Vote for the future...
Nurses know what is good medicine. At their national convention last July, the American Nurses Association voted overwhelmingly for a resolution that endorses patient access to medical marijuana and the right of health-care providers to discuss and/or recommend marijuana as medicine without fear of reprisals. It also recommended excluding marijuana from classification as a Schedule 1 drug.
On the political front, both 15th district [Illinois] Congressman Tim Johnson and his Democratic challenger Dr. David Gill have gone on record for medical marijuana. Johnson, in a letter to me, wrote "...it is clear to me that industrial hemp has many positive uses, not only as an energy source, but also as a medicinal and nutritional agent..."
I heard Dr. Gill say recently that, as a physician, he knows that marijuana is an effective medicine for several conditions.
Since both candidates recognize marijuana's value as a medicine, I hop they use their election campaign to educate the public about this important issue.
In his letter, Johnson went on to say that hemp "...would be a very profitable alternative crop..." The Wall Street Journal estimated that if hemp were allowed to play its natural role in our economy, it could generate something like half a trillion dollars a year.
That might seem far-fetched until you realize that anything made from wood or petroleum can be made more economically with hemp.
A single Canadian province, British Columbia, brings six billion dollars a year into its economy because of its relaxed laws and attitudes toward this plant.
As Chris Conrad puts it in his book Hemp: Lifeline to the Future: "Hemp restoration will yield permanent financial benefits that will reverberate throughout the economy for generations to come."
On the national scene Democratic candidate for president Dennis Kucinich has called for the decriminalization of marijuana. Decriminalization would make it easier for patients to access their medicine and for industrial hemp to be utilized for its many uses. It would also stop the stuffing of our prisons with people who don't really belong there.
No wonder Kucinich's candidacy has been endorsed by musical legend and farm-Aid founder Willie Nelson.
With the nurses and brave candidates calling out for reasonable and necessary changes, let's stop this foolish war against ourselves and our world. Support those who support this planet.
-- for the future, Gregg Brown
3:33:37 PM 
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