4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2002
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I for one am so glad that tuition is doubling. It is so much more convenient to log onto the web 17 times a week to get a permit to enroll than go through the hassle of walking to my mailbox.
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Stop check out our squad and listen. Roy's back and got a brand new edition. Collison grabs his rebounds tightly, Bosschehie hits three daily and nightly. Will it ever stop? Yo, hell no. Give Miles the ball, and he'll go to the extreme, Hinrich's got mad handles. He led in assists, and steals the ball like a vandal. Gooden dunks with nasty authority. If Roy gets ejected then we got Neil Dougherty. Robus o' leave us, we're coming your way. You better hit the three, because our boys can play. We're your problem and you just can't solve it. Watch some CBS while our ballers ball it. Rock chalk, baby. Da da da da da dunuh. Rock chalk, baby. Da da da da dunuh. Word to the Terrapin's mother.
I just spent my Spring Break at the Grand Canyon on an alternative Spring Break, and I'll can say that it was better than Cancun can ever be.
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In response to the question about slavery in the Bible, slavery is not so much advocated as it is allowed. Direction is given to both master and slave on how to treat the other with respect and fairness. Any more questions?
I'd just like to say that four K-State students walked into a bar, and after the first two you would have thought that the third one would have ducked.
My Dillons card says that I've finally saved $252. I shudder to think how much I've spent in that institution.
Maybe it's time the Catholic Church gets with the times and starts allowing priests to have wives, then maybe they'll stop molesting children.
Slave reparations are the biggest joke I've ever heard
I cannot believe that Tennessee and UConn are in the women's Final Four. That never happens.
I'd just like to thank you guys for not wasting the time, energy or effort for covering the women's Final Four.
I'm just curious why in the mayoral article it says that the Kansas Legislature's shortfall in the budget will be $730 million and in then the budget cuts article says $685 million. Can't you guys get your own numbers right? Come on.
I think it's pretty sick when sorority girls get back from Spring Break all orange faced and leathery, and are planning to go tanning the next face, fake baking here in Lawrence.
My roommate just heard that Jeff Boschee was studying in JRP library, so she stormed out of her seminar class, ran up to the fifth floor of JRP, grabbed me and my camera, ran back down to the first floor. Both of us out of breath, we were disappointed to find that he was a no-show, but we did breathe the same air that he did moments before.
I can't wait until the Todd Kappelman poster comes out in the Journal-World poster series.
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Those new commercials by the Office of Drug Control Policy are a bunch of bulb. When the CIA exports drugs they're funding freedom fighters, but when you buy a bag in Olathe you're funding terrorists? Get real.
scribe marijuana.
I think KU is insistent that I get screwed out of as much as I possibly can. I've been here for four semesters, this is my third year at KU, and I've never had an enrollment day within the first two-and-a-half weeks.
I just checked out the KU Web site. I think it's really amusing, because they say they're doing this E-passport stuff for our convenience when in reality shouldn't be more conducive if they were doing this to save money. Why do they have to save money? Oh yeah, the Board of Regents had that 15 percent pay raise over the summer. Oh yeah, forgot about that one. Thanks guys.
I say we should get rid all of environmental, pollution standards we have so we won't impede progress we might make on you know protecting the environment for humans and animals and everyone.
--scribe marijuana.
The first few days after Spring Break always bring a smile to my face, because I can count the number of people who are on crutches due to stunted, skimp incidents.
I think there should be a pit dug for the marching band at basketball games so they can be heard and not seen, because nobody needs them dancing around acting like they're as important as the players, but it is kind of sweet when they go back and forth, in which case we could have a Jumbotron where they could be shown on the screen for maybe like 20 seconds at a time.
I swear man, you laugh one time during sex, and you're branded for life.
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A
KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE
PERSPECTIVE
Possible benefits of medicinal marijuana shouldn't be abandoned or ignored
Nine months ago, the United States Supreme Court decided in a unanimous 8-0 vote that the medicinal use of marijuana is illegal.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Technically, it determined that there wasn't a "medical necessity" exception for marijuana within the Controlled Substance Act. In fact, the Act specifically states that marijuana is a drug with absolutely no medicinal value whatsoever.
It's hard to find many instances in U.S. history where every member of the Supreme Court has agreed on an issue. It's even harder to find one where every member of the Supreme Court was absolutely wrong in his or her decision. One can hardly blame them for the outcome though. It wasn't difficult for the Rehnquist court to interpret a statute written that plainly.
The fault for this decision lies in the lawmakers of the land who seem to view the use of marijuana for any purpose as unquestionably evil for no other reason than they've decided that it's unquestionably evil.
Dan Osman
opinion@kansan.com
But the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes has so many benefits, the only thing evil in this equation is the perpetual ignorance of those in charge who continue to advocate its ban.
