LET PATIENTS USE MARIJUANA

During an appearance on MTV, Vice President Gore recently made a number of
insensitive comments regarding the medical use of marijuana. He said, "I do
not believe that marijuana has any medical benefit." Gore condones the
situation in which sick and dying patients, like Cheryl Miller
(www.cherylheart.org), are forced to either languish in pain, or risk
arrest by breaking these archaic laws against marijuana possession. I would
have expected much more compassion from a man who recently claimed that his
sister, a cancer patient, was "prescribed" marijuana to relieve her
suffering. MTV introduced Gore with a film clip that characterized the him
as a rebel, who rode a motorcycle and even "smoked the herb." Cheryl
Miller, however, has never used marijuana for "fun."

Gore is not alone in his ignorance. In August, while discussing medical
marijuana on Fox television, Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., claimed that
philanthropist George Soros had "bankrolled the IOM Report (on Marijuana
and Medicine)." But last year, immediately after the release of the report,
which cost taxpayers nearly a million dollars, Barr stated that "the report
is a waste of the taxpayers' money, because they came to the wrong
conclusion." The report was commissioned by the Clinton-Gore
administration, and its findings have been ignored.

We must allow patients access to marijuana, and adopt a "zero tolerance"
approach to political hypocrisy.

Gary M. Sage
The Cherylheart Project
Keyport