For the past several years proponents of marijuana legalization have evoked a red herring to further their cause. They have used the guise of "medical marijuana" to advocate broader legalization of drug use. These pro-legalization groups have transformed decriminalizing drug use into compassion and care for people with serious diseases.

Hospital waiting rooms across the nation are filled with families awaiting the birth of their next of kin. It's true, every seven seconds a newborn is brought into this world, while every 13 seconds a death occurs. But the net gain is one person every 11 seconds.

There's ample evidence that marijuana can be a powerful drug to combat illness. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published a report entitled "Marijuana and Medicine" that explored the drug's uses and its side effects. Its conclusion was simple: marijuana can be used to help many kinds of patients, and further testing of the drug was warranted.