The anti-drug commercials stating, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste" are very ironic. We recently lost a terrific mind in Peter McWilliams, a best-selling author, who died recently after being denied the use of medical marijuana in this Insane War on Some Drugs. All because the federal government is unwilling to face the reality that marijuana is a medicine that has never caused a single documented death, but for which there is ample evidence that it produces unique medical benefits found in no other drug.

Peter, a California resident, where medical marijuana has been 100% legal under the famous Proposition 215 since 1996, was suffering from AIDS and cancer. He authored 35 non-fiction books and appeared on the NY Times best seller list five times. His most famous book is Ain't Nobody's Business If you Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country, which I highly recommend reading. As a publisher, he hired a writer to detail how to grow medical marijuana, which in the eyes of the feds makes him a drug kingpin - the infamous head of the medicine cartel - for which he was arrested. He faced a mandatory-minimum 10 years in jail and a possible $4 million fine.

The combination therapy of drugs for AIDS, and the chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer, caused extreme nausea for Peter. After trying all the anti-nausea prescription drugs the doctors could find, he turned to medical marijuana. This allowed Peter to keep down his medications and not vomit them up. His cancer went into remission and the AIDS viral load went from 12,500 to undetectable levels and stayed there for over two years until his arrest. After his arrest, and unable to use marijuana, his viral load increased to 254,600 (10,000 is considered alarming).

While out of jail on bond awaiting sentencing, Peter was forbidden to use marijuana. With frequent court ordered testing, and his mother and brother's houses at stake, he did not use marijuana. Without his medical marijuana, he was unable to keep down the cocktail of pills he was prescribed for his AIDS.

Peter choked to death on his own vomit. The federal officials who denied Peter the anti-nausea benefits of marijuana almost certainly caused his death.

And in our own backyard, we have Cheryl Miller of Silverton, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1971. She, too, has tried all the standard drugs, but nothing works as well as marijuana. Like Bill Clinton, Cheryl doesn't inhale. Cheryl eats marijuana to avoid the harm that marijuana smoke may cause in the respiratory system. Cheryl, her husband Jim, who feeds his wife marijuana since she cannot move her arms, and other local activists, run the Cheryl Heart Project www.cherylheart.org. They present the case for allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes as best as they can. They deserve our support.

Here are the facts: the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine report, Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base found that 1) marijuana is medicine, 2) marijuana is not a gateway drug, 3) there is currently no alternative to smoked marijuana for some patients, 4) patients who need medical marijuana should be able to obtain it, and 5) if marijuana is addictive at all it is only mildly addictive.

It is well known that marijuana benefits those with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and other medical problems. Doctors agree. In one survey, over 70% of cancer specialists said they would prescribe marijuana if it were legal. Marijuana contains over 60 active chemical compounds, called cannabinoids, which are not found in conventional drugs, several of which have been shown to be quite effective at treating pain and spasticity.

This War already has too many victims; we don't need any more martyrs, especially the suffering and the terminally ill. Let's not make Cheryl, and numerous others, unnecessary victims. In a war, the injured are supposed to be off limits. No such basic humanitarian concessions are being allowed here, in the Insane War on Some Drugs. It is inhumane to deny people the benefit of a drug, or herb, that reduces people's pain and suffering, especially if it is potentially life saving. When will our elected officials realize that marijuana is a medicine?

In the eyes of our federal government, the need for medical marijuana makes you a criminal. Every 39 seconds another person is arrested for using marijuana. Morphine is illegal for recreational uses but is routinely prescribed as a painkiller. Why not marijuana?

Lou Elwell is Secretary of Libertarians of Monmouth County. Comments can be emailed to LibertarianLou@aol.com.