|
|
|---|
|
Medical Marijuana News Update
The Coalition
for Medical Marijuana includes:
|
Flint, MI Approves Medical MarijuanaThe city of Flint, MI, voted to allow patients in need to have access to medical marijuana. The Saginaw News reported on March 4, 2007 ("Flint Pot Vote Raises Awareness") that "By a 1,777-1,101 vote, Flint became the fifth Michigan city to approve legally puffing pot for health reasons. Use remains illegal under state and federal law. Officials reminded Flint residents not to start loading up their hookah pipes -- or face the consequences. Other Michigan cities that have approved medical pot-use measures are Ann Arbor, Detroit, Ferndale and Traverse City. Lansing is the next target, says NORML, a pro-marijuana outfit, and the goal is to get a medical dope initiative on the statewide ballot. Medical marijuana use is legal in 11 states." According to the News, "Whether marijuana is safer or a more effective painkiller than, say, OxyContin is debatable, but some users think so. Cancer patients who have tried it say pot works best at inducing appetite. It has beneficial uses, and we're sympathetic to those who use it legally. The biggest fear coming from law enforcement circles is that legalized medical marijuana use could lead to additional abuse and wider recreational use. Yet the abuse of prescription drugs, the International Narcotics Control Board said last week, is about to exceed the use of "practically all illicit drugs with the exception of cannibis." The board, an offshoot of the United Nations, said the number of Americans abusing prescription drugs nearly doubled between 1992 and 2003, to 15.1 million from 7.8 million people." The News noted that "A free and compassionate society ought to understand common sense trumps perceptions of a drug that may be less dangerous than prescriptions. It's time to take a deep breath -- inhale -- and place sick people ahead of ideology. The Flint vote and the others before it indicate that more people realize marijuana, like other drugs used properly, is not always evil."
|
