MEDICAL MARIJUANA AND COMPASSION FOR THE DYING 3/15/07

Angel Raich from Oakland, California lost her case in a federal appellate court on Wednesday for the right to use marijuana for her chronic pain from a brain tumor and other conditions. Although California is one of eleven states that allow the use of marijuana on a doctor's prescription, federal law doesn't. Her ex-husband is her attorney. Although she is terminally ill, she lost in court. In a split decision, it was found that Angel Raich does not have a fundamental right to use marijuana to alleviate suffering and to keep her alive by granting her the appetite to eat. The ruling does pave the way for her to argue that she is using marijuana in order to stay alive if she is busted by the feds. The feds have been cracking down on labs in California which supply marijuana to those who need it medically.

radical sapphoq says: The law is an ass, just like Mr. Bumble in Charles' Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist" maintained. The U.S. Congress legislated that marijuana has no medicinal value back in 1970. That is an incorrect assumption. Marijuana has been used in glaucoma treatment as a matter of routine in Arizona according to a friend who lived there; and continues to be used to alleviate nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemo. Angel Raich has an inoperable brain tumor. In a day and age where a fetus is judged to have a right to live, why is it that a 41 year old woman does not? Our current federal law regarding this matter is broken. I am no pot smoker; however, I say to the legislators this: FIX IT.

radical sapphoq who has also been free from active addiction for many years


http://news.bostonherald.com/national/west/view.bg?articleid=188643

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/15marijuana.html?ref=us

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKN1428868320070314

http://origin.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_5441130