Tom Batiuk creator of the comic strip Funky Winkerbean has won public service awards in the past, however, at the moment he is doing his readers and the general population, especially those who have or will face cancer, a grave disservice. One of his long running themes is the story of Lisa a woman who has been coping with breast cancer. The storyline has reached a point where Lisa believes she must decide between the pro-longed life that chemo-therapy can give her and a better quality of life that she might have in the absence of treatment. Lisa has now chosen to die early. In bringing the tale to this crossroads Batiuk has presented his character with a false choice.

There has been no mention, as of yet, concerning the possibility of Lisa using marijuana to counteract the side effects of her chemo-therapy. While this strategy is still controversial that is because of political not scientific or medical reasons. Even the National Cancer Institute acknowledges the potential effectiveness of marijuana in alleviating the debilitating side effects of Lisa’s chemo-therapy saying that, “Marijuana cigarettes have been used to treat chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and research has shown that THC is more quickly absorbed from marijuana smoke than from an oral preparation.”

If Tom Batiuk is going to accept praise and awards for tackling this subject then it is incumbent upon him to do so in a responsible manner. So far he has not done so, instead, he has put his cartoon strip in the service of the simplistic and questionable, moral and political statement that marijuana is bad. Just like the federal government in the real world, Batiuk has put politics above the life of his character, Lisa.

Cross posted on The Trebach Report