POLITICS AND RULING ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Re "Top Court Says No to Medical Marijuana Use," May 15: Within the past
five years, four of my friends and relatives have been stricken with breast
cancer. Two of them died. All suffered through painful courses of
chemotherapy. In some cases, marijuana was the only medicine that helped
them to keep food down--at all--for weeks on end. What would the government
tell those women who suffered and died? That they were being protected from
a life of addiction? Preposterous! Cancer is striking a huge number of
American citizens, and for our government to turn a cold shoulder on them
is incredibly cruel. In a democracy, where the survivors and their families
have the right to vote, such insensitivity is also stupid. So much for a
"kinder and gentler" America.

Beth Black
Glendale

_____________________________________________________________________

First they deliver an illegitimate presidency under the masquerade of
sparing us poor, hapless citizens the pain of a constitutional crisis. Now,
masquerading under the letter of the law, they have returned to their
self-appointed high moral ground to inflict pain on those who suffer the
horrors of extraordinary physical pain. On the road to becoming
constitutional scholars, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and William H.
Rehnquist apparently didn't learn how to become true caring human beings,
the essential quality of a justice who is just and fair. For this their
legacy will be cast in shame.

Maurice J. Flantzman
Los Angeles

_____________________________________________________________________

So much for states' rights.

Ben Boorman
Compton

_____________________________________________________________________

This is too ironic. My late father was a medical doctor. His federal
license to dispense medicine was titled "Permit to Possess and Distribute
Opium, Marijuana and Coca Leaves" at a time when marijuana had no
recognized medical use. Now that marijuana's medical uses are being proven
by science, doctors can no longer prescribe it. The founders of our country
must be spinning in their graves while watching their experiment in
democracy die under a tyranny of stupidity and double talk.

Peter M. Linden Sr.
Alhambra

_____________________________________________________________________

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people." The people voted
for medical use of marijuana. The conservative Supreme Court dictated
against the people. And we all know very well that they, or their circles
of family and friends, will use it if it curbs their pains. And so we
continue the hypocritical double standard of government versus the people.

Flo Ginsburg
Santa Monica