Shame on you, Rep. Dianne White Delisi

(While this post is Texas Specific, the message behind it is not)

Representative Dianne White Delisi, Chair of the House Public Health Committee should be ashamed of herself for refusing to set hearings on HB1534, which would allow people using marijuana medically on their doctors' advice from raising a defense of medical necessity to charges of possession of marijuana.

Her refusal is a blatant example of substituting her uninformed prejudices for the will of the People.

Polls show that over 70% of the population favor allowing seriously ill people to use marijuana medically if their doctors so recommend.

The science behind medical marijuana is solid and uncontravertable. Not only has a recent referreed article established, in a double blind test, the effectiveness of marijuana in the treatment of neuropathic pain, clinical trials have also shown it effective in the treatment of MS. Its use as an antispasmodic and as ancillary therapy for cancer and HIV is uncontraverted. The National Institute of Medicine, in 1988 recognized its therapeutic effectiveness.

Its safety is also uncontravertable. There is no record, in over 150 years of medical and recreational use, of any death attributable to marijuana. At least three multi-thousand patient, long term studies show no health differences between marijuana users and non-users.

In short, the only opponents to the medical use of marijuana are police agencies, like the DEA, which have no competence to speak to medical issues.

The legislature as a whole may or may not approve HB1534, but it as an act of unbridled arrogance for one person, Chair of a committee or not, to substitute her personal biases for an honest and open discussion of the merits of the matter.