The ill health effects of marijuana come from inhaling the smoke into the lungs. This isn't a problem if the use is only short-term, or if the user has a terminal disease. Consumer Reports (no less) writes "that for patients with advanced AIDS and terminal cancer, the apparent benefits some derive from smoking marijuana outweigh any substantiated or even suspected risks."
Drug warriors worry that permitting medical marijuana "sends the wrong message" to teenagers. But the popularity of various drugs among youth moves in broad patterns that are not readily influenced by what federal "drug czar" John Walters says or does. And the fact is that -- God bless them -- cancer and AIDS patients aren't glamorous, and are unlikely to prompt an epidemic of youth pot smoking.
Might medical marijuana be abused? Of course. That's also true of a host of prescription drugs. But don't tell Walters. Next he will be trying to deny patients the use of morphine and OxyContin.
What drug warriors really fear is that if medical marijuana is permitted, it will harm their effort to depict marijuana as utterly nefarious and create the opening for a more rational debate about the legal status of the drug. The drug warriors are already losing ground. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws recently celebrated a vote in Congress that had 152 members voting to ease the federal crackdown on medical marijuana.
That's progress, although the cause still needs a high-profile spokesman. If it happens to be a formerly swinging California bodybuilder who enjoyed the 1970s a little too much, so be it.