Marijuana Policy Project

Elected officials in Cottleville want Missouri to join the growing number of U.S. states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal use. The city’s Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a resolution last week urging state legislators to legalize medical marijuana for Missourians who have their doctor’s approval.

Following Columbia in 2004, this is the second Missouri municipality to voice support for protecting medical marijuana patients through local ordinance or resolution.

A 2005 nationwide Gallup poll reported that 78 percent of adults support making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe to reduce pain and suffering. In August of 2007, a Rasmussen Report poll of likely voters in the state of Missouri commissioned by Fox News in St. Louis indicated that 57 percent of Missouri voters support legalizing the use of medical marijuana.

National support for the physician supervised use of medical cannabis includes endorsements from the American Nurses Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And just last year the American College of Physicians, the second largest U.S. physicians group, endorsed medical marijuana.

When they have their doctors’ approval, patients should be able to use medical marijuana without fear of arrest and incarceration. They should also be able to rely on a safe supply of marijuana without having to resort to the dangerous and unreliable black market.

In March, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government will no longer prosecute medical marijuana clinics that operate in compliance with state laws.

Missouri legislators should take note of this new policy and act to protect our most vulnerable of citizens, the sick and dying.