For medical marijuana
In 1998, I came out as a gay elected official—a Superior Court judge—in North Carolina, when there were exactly four gay officeholders in the entire state. Despite calls for my ouster (having gay sex was still a felony) I served for three more years as a judge. One of my duties was to sentence people convicted of possessing marijuana.

Today I direct the state policies department for the Marijuana Policy Project, an organization devoted to reforming marijuana laws. And being gay is an important part of my passion about the issue. Medical use of marijuana could alleviate much suffering in the LGBT community.

There is substantial scientific evidence that marijuana can play an important role in the treatment of HIV/AIDS and cancer, including breast cancer. The fact that sick and dying people face arrest, a criminal record and incarceration for using a treatment that can literally be lifesaving is intolerable.

In 1978 Illinois passed a law to allow the medical use of marijuana. But the law proved to be totally ineffective because it relied on the federal government to allow marijuana prescriptions, and the federal government refused to cooperate.

In the past 10 years, 12 states have enacted laws that get around that problem. These laws are effective in protecting over 99 percent of medical marijuana patients from criminal prosecution. Last year the Illinois legislature had a chance to follow suit but chose not to do so. For the sake of sick and suffering people in the LGBT community this refusal must end. It is time for our community to mobilize.

Whether we test negative or positive, most of us know somebody dealing with HIV. We are familiar with the debilitating symptoms of the illness and the treatments necessary to battle it. Marijuana has been shown to alleviate some of these symptoms (and treatment side effects) better than available pharmaceuticals.

People using medication to fight HIV often experience severe nausea, vomiting and appetite loss. In extreme cases, this can lead to a “wasting syndrome” and life-threatening weight loss. More commonly, the nausea and vomiting can make taking anti-HIV medications so miserable that many miss doses or even stop treatment altogether.

Many of us know of people who have stopped or taken an unscheduled “break” from their treatment because of these side effects.

Marijuana has been shown to not only relieve these side effects, but to help people stay on their treatment regimens. Observational studies of HIV patients as well as patients taking the equally unpleasant drugs used to treat hepatitis C have shown that those using medical marijuana to relieve their nausea and vomiting are more likely to stay on treatment. Because treatment adherence is essential to keeping viral load under control, this relief literally translates to saved lives.

Elected officials should applaud a treatment that both alleviates suffering and encourages compliance with effective treatment.

HIV treatments also sometimes lead to a painful nerve condition called peripheral neuropathy. There are no FDA-approved drugs to treat this kind of pain, which is notoriously resistant to conventional pain drugs A recent San Francisco General Hospital study, however, found that marijuana is effective in many cases. Withholding relief to such patients is cruel and inhumane.

As with HIV, cancer treatment is often nearly as debilitating as the illness itself. In cancer therapy, marijuana has been shown to relieve treatment-induced nausea, increase appetite and reduce pain. Yet such relief is currently denied under Illinois law.

Twelve states now allow the use of marijuana to treat cancer, AIDS, and other serious illnesses. Because the laws are tightly crafted to merely remove state penalties, they do not require federal approval.

None of the medical marijuana states report a significant increase in teen marijuana use since adopting medical marijuana legislation. (Most report a decrease.) Nor do any report significant law enforcement problems.

True, marijuana remains illegal under federal law. But because 99 percent of all marijuana arrests are pursuant to state, not federal law, changing state law can shield the vast majority of patients from arrest.

Efforts to pass an effective medical marijuana bill have been renewed, with bills just introduced in both the Illinois House and Senate. It is important for gay and lesbian people to speak out forcefully for this important legislation.

AIDS and cancer are devastating enough. Illinois patients deserve the same options for relief from suffering available to patients in New Mexico, Montana, Rhode Island, Vermont and eight other states.

Every gay and lesbian person in Illinois should write his or her legislator today on behalf of those in need. Compassion is not a partisan issue, and it is time for Illinois to join the growing list of states wiling to put politics aside in favor of decency and common sense.

Ray Warren
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

More guns
All we need is more handguns. The proposed amendment to a congressional massive public lands bill allowing loaded guns in national parks does not go far enough. With the recent spate of multiple murders we need to have guns available for everyone. This amendment should mandate that every public building on federal lands should have glass-boxes containing at least one loaded rapid-fire handgun for emergency use. I am sure the 47 senators, including presidential candidate John McCain, would enthusiastically support this “perfection” of their amendment. Let’s bring Iraq home. Let’s duke it out. It’s high noon, America.

Martin Deppe
Chicago