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Thursday, March 20, 1997 are the views of the student editorial staff and the individual writers, not the entire student body or the faculty and administration.

Junior Diane Grimaldi takes photos such as these for photography classes. She also does professional portraits as well as freelance photography for the News of Delaware Coµnty and is assistant photogra.phx ·tor of Loquitur. While taking --:h~- tries to capture the inner ~ito~i"':bf her subjects. She feels that wen in the most simple subject there can be a deeper and more profound appeal. These photos are just a few examples of her work.

Thursday,March 20, 1997

Editorial

It will make you feel good

Moiphine, codeine, Vicadin, Valium,Xanex, etc... The list goes on and on. These are all synthetic drugs used by people and,prescribedby physiciansfor ailments such as physicalpain or bad nerves.

All of these drugs are potentially addictive,like marijuana, but the difference is that not all of the drugs mentioned are potentiallylethal. Any of the syntheticdrugs above,if taken in a large enough dosage, could kill you.

The odds of doing yourself in from simply smoking or ingestingmarijuanaare about the same as the odds of overdosing on non-electricKool-Aid:nil.

The medical uses for marijuana are numerous. The treatments for many illnesses such as AIDS or cancer are often accompanied by nausea, vomiting and physical pain. Thousandsof individualsstrickenwith these afflictionsand others have reported a more successfulrelief from their devastating pain and discomfortby using marijuanathan any other pain medicine available.

Accordingto "NewsweekMagazine,"48 percentof oncologists, doctors who work specifically with patients who have tumors, said they would prescribe marijuana if they could and 44 percent of them admittedrecommendingit to patients.

The fact that needs to be considered is that marijuanais no more dangerous than many legally controlled substances,yet the federal governmentconsidersit a scheduleone drug, meaning potentiallyaddictivewith no current medical use. So even in states like Arizona and California, where the constituents have approved medical marijuana by referendum, physicians face disciplinaryactionby the federalgovernmentfor acting on the right their state bas given them.

The answer, for the time being, is to classify the drug as schedule two, potentiallyaddictive,but having some accepted medicaluse and have the federalgovernmentregulateit accordingly.

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