With its ruling on medical marijuana, the U.S. Supreme Court has voted to treat sick people as criminals.
By a vote of 6-3, the Court has effectively invalidated compassionate state laws, thereby prohibiting the use of medical marijuana by people who suffer from diabetes, glaucoma, cancer and HIV/AIDS.
The Supreme Court's ruling is an act of exceptional cruelty.
California, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Vermont all have passed laws that allow for the compassionate use of this drug by individuals who suffer from chronic pain or the debilitating side effects of treatments for these illnesses. The Court's decision to invalidate these laws will lead to needless pain and suffering.
In their decision, the majority justices ruled that Congress alone is responsible for passing federal legislation that will allow sick people access to this drug -- a drug that has been proven to alleviate pain, induce appetite, and relax muscles, and relieve suffering in ways that many prescription drugs cannot provide.
Today, I am calling upon the Congress of the United States to enact legislation that will allow compassionate use in every state where doctors prescribe medical marijuana for their patients.
Before the 1996 appearance of protease inhibitors and other HIV medications, medical marijuana was one of the few remedies that brought relief to people with HIV/AIDS. I am proud that some of our churches, including Golden Gate MCC and MCC San Francisco provided for the care of persons with HIV and AIDS by distributing medical marijuana to people with doctors' notes documenting their need.
A hallmark of the LGBT community is that we have historically found ways to address our needs -- social, political, spiritual as well as medical -- when those needs have been ignored or devalued by the larger society.
In 1996, Phyllis Nelson, a member of Metropolitan Community Churches and a mother who lost two sons to AIDS, said that any public official who had spent an entire morning, as she had, trying to help her son eat a half bowl of cereal, would never oppose the compassionate use of medical marijuana. The same is true today.
It is time to end the hypocrisy that makes medical marijuana illegal, and it's time for the U.S. Congress to enact laws that will make medical marijuana available to anyone whose condition would be improved by its regulated use.
Jesus said, "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." (Gospel of Matthew 12:7) There is no virtue in people suffering pain or discomfort needlessly. I call on Congress to enact legislation that will show mercy to persons who are suffering, and I call the LGBT community to a new era of health activism. We must not become complacent in the face of any injustice. Had this ruling occurred 10 or 15 years ago, our community would have taken to the streets to publicly demonstrate our outrage. It is time for us to reclaim our voice, and our actions, and our activism.
In Metropolitan Community Churches, we will not be done "Acting Up" until everyone has access to the health care they deserve, not as a privilege, but as a right.
The Reverend Dr. Troy D. Perry, Moderator, Metropolitan Community Churches
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