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Foreword By Lyn Nofziger (Lyn Noziger served as press secretary to Ronald Reagan during the presidential campaign of 1980. Following the election of President Reagan, Mr. Nofziger served as the White House director of communication and chief speech writer for the President. He continues to work for Republican candidates throughout the country.)
Strange as it may seem, here is one right-wing Republican who supports carefully controlled, medical access to marijuana. When our grown daughter was undergoing chemotherapy for lymph cancer, she was sick and vomiting constantly as a result of her treatments. No legal drugs, including the synthetic "marijuana" pill Marinol, helped her situation. As a result we finally turned to marijuana which, of course, we were forced to obtain illegally. With it, she kept her food down, was comfortable and even gained weight. Despite advances that have been made in controlling the side-effects of cancer chemotherapy treatments, the simple fact remains: each of us is an individual with similar but unique biological chemistries which react differently to the medical drugs we are given. Those who say Marinol and other drugs are satisfactory substitutes for marijuana may be right in some cases but, certainly are not right all of the time. A doctor should have every possible medication – including marijuana – in his armamentarium. If doctors can prescribe morphine and other addictive medicines, it makes no sense to deny marijuana to sick and dying patients when it can be provided on a carefully controlled, prescription basis. Marijuana clearly has medicinal value. Thousands of seriously ill Americans have been able to determine that for themselves, albeit illegally. Like my own family, these individuals did not wish to break the law but they had no other choice. The numerous attempts to legitimately resolve the issue – via state legislation and federal administrative hearings – have to often been ignored or thwarted by misguided federal agencies. Between 1978-1981 more than thirty states enacted legislation recognizing marijuana’s medical potential. Several states conducted extensive, and expensive, research programs which demonstrated marijuana’s medical utility – particularly in the treatment of chemotherapy side-effects. Frances L. Young, the chief administrative law judge of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, ruled marijuana has legitimate medical applications and should be available to doctors. In the early 1990s, many hundreds of doctors applied to use marijuana through the government’s investigative research program at the FDA. Our government’s reaction was to close the program in 1992. Ironically, by allowing this issue to fester for so long and handling it so badly, the federal government is responsible for the growing number of ballot initiatives, such as California’s Proposition 215, which attempt to resolve the problem by allowing individuals to "grow their own" or by establishing unregulated "clubs" where marijuana can be procured. This is no way to treat serious illnesses or deal with a serious issue but it is difficult to condemn the American people for voting affirmatively for such measures when all of their previous, lawful efforts have gone unheeded. The medical marijuana issue calls out for responsible, honest leadership at the federal level. Until that time seriously ill individuals who can benefit from this substance will continue to rally around any possible solution. We owe it to them to provide a safe and controlled means by which to gain access this drug.
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