The crazed reefer addicts are at it again. The chants of thousands of hippies (read: terminally ill patients) have been drowned out by the Supreme Court and the United States House of Representatives.

Despite 10 states saying the use of marijuana as medicine is okay, both the Supreme Court and the House decided otherwise. The travesty of these decisions should be obvious to anyone not wearing blinders.

The opponents do not think so.

As Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) told NBC, “Marijuana has never been proven as safe and effective for any disease. Marijuana can increase the risk of serious mental health problems, and in teens, marijuana use can lead to depression, thoughts of suicide, and schizophrenia.”

Did someone prove morphine safe? Safely addictive, maybe. Yet Americans trust their doctors to prescribe this highly addictive narcotic, derived from the terrorist-funding opium poppy. Are our doctors not smart enough to prescribe marijuana also?

The most mind-numbing aspect of the entire controversy is that most polls have consistently shown Americans favor the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes.

Last December an AARP poll of 1,706 of its members and other random people revealed 72 percent thought adults should be able to use marijuana as medicine.

Another poll, conducted June 8-11 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, indicated 65 percent of respondents favored doctor-prescribed marijuana use.

Sadly, the government views marijuana in the same category as dangerous drugs such as heroin or ecstasy. This belief has permeated the U.S. landscape since before the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 became the law of the land.

Anti-marijuana paranoia and propaganda, including films such as the 1936 cult classic “Reefer Madness” or 1937’s “Assassin of Youth,” have helped contribute to an air of ignorance about marijuana and its medical benefits. The drug can be used to ease pain in terminally diseased patients and has had widespread acclaim as a treatment for glaucoma.

By the time Nancy Reagan told America to “Just Say No” the public had bought the lies; hook, line and sinker.

The losers here are not the states or state’s rights. The real losers are those who are suffering from debilitating injuries or illnesses such as AIDS or cancer.

For some of these people colorful cocktails of legal drugs just do not ease their suffering.

So while America sedates itself with OxyContin or Vicodin or whatever the “Mother’s Little Helper” of the week is, people who are truly suffering cannot get the medicine they need simply because we have not changed an archaic and inhumane law.

NIU students and DeKalb residents should put themselves in the shoes of those who suffer pain with no legal cure before condemning the proponents of medicinal marijuana. The issue is not about “getting high” or flaunting the government, it is about pain and suffering that anyone of us could one day face. The law must change now, or, as stated so eloquently in “Reefer Madness,” “Failing this, the next tragedy may be that of your daughter’s or your son’s, or yours, or yours, or yours!”

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.