!!!!!!!!LEGALIZE MARIJUANA!!!!!!!!!!!

The statements below give an introduction as to why Marijuana should be legalized for medical use as well as personal.

"The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms cased by such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS--or by the harsh drugs sometimes used to treat them. And it can do so with remarkable safety. Indeed, marijuana is less toxic than many of the drugs that physicians prescribe every day.

-- American Public Health Association
Medical Marijuana Policy Statement
Jan. 1995

The evidence in this record [9-6-88 ruling] clearly show that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record."

-- Judge Francis L. Young
DEA Administrative Law Judge
Administrative ruling on Petition to Reschedule Marijuana
Sep. 1988

"There is very little evidence that smoking marijuana as a means of taking it represents a significant health risk. Although cannabis has been smoked widely in Western countries for more than four decades, there have been no reported cases of lung cancer or emphysema attributed to marijuana. I suspected that a day's breathing in any city with poor air quality poses more of a threat then inhaling a day's dose-- which for many ailments is just portion of a joint -- of marijuana."

 -- Lester Grinspoon, MD
Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
"Puffing Is the Best Medicine,"
Los Angeles Times
May 5, 2006         

"Patients receiving cannabinoids [smoked marijuana and marijuana pills] had improved immune function compared with those receiving placebo. They also gained about 4lbs more on average than those patients receiving placebo."

-- Donald Abrams, MD, et al.
"Short-Term Effects of Cannabinoids in Patients with HIV-1 Infection,"
Annals of Internal Medicine
Aug. 19, 2003

 "There are really no other medications that have the same mechanisms of action as marijuana. Dronabinol (Marinol) is available by prescription in capsules, but has the distinct disadvantage of containing only synthetic delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which is only one of many therapeuctically beneficail cannabinoids in the natural plant."

-- Gregory T. Carter, MD
Co-director, MDA/ALS Center,
University of Washington Medical Center
Muscular Dystrophy Association
website article
Oct. 2003

"For some users, perhaps as many as 10 per cent, cannabis leads to psychological dependence, but there is scant evidence that it carries a risk of true addiction. Unlike cigarette smokers, most users do not take the drug on a daily basis, and usually abandon it in their twenties or thirties.

Unlike for nicotine, alcohol and hard drugs, there is no clearly defined withdrawal syndrome, the hallmark of true addiction, when use is stopped."

-- Colin Blakemore, PhD
Chair, Dept. of Physiology, University of Oxford (U.K.), and
Leslie Iversen, PhD
Professor of Pharmacology, Oxford University
Editorial, The Times (U.K.)
Aug. 6, 2001

"We've shown that the marijuana gateway effect is not the best explanation for the link between marijuana use and the use of harder drugs.

An alternative, simpler and more compelling explanation accounts for the pattern of drug use you see in this country, without resort to any gateway effects. While the gateway theory has enjoyed popular acceptance, scientists have always had their doubts. Our study shows that these doubts are justified.[...]

The people who are predisposed to use drugs and have the opportunity to use drugs are more likely than others to use both marijuana and harder drugs. Marijuana typically comes first because it is more available."

-- Andrew Morral, PhD                                                                Researcher, Rand Corporation                                                                  Press release discussing his study published in the U.K. journal Addiction Dec. 2, 2002

"While it is not possible with existing data to determine conclusively that state medical marijuana laws caused the documented declines in adolescent marijuana use, the overwhelming downward trend strongly suggests that the effect of state medical marijuana laws on teen marijuana use has been either neutral or positive, discouraging youthful experimentation with the drug."



-- Mitch Earleywine, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology, State University of New York at Albany
Karen O%u2019Keefe, Esq.
Attorney & Legislative Analyst, Marijuana Policy Project
Report, "Marijuana Use by Young People:
The Impact of State Medical Marijuana Laws"
Sep. 2005