Jerome P. Kassirer

In the following viewpoint, Jerome P. Kassirer contends that physicians should be allowed to prescribe smokable marijuana for terminally ill patients. Marijuana can inhibit the pain and nausea that sick and dying people often experience, he points out; furthermore, the majority of the public approves of marijuana for such purposes. Kassirer maintains that it is hypocritical and wrong-headed to allow the seriously ill to use pain-killing narcotics such as morphine while simultaneously prohibiting access to therapeutic marijuana. Kassirer is the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What two states have approved ballot measures legalizing medical marijuana?
2. In Kassirer’s opinion, why might smoked marijuana be preferable to dronabinol, the drug that contains marijuana...