Editor,
I am writing in response to Jeremy Reynalds' Feb. 2 column, "Johnson's Ideas Detrimental."
The American Medical Association supports the right of doctors to discuss marijuana therapy with patients.
The AMA also fully supports government funding for further research. The American Cancer Society is also calling for more research. The federal government has continually denied research on marijuana's medical benefits.
Neither the AMA nor the ACS ever officially rejected marijuana use as a medicine. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society has never made an official statement one way or the other. It seems that Reynalds got his information from DARE pamphlets.
Organizations that support the medical use of marijuana include the American Medical Student Association, American Public Health Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Suggesting that medical marijuana is just a steppingstone toward legalization is pathetic at best. Is prescribing morphine to those in pain just a steppingstone toward legalized heroin? Why is marijuana any different? Denying medicine to the sick is cruel and inhumane.
Dozens of states have realized this and have passed voter initiatives allowing for the medical use of marijuana, including California, Arizona and Nevada. Yet, Reynalds seems to suggest that it's some fringe drug-addicted minority that is questioning the morality of throwing the sick into prison.
New Mexico is just following an already growing trend of compassion. Finally, I'd like to ask Reynalds to thoroughly check his facts before forming an opinion on something he obviously knows nothing about.
-Kevin Killough
TVI student
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