Let's move beyond 'Reefer Madness'

Thank you for your recent guest editorials on the bad and compassionate sense of legalizing marijuana for medical use. I am a person that has had two car accidents and three cervical surgeries in the last three years and has had to live with chronic pain all the time and every day.

I do not know if marijuana would help relieve my pain, but considering the end results from the current medication I am on (which could be addiction and or liver damage), I strongly agree that marijuana is a compassionate and safer way of treating this condition. I support medical marijuana if the sale is controlled to screened patients and I appreciate the safety factor that patients can grow their own balm. In fact, if there is poisoned marijuana coming from Mexico as your guest stated, it only makes more sense to let patients grow it in their homes for self-consumption.

I appreciate the educated and well-meaning people who raise caution to society concerning the possible pitfalls of legalizing this plant, but when I can reduce the pain I have every moment and grow the product in my own home, that sounds like a great thing. I believe we as a society have to move beyond the "Reefer Madness" mentality and truly consider if this plant can do good, also.

Don Ryan

Carol Stream