Contact: Demi Bardsley, Concerned Women for America, 202-255- 2278

WASHINGTON, May 4 /Christian Newswire/ -- The D.C. City Council will hold a final vote this week on the legalization of marijuana for medical use.

Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America, said, "Although pain management is an important function of modern medicine the legalization of marijuana is more about regulating illegal drug use than medicine.  California's experience should inform D.C.'s decision.  The recreational use of 'medical' marijuana in California is so rampant that it has become a common gag line in popular media.  Physicians are not without alternatives for the treatment of chronic pain.  To use this argument to advocate for the legalization of a drug with such dangerous affects is absurd.

"A federal report released by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHS) in 2002 concluded the younger children are when they first use marijuana, the more likely they are to use cocaine and heroin and become dependent on drugs as adults.

"It is common sense that marijuana is a gateway drug to other illicit drugs and behaviors.  It is mind-altering and inhibits decision making and discretion, affecting not only the user but others around them."

"Unquestionably, legalizing marijuana for medical purposes is a slippery slope.  The proven consequences of legalization of marijuana are abuse and misuse.  Women and mothers have enough to worry about without the easy availability of marijuana added to the list," concluded Nance.

Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.