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NEWS
| November 10, 2004
Guest Speakers
Organization hosts marijuana speeches
Guest speakers will explain the
drug’s legal concerns and benefits.
By Princess
McDowell
The Shorthorn Staff
Biology senior Bindu Nair wants her prescriptions
to come from a doctor and not the government. She also doesn’t
want the government to have the power to tell her what she can and
cannot take.
“Marijuana is one of the most prescribed drugs,” she
said. “Government officials shouldn’t be writing our
prescriptions — doctors should.”
The Students for Sensible Drug Policy is presenting a forum called
“Medical Marijuana: Facts, Myths and Everything In Between”
at 7 tonight in the Lone Star Auditorium in conjunction with Texans
for Medical Marijuana.
“Medical marijuana affects us, our parents, our loved ones,
people with cancer and people with AIDS,” said Nair, Students
for Sensible Drug Policy president.
The forum features two speakers from Texas who are medical marijuana
patients. These patients will bring their own perspectives and personal
battles to discredit the stereotype that all marijuana users are
young teenagers. Clayton Jones, 56, a wheelchair-bound activist
who uses medical marijuana as a result of a car accident in 1985,
will tell his story at the event.
The forum will also feature two professors who specialize in substance
abuse. Bryon Adinoff, a Distinguished Professor of Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Research at the University of Texas Southwestern, is scheduled
to present a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation that highlights the
positive and negative effects of the drug on the brain and the entire
body.
James F. Quinn, substance abuse and addictions director at the University
of North Texas, will speak on the criminal aspects of using marijuana,
including the number of individuals legally allowed to smoke marijuana
who were arrested while in possession.
Students for Sensible Drug Policy does not promote or condone drug
use but does support the use of marijuana when professionals recommend
it.
Nursing junior Olu Sola said marijuana should be legalized because
of its potential medicinal purposes. But it should come in another
form, he added.
“If they could make it to drink, then I would support it,”
Sola said. “Inhaling anything is bad, plus it effects the
lungs.”
One student who wishes to remain anonymous said there are legitimate
uses for marijuana, but believes states should decide whether or
not to legalize the substance separately.
The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal in 10 states,
Montana being the most recent state to legalize its use.
Opponents of medical marijuana worry about the impression legalizing
marijuana would have on younger generations while advocates hail
the potential profits from taxing the substance.
Nair said the country will soon realize the medicinal benefits of
marijuana.
“It’s just a matter of time that when you get sick you
should have access to all medicines to cure you,” she said.
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| Christopher
Largen, author and medical marijuana advocate, will
discuss legalizing the drug. |
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| Bryon Adinoff,
psychiatrist and UT-Southwestern professor, will discuss
the drug’s effects. |
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