If you are sick or dying in Colorado, you can legally smoke marijuana. It's a fact that law enforcement and elected officials are less than eager for you to know.

Sadly, six years after the state's voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment allowing the use of medical marijuana, there is an intolerable disrespect of the will of the people - and the sick and dying - by those in our government.

Article XVIII, Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution reads: "It shall be an exception from the state's criminal laws for any patient or primary care-giver in lawful possession of a registry identification card to engage or assist in the medical use of marijuana ... ."

Medical marijuana is a recognized treatment for many of the complications associated with serious medical conditions, including cancer, diabetes and AIDS. It's also a viable pain-treatment alternative for those barely surviving on conventional narcotic therapies like the highly addictive morphine, vicodin and oxycodone. As far back as 1997, the American Medical Association publicly supported the right of doctors to freely discuss marijuana as a possible therapy.

Since Colorado first implemented its program in June 2001, more than 1,340 people have successfully registered as patients, a move that requires obtaining a recommendation from a licensed physician for treatment of an authorized medical condition.

Registry statistics paint a compassionate picture of the average patient, most likely a male in his 40s suffering from severe pain (with 82 percent of all applicants approved for the registry for this condition). Thirty percent of all patients use marijuana to deal with muscle spasms and more than 20 percent have sought out marijuana to help them deal with nausea resulting from another medical condition. Thirty-two registered patients suffer from HIV or AIDS. Nearly 70 patients have died since the program began.

Interestingly, the average registry patient lives not in a liberal enclave like Boulder or Denver, but more likely in a quieter, more conservative place, like El Paso or Jefferson County - the two counties with the highest number of participants.

Unfortunately, for most of these patients, Colorado officials have only partially complied with the program since its inception. In its first year, then- Attorney General Ken Salazar publicly urged the U.S. Attorney to prosecute medical marijuana patients and their approving doctors under federal law and called the voter-approved program "an absurd and wasteful state-sanctioned protest vehicle against federal drug laws." He also sent a letter to the Colorado Medical Association and physicians statewide cautioning them about federal repercussions for complying with the program.

In reality, it hasn't been the federal government or its refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of medical marijuana in federal law that Colorado doctors and patients have had to worry about. Salazar's actions alone have had an incredibly chilling effect, with patients in rural areas reporting a difficult or impossible time finding a recommendation.

Our current attorney general, John Suthers, has been eager to condemn the constitutional amendment, calling it "terrible public policy" and has said, "Medical marijuana is nothing more than a smokescreen, an excuse for lifelong pot smokers to get high."

Like his predecessor, Suthers also attacked doctors who make recommendations, telling KCNC-Channel 4, "No doctor in his right mind would prescribe a medicine that is ingested by smoking." The cadre of respected and licensed Colorado physicians who have recommended marijuana to their patients obviously disagree.

Today, under Suthers' leadership, regional drug task forces and armed SWAT teams are arresting law-abiding medical marijuana users across the state.

Colorado voters are not alone in their support of medical marijuana. Poll after poll in the last six years demonstrate overwhelming backing for legal medical-marijuana use, including a CNN/Time Magazine survey, which shows voter support at 80 percent.

For the remaining minority unconvinced of marijuana's medicinal benefits, think about this: Do you really want your tax dollars being used to incarcerate non-violent and law-abiding citizens, many of them feeble, dying or severely disabled? Regardless of whether you disagree with the law, the fact remains that we've got more important battles to wage.

Colorado voters spoke more than six years ago to recognize the legitimacy of medical marijuana. Let's finally give our sick and dying the respect of being able to treat their conditions in peace and quiet. We must stop arresting medical marijuana patients.

Newshawk: Help for LTE writers www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Jul 2007
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2007 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Jessica Peck Corry
Note: Jessica Peck Corry is married to Robert J. Corry Jr., a Denver civil rights attorney specializing in medical marijuana defenses. She is an analyst for the Independence Institute and co-chair of the 2006 Guarding Our Children Against Marijuana Prohibition campaign.
Con: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n849.a10.html