Make Medical Marijuana Legal

The legislature comes back into session in Jan. and I have already begun my letter writing campaign to newspapers across the state. Here is one that the Tuscaloosa News published today.

Make medical marijuana legal


Published: Friday, November 21, 2008 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 8:52 p.m.

Dear Editor: Michigan voters this month approved a measure that will protect patients who use marijuana on the recommendation of a licensed physician. Michigan thus became the 13th state in the U.S. to remove penalties for the use of medical marijuana. Nearly 25 percent of all Americans live in a medical-marijuana state. Marijuana is a safe, effective and inexpensive therapeutic agent that eventually will be legal for patients throughout the country to use.

The Alabama Compassionate Care Act has been tied up in legislative committees for four years, despite polls that show 76 percent voter approval. This bill would allow patients to use marijuana when a licensed physician recommends it. Alabama patients would be issued state ID cards so law-enforcement personnel could easily see they are legal medical-marijuana users. The American College of Physicians, the American Nurses Association, the American Public Health Association, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and many other professional health-care organizations have endorsed medical marijuana.

Sadly, Alabama still arrests and prosecutes patients for using medical marijuana. How long will it take Alabama to give her sick and dying citizens the same rights that other Americans have? Are Alabama patients less deserving of relief than the citizens of the 13 states where medical marijuana is legal?

Please contact your representative in Montgomery and ask them to support the Compassionate Care Act in the 2009 legislative session.


Loretta Nall

Executive director,

Alabamians for Compassionate Care

Alexander City