Cromwell letter: Medical marijuana

Let me get this straight, Idaho leaders. You’re OK with prescription painkillers and other FDA-approved chemical drugs that advertise severe health risks and are at the forefront of drug abuse nationally, but you take issue with natural remedies like medical marijuana. Sensible. Big pharma make great donors in Idaho politics, after all. You’re OK with parents letting their children die needlessly in the name of religious faith healing — no “injury to a child” charges against them. Logical, right? And you are evidently OK with kids enduring seizures that could be alleviated with CBD oils because you allowed Gov. Butch Otter’s veto on the matter to stand.

My mother suffers from chronic pain that her doctors cannot resolve. There is evidence that medical marijuana could help, but not in Idaho. If I was mean-spirited I would wish that those political leaders blocking solutions to chronic pain and suffering endure that experience firsthand. Would any among them, lacking any other medical alternative, not do as Kelsey Osborne did to relieve her child’s suffering? Gov. Otter, what about you? Since your veto set the stage for this state interference in the Osborne family, perhaps you want to weigh in?

This story was originally published December 13, 2016 at 7:25 PM with the headline "Cromwell letter: Medical marijuana."