Murphy Brown is in trouble again.

In Wednesday’s episode, Brown, played by Candace Bergen, smoked a marijuana joint to alleviate pain caused by breast cancer chemotherapy.

Now Drug Enforcement Administration Chief Thomas Constantine is upset, and he said the sitcom is “doing a great disservice” by portraying marijuana as a medicine and sending the wrong message to children.

We don’t want shows advocating drug use to children either. But is that what the show was really doing?

Brown used the drug after exhausting all other options of pain relief. That’s hardly telling children “marijuana must be OK because it’s medicine,” as Constantine said.

Producers of the show said they were told by doctors that patients frequently use marijuana to relieve nausea. For example, older patients who can’t handle morphine often use the drug.

The issue was well-researched before filming and was in no way a mere advocation of drug use.

Government officials constantly criticize Murphy Brown.

The show is an easy target because it has always been a leader in portraying real-life situations, as in the fictional character’s decision to have a child out of wedlock in 1992.

These situations may not be pretty, but they’re real. Much more real, in fact, than the abundance of violence portrayed on many other television shows.

How does an episode of Murphy Brown, which younger, less discerning children rarely watch, compare with a Power Rangers show or even a Wile E. Coyote cartoon?

Isn’t a beloved cartoon character blowing himself up with dynamite more damaging to children than a cancer patient lessening her pain?