Letters on Medical Marijuana
February 19, 2003
The Baltimore Sun
Drug policies hurt people with medical needs
Few Americans realize that the United States may soon be one the few Western countries that uses its justice system to punish otherwise law-abiding citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis ("Reefer madness," editorial, Feb. 9).
Evidence of the U.S. government's reefer madness is best exemplified by the kangaroo court trial of Ed Rosenthal, who grew marijuana for medical use. By denying an officer of the city of Oakland the ability to use California's medical marijuana law as a defense, the judge foisted a predetermined guilty verdict onto a misinformed jury.
The federal government's raids on voter-approved medical marijuana providers in California say a lot about Attorney General John Ashcroft's bizarre priorities. The very same attorney general who claims illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the hands of street dealers.
Robert Sharpe Washington
The writer is a program officer for the Drug Policy Alliance.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's crusade against marijuana provides a revealing glimpse of the Bush Administration's values and politics.
As The Sun's editorial notes, marijuana kills few if any users, and has long been used for medicinal purposes. Tobacco use kills about 440,000 Americans every year.
Yet the administration seems determined to jail people for marijuana offenses while doing nothing about the tobacco epidemic.
Mort Paulson Silver Spring
Marijuana can help critically ill patients
I am a 52-year-old male with cancer (non-Hodgkins lymphoma) in remission who is a participant in a vaccine trial. I am now back to work full time - and pounding nails, learning salsa and paying taxes. I'm looking forward to celebrating more birthdays.
While I received eight months of an experimental high dose of chemotherapy in 2001, I smoked marijuana. The prescription sleeping pills I tried wouldn't take the edge off of the 130 mg of prednisone I was taking. Although I tried several types of medicines, I couldn't get more than 1 1/2 hours of sleep at night.
So I smoked pot. A puff or two at night, and I would get seven hours of rest. And I maintained my appetite.
I know that if I hadn't gotten the rest and had not been able to eat, I'd be dead.
Others who are in the situation I faced should be able to use marijuana without fear of criminal sanction.
Lawrence Silberman Burtonsville
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