When Montel Williams testified before the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee in favor of medical marijuana for chronically ill patients, he referred to himself as a poster child for pot. Williams, who hosts a television talk show, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis almost a decade ago.

MS can cause debilitating pain. For those who might be unaware, let me share with you that Williams does not exaggerate. My sister-in-law suffered from MS all of her adult life, before losing her life to MS at the age of 40, and I will tell you first-hand, there is suffering. When I think of all the life that MS stole from her, and all that she endured, I feel frustration towards anyone who would have denied her the best quality of life available. I am fed up with the lack of compassion of those who would deny anyone suffering from chronic or life-threatening disease the best quality of life available to them. For Williams, it is medical marijuana that offers him the best quality of life possible.

When potent narcotic painkillers failed to provide pain relief, he turned to marijuana and found that it was effective in allowing him to function daily and continue working. Something he insists he would not be able to do if he were still in pain. I believe him.

"I'm not only the poster child for MS around the world; I'm the poster child for pot," Williams said. "What angers me so much is that all people consider me a dopehead when all I want to do is wake up in the morning and go to work without pain."

The same holds true for many cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and for long-term cancer survivors who are left with lingering physical pain as a result of some of the cancer treatments they went through in order to live. The medical marijuana issue seems as much about effective pain relief as it does quality of life issues.

Williams had a distinguished career in the military and launched an anti-drug program for children before becoming a television personality. This does not seem a man of shallow intelligence or character. He is urging the state lawmakers to make medical marijuana available to patients with a physician's prescription.