Sometimes, it takes a crisis to create the opportunity to fix a wrong in society.
The Great State of New York is currently facing a nearly $10 billion dollar budget gap. A budget which is required to be signed into law on April 1 has yet to be passed. The financial problems are so massive, and this being an election year, those elected to represent us in New York are doing all they can not to upset the voters by being responsible for massive cuts in services or increasing taxes, leaving the state without a budget for three weeks. Most gimmicks and accounting tricks have been used up in previous months, and even if gimmicks are used to get this budget passed, real financial problems for the state could still happen as soon at June, according to the state comptroller. Creating new sources of revenue is exactly what New York wants to and needs to do to address the state's fiscal problems.
The New York State Senate have been working on a bill to legalize medical marijuana, and using it to gain some revenue from the proposal. Senate Bill 4041B stated purpose is to "Allows patient to use marihuana to treat a serious illness under medical supervision." The Bill’s "justification" details exactly why the State of New York should accept the use of marijuana for the treatment of serious medical illnesses:
Thousands of New Yorkers have serious medical conditions that may benefit from medical use of marijuana. The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine concluded in a 1999 report that "nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety... all can be mitigated by marijuana." Doctors and patients have documented that marijuana can be an effective treatment, where other medications have failed, and for at least some patients who suffer from HIV/AIDS, cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and other life-threatening or debilitating conditions.
The past fears and once accepted gospel, that medical use of marijuana would send the wrong message to our children about illegal drugs, is shown to be inaccurate:
Legalizing the medical use of effective medicine does not undermine the message that nonmedical use of illegal drugs is wrong. Many controlled substances that are legal for medical use (such as morphine, valium and steroids) are otherwise illegal. In the same New England Journal of Medicine editorial, Dr. Kassirer argued that "it is also hypocritical to forbid physicians to prescribe marijuana while permitting them to use morphine and meperidine to relive extreme dyspnea and pain."
It is also useful to be aware that this issue has the support of majority of New Yorkers. A recent Quinnipiac University Poll showed 71% of New York were in support of legalizing medical marijuana for the serious ill. A majority of even Republicans support it. Our Politicians should not be scared of being advocates for this issue, as it is clear the public is on the side of enacting this legislation. It should also be noted that another poll conducted differently showed the support slightly lower, but still with a majority in favor of the proposal.
California has a rather radical proposition on its ballots this fall, to fully and outright legalize marijuana. This new push to legalize marijuana is not under the guise of its "harmlessness or acceptance, but rather on the amount of money it could generate", as reported by Catherine Rampell in Sunday’s New York Times. Though the result of California’s legalization initiative are still unknown, one thing is clear, over a decade and a half after California has had medical marijuana, they are open to the idea of legalization. They have had an ever expanding form of medical marijuana on the books since the mid 1990s, bringing a once demonized plant back into the public light.
We can debate all day if pot should be legal for everyone, but the debate on its medical benefits for those seriously ill are not in dispute.
In the end, this can be summed up by the lead sponsor of the bill in the State Senate, Thomas Duane, "It is the right thing to do and there is revenue attached to it."
Our elected representatives are in office to represent our will as constituents, but if they do not hear from us, they will not act on our views.
If you believe that those in New York, with serious medical conditions, should have the legal means to obtain and use marijuana to treat their ailments, tell the State Senators in New York that legalizing medical marijuana is the moral way to treat the seriously ill amongst us. It will also create new revenue for New York that is facing serious fiscal problems. We know this is no panacea for the fiscal problems facing New York, but it a step in the right direction.
The best way for us as individuals to lobby the State Senate in New York is by commenting on their fancy new legislative website: http://open.nysenate.gov/... or contacting the individual Senators, http://www.nysenate.gov/....
If we, the public, speak up, this serious budget deficit can result in rectifying this unaddressed issue, that has not gotten the attention it has deserved. So contact your representatives, tell our friends to contact our representatives, and stop making seriously ill patients in New York criminals just to get the medical treatment that they need.