In Jerome P. Kassiner’s article, Federal Foolishness and Marijuana, the point is argued that marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes. He case for this begins by stating that marijuana has been shown to relieve pain and nausea caused by terminal illnesses such as AIDS and cancer. Then, after showing that citizens of various states have actually approved proposals legalizing the drug for medicinal use, he gives the case against legalization; that many believe that the drug is dangerous and could have long-term effects. Yet, he argues that these patients have nothing to fear, at least as far as long-term effects, as their illnesses do not provide that long-term future for them. He believes that because of this and the well known fact that the drug provides relief for these patients, the government is wrong in preventing the treatment from being available; as he puts it “a federal policy that prohibits physicians from alleviating suffering by prescribing marijuana for seriously ill patients
Kassiner also provides his thoughts on what he thinks should happen with regards to the drug here in the United States, as he says that it should be changed from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II drug. This would change it from legally being viewed as potentially addictive, with no medicinal use, to a potentially addictive drug with some approved medicinal use. According to him this is what the people of this country as a majority want to happen. To back this up he states that the people of Arizona and California have already approved legislature to this affect. Yet, because the DEA has continually dismissed the wishes of the people and has rejected all requests to reschedule the drug, he believes that government is extremely misguided. On this topic Kassiner makes his strongest assertion; that “federal officials [concerning medicinal marijuana] are out of step with the public”. Kassiner concludes on the same note by maintaining that because of their attempts to be politically correct and due to a lack of compassion by
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