Proposition 215 sends wrong message

The approval of Proposition 215 will only hinder efforts to convince young people to remain free of drugs. The measure’s passage will send a false message to children that marijuana is safe and healthy.

Proposition 215 is the measure that allows the cultivation, sale and use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The measure will allow seriously and terminally ill patients to legally use marijuana, provided that they have the approval of a licensed physician.

According to the voter’s ballot pamphlet, university doctors and researchers reported that marijuana provides relief to cancer patients suffering from nausea and weight loss accompanied by chemotherapy.

In addition, marijuana is said to be also effective in lowering internal eye pressure associated with glaucoma, a serious eye disease that causes blindness.

It reduces the pain suffered by AIDS patients as well as stimulating the appetites of malnutrition problem also caused by the AIDS virus.

Lastly, marijuana alleviates the problems caused by multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and spinal cord injuries.

Despite the medical benefits that it may give to suffering patients, the American Cancer Society has sternly declared that marijuana cannot be substituted for appropriate anti-nausea drugs for cancer chemotherapy patients.

Their studies indicate the harmful physical and psychological effects of marijuana. We should not give the sick a drug that perhaps will make them even more sick.

Furthermore, marijuana is not a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a federal government agency that protects consumers from unsafe drugs.

The passage of the measure will promptly make marijuana available to the public without proper FDA quality research and regulation.

As a result, there will be no restriction to the amount or limit a person can smoke marijuana.

Opponents of the measure further contend that Proposition 215 will allow unlimited amounts of marijuana to be grown in backyards or near school yards.

Most importantly, the measure is exploiting the public concern for the seriously ill in order to legitimize the use of marijuana, an illegal drug.