The purpose of the Beth Am Women's Medical Marijuana Project is to educate faith communities. Judaism's mitzvot to show compassion for the sick and to seek social justice make medical marijuana an important issue for all Jews. Current US Federal Law classifies marijuana as a Schedule I substance. This means that, under US law, cannabis has no recognized medical value and is defined as having a high potential for abuse. This classification makes it illegal for doctors to prescribe marijuana and makes scientific research difficult to conduct.

Despite this prohibition, there is a longstanding and growing movement to make marijuana available for people suffering from AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other grave diseases. This is because many people who have these diseases find that smoking and ingesting marijuana offers relief from many of these conditions, their symptoms, and the side effects of prescribed medication. There is a compelling body of clinical research to support this anecdotal experience (see especially Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine by Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Harvard Professor Emeritus, published by Yale University Press).

Medical marijuana is a complex, emotional issue, deeply intertwined with the US government's War on Drugs. Our current policies on medical marijuana have made it a crime for sufferers of disease to use or for their care-givers to provide this source of comfort and healing. Our tradition teaches us that this is wrong.

The ultimate goal of this effort, which led to the 1999 adoption of a Women of Reform Judaism Health Issues resolution , is to help inform people so that United States and Canada will change a policy that undermines the authority of doctors to treat their patients in a humane manner.

*Mitzvot (plural of 'mitzvah') are the Jewish arena for knowing and experiencing God. Rather than relying on contemplation, Judaism has placed primary value on doing as the principal path for serving God. Mitzvot translate the lofty principles of the Torah into the tangible acts of caring individuals and righteous societies -- feeding the hungry, freeing the captive, observing Shabbat(the Sabbath), honoring our parents. Those sacred deeds embody the conviction that we best imitate God through sacred deeds of love.
 From Bradley Shavit Artson, It's a Mitzvah! Step-by-Step to Jewish Living, Behrman House, Inc, 1995.