August 31, 2005
Virginia Nurses Again Demand
Medical Cannabis
The Virginia Nurses Association (VNA), representing
80,000 Nurses, at their October 2004 VNA Delegate Assembly,
Resolved that:
“The Virginia Nurses Association will continue
to support legislation that would legalize the medically
prescribed use of cannabis/Marijuana for the purpose
of relieving pain and distressful symptoms of acute,
chronic, or incurable illness.”
The VNA “will continue” to support this
patient care position since the VNA was the first of
now 14 state nursing associations that have taken written
published positions in support of the therapeutic use
of cannabis. The VNA leadership in 1994 has been echoed
over the years by the American
Nurses Association, the American
Public Health Association, the National Nurses Society
on Addictions, and dozens of other medically orientated
groups. (To see group list
click here)
The combined membership of health care professionals
that are publicly demanding therapeutic cannabis is
in the several millions.
Mary Lynn Mathre, RN,
MSN, CARN, a central Virginia addictions specialist,
author, educator and the individual that sponsored the
original 1994 VNA resolution in support of a patients
right to medical cannabis was very positive about the
role of the professional nurse and others health care
professionals in this demand action.
“Nurses are the most respected profession in
the US and their opinion counts, or certainly should
count, more than the absurd to ignorant statements made
by US government officials, most of whom are attorneys
or law enforcement specialists that have no true understanding
of medicine, or the medical use of cannabis. Nurses,
Medical Doctors, Social Workers and all other health
care professionals have spoken with resolve through
their professional organizations and they have said
patients need cannabis now. These are the experts politicians
should be guided by in this demand for compassion and
reason”.
Contact: Al Byrne
Patients Out of Time
1472 Fish Pond Rd.
Howardsville, VA 24562
(434) 263-4484 fax (434) 263-6753
Al@medicalcannabis.com
