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Letters to the Editor – Reefer policy out of whack

As I read the Tuesday, Sept. 18, Daily Forty-Niner editorial “Pot raids make no constitutional sense,” I smiled. I smiled because, as one of those who has worked off and on for legalization of cannabis since the mid 1970s, I know that there is still hope.

What aggravates me most about the federal cannabis policy is what happens when a patient entering a federal court is denied the right of mentioning their medical use of cannabis.

Because the feds deny that pot is medicine, they allow themselves the legal chicanery of denying that a patient can use the good herb medicinally. Even though, of course, the feds are the only legal dispensers of medical pot through the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program.

The [five] remaining patients enrolled in the CIND … are the sole proprietors of medical cannabis in the U.S. Beyond that, however, the treacherous theft of patients’ medicine shows the nastiness of a bureaucracy, drunk with power and addicted to its wealth (our tax dollars).

The feds have known since 1974, when a study conducted at the Medical College of Virginia found that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice – lung and breast cancer and a virus-induced leukemia.

The Federal prohibition of cannabis is pure governmental criminality. It is a prohibition founded on bigotry and perjured testimony before the Congress of the U.S. and has no rightful place in our nation.

– Allan Erickson,

Drug Policy Forum of Oregon,

Eugene, Ore.

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused. But jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted … during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the AMA. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best.

White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda. By raiding voter-approved medical marijuana providers in California, the very same [DEA] that claims illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the hands of street dealers.

Apparently marijuana prohibition is more important than protecting the country from terrorism. Students who want to help end the intergenerational culture war … should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at a www.SchoolsNotPrisons.com.

– Robert Sharpe,

MPA Policy Analyst,

Common Sense for Drug Policy,

Washington, D.C.

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