It should be a reasonable assumption that doctors do what's in the best interest of their patients. If given the choice, most would naturally prescribe the most reliable drugs available to help their patients.
Terminally ill cancer patients, AIDS sufferers, people with glaucoma and many more can all use marijuana to help ease the pain. Doctors understand this and thus, doctors wish to prescribe marijuana.
If the issue is that marijuana hasn't been effectively proven as "medically necessary," then the solution isn't to abandon the drug. The solution is to test that drug and determine its capabilities by fully exploring its medicinal uses. The Controlled Substance Act allows for marijuana to be tested through government-sponsored programs.
The reality of the situation is that this very rarely happens. In 1999 there were only four federally funded research projects working with a total budget of a mere $1 million, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. But even that was too much for the government. According to the American Medical Association, there are currently no federally funded research projects on the medicinal use of marijuana. Zero.
It makes sense, in a bizarre way. Why would a government care about the research of a drug it has no intention of legalizing? Why would a drug company, even after being granted approval, ever waste money and resources exploring the uses of a drug they can't ever produce and distribute?
They know it's illegal. They know that it will continue to be illegal. To them, funding research
is money down the drain.
One of the big arguments against legalization of medicinal marijuana concerns the distribution of it. How can we trust doctors to prescribe it only to people who need it and not to anyone who walks through their doors? This argument is, to put it bluntly, positively ridiculous.
We trust medical practitioners to prescribe steroids, painkillers and antidepressants on a daily basis. We allow them to use their judgment in giving out drugs far more potent than marijuana is.
In each case there are people out there addicted to that drug that will do anything in their power to get another dose from their doctor and yet it still appears as if doctors are an excellent gatekeeper.
What's needed is more research projects and more funding for those research projects. After that, the FDA may change this drug from schedule I to schedule II. Likewise, Congress can amend the laws within the Controlled Substance Act. Already, members of Congress, such as Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis), support the legalization of medical marijuana and are actively fighting for a change.
It will be a long and involved process, but I believe it to be worth the effort. Set aside any moral objections to the idea of smoking weed and look at the issue objectively.
We're talking about easing pain and saving lives. I can't understand how anyone can be against that.
Osman is a first year law student from Prairie Village.
PERSPECTIVE
Queers and Allies perpetuates myths, stereotyping of gays on campus
For the purpose of this column, and in order to be taken seriously, it is best if I admit upfront that I am gay.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Gay men aren't all the same, as Queers and Allies would have you believe.
Earlier this semester, Student Senate denied money the blood drive because of its "discriminatory" policy regarding gay male blood donation. The rule states that one cannot donate blood if he has had sex with another male anytime since 1977.
Shaun Bryant opinion@kansan.com
But I donated blood. I donated blood last September, too. I didn't write a self-pitying editorial for submission in the Kansan about how the rule isn't fair. And I surely didn't protest the blood drive as others did. I'll tell you what I did. I lied. And I think that solution is far more intelligent than any other option.
Ultimately, the purpose of the protest was to stress equal treatment of gay and straight people. The protest was counter-productive. As a result of the protest, some people around campus did indeed view homosexuals differently. The view: The protestors ruined the otherwise positive blood drive.
One week in October is "National Coming Out Week." Last semester, Queers and Allies held a drag show to raise funds for future activities. Two days later, the drag show received a front page article in the Kansan, accompanied
by a huge picture of the organization's president dressed as a woman.
Once again, Queers & Allies forced straight people to stereotype me. Those images made straight people believe that one. I like to watch men dressed up as women lip-synch to Cher and Britney Spears, and two, I would rather be a woman than a man. Once again, I don't appreciate either of those labels. I abhor drag shows, and I've never wanted to be a woman.
Over the years, brainless actions such as those of Queers and Allies have earned homosexuals many stereotypes. Yet they don't apply to me. My wrists don't fling around like spaghetti. I don't have sex with a different guy every night (only one in the past year). I believe in God. I'm in a pot for the NCAA
17
Tournament, and I watch every game. I loathe Broadway.I think anal sex is disgusting.I love football and NASCAR.And I don't have AIDS.
Now Queers and Allies is planning Pride Week, which will earn me more labels, including that I have a rainbow sticker on my car, that I want everyone to know that I am gay, and that being gay is my life. None of which is true.
Straight people don't accept us sometimes. But did you ever stop to think why that is? It's because the most stereotypical gay people are the loudest, and that causes everyone to think that all gay people are the same. We're not.
Being gay hasn't been a horrible experience for me, because being gay hasn't been my life. I didn't choose homosexuality, but I put up with its consequences, including my roommate moving next door when he found out.
The point is that I'm normal. And everyone would treat me as such if they weren't misled by the overwhelming, self-pitying gay population. If I need to raise money, I don't host or participate in drag shows. I sell lemonade.
Shaun Bryant is an independence, Mo., freshman in liberal arts and sciences.