Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton stated he will be reconsidering Missouri's Medical Marijuana Bill, HB 1830. Jetton previously had responded to an ill Missouri citizen, "Unfortunately I will not be supporting your efforts to make cannabis a legal alternative medicine this year. I certainly feel for the pain of the people you mention." On March 5 a group of concerned Missouri citizens and wannabe state medical marijuana patients met at the state Capitol for a press conference. With the pressure on, Jetton agreed to reconsider the bill and have a decision by the end of this week. Ultimately, patients and their doctors should have the right to decide what medicine is best for an illness, not the government. Please contact Jetton at Rod.Jetton@house.mo.gov, or (573) 751-5912, and let him know Missouri's citizens need to be given the same right to medicine and protection from criminalization as those in 12 other states.

The American College of Physicians (ACP), the largest medical-specialty organization (with a membership of 124,000) and second-largest physician group in the United States, elucidates positions in a 2008 paper entitled "Supporting Research into the Therapeutic Role of Marijuana". Please read the full document here: http://www.acponline.org/advocacy/where_we_stand/other_issues/medmarijuana.pdf Position 4: ACP urges review of marijuana's status as a schedule I controlled substance and its reclassification into a more appropriate schedule, given the scientific evidence regarding marijuana's safety and efficacy in some clinical conditions. Position 5: ACP strongly supports exemption from federal criminal prosecution; civil liability; or professional sanctioning, such as loss of licensure or credentialing, for physicians who prescribe or dispense medical marijuana in accordance with state law. Similarly, ACP strongly urges protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.