only options are abstinence ("I know cannabis helps me to function, but I must give it up and silently suffer in order to put food on the table") or submission if detected ("I've erred in my ways trying to protect my health. I'll suffer in silence.)

Before we go too far in identifying the wrong target it should be made clear that drug tests are not the enemy. Drug tests are inert objects whose propensity for good or evil is determined by how they are used. Blaming the drug test itself for the denial of rights is like cursing the shackle as the purveyor of slavery. The real evil lies in the closed hearts and minds of those who blindly implement harmful policies.

While bigotry is rarely logical, it would perhaps be more understandable with respect to cannabis if three eminent truths were not emerging simultaneously based on one another.

The first fundamental truth is that, essentially, we are all composed of cannabis. The endogenous cannabinoid system was discovered in the mid-1990s and found to be prevalent in humans and animals. Own brains contain cannabinoid receptors that produce natural marijuana-like compounds called endocannabinoids. Whether we like it or not, cannabis-like compounds are what make us work as humans. Essentially, we "are" cannabis.

The second fundamental truth, likely based on the first, is that new medicinal applications for cannabis are being discovered every day. Just as one example, OPNews' 2006 Year-in-Review listed ten medical conditions for which cannabis has been found to be therapeutic in 2006, ranging from AIDS to Alzheimer's.

The third fundamental truth comes from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. A multi-billion dollar marketing campaign sells us every day on the merits of this or that drug. Many of these drugs come with intolerable side effects that make cannabis an attractive alternative considering Fundamental Truths #1 and #2.

The legitimate question needs to be asked of policy makers: In light of recent research confirming cannabis utility as a medicine, its prevalence in our own biochemistry, and the myriad of other equally harmful substances legally marketed every day, what is the real basis for discrimination against cannabis patients? Does it boil down to bigotry?

The fight against Chemical Bigotry - the discrimination against individuals based on their body chemistry, namely the heightened presence of cannabinoids or their metabolites, without any other documented wrongdoing - represents one of OPN's primary missions this year.

The Medical Cannabis Users Bill of Rights counters cannabis-based bigotry with a unifying statement. It delineates what is necessary to end bigotry; for me, it states exactly what we want. To be free. To be safe. To be healthy.

P.S. This Medical Cannabis Users Bill of Rights comes to us thanks to the Compassionate Canadians Website (http://www.compassionatecanadians.com/billrights.php).