CATONSVILLE DELEGATE URGES REJECTION OF BUSH NOMINEE

State Del. Donald E. Murphy, a Catonsville Republican, is continuing his
efforts to allow using marijuana for medical purposes by asking U.S.
senators to oppose President Bush's nomination of John Walters as director
of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"In an administration which prides itself on returning power to the states,
Mr. Walters' drug policies regarding medicinal use of marijuana would do
just the opposite," he said in a letter sent by e-mail last week.

Murphy became an unlikely convert to the medical marijuana cause after
learning of Darrell Putman, a former Green Beret and Howard County resident
who died of cancer in 1999. Putman smoked marijuana to stimulate his
appetite and gain weight to withstand grueling treatments for lymphoma.