GROUP ADVOCATES FOR MEDICAL USE

JAX NORML Inc. is now organizing as an affiliate of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The purpose of the group is to facilitate what we believe is a long
overdue debate as to the efficacy of this country's long-standing
criminal prohibition of marijuana and to advocate for the right of
seriously ill patients to use marijuana with a doctor's
recommendation.

Twelve states have decriminalized marijuana since 1973. Twelve states
now permit the medical use of marijuana.

Medical marijuana legislation and ballot initiatives are now pending
in several states. A number of municipalities have enacted
decriminalization ordinances. Possession of small amounts of marijuana
is a ticketable offense, punishable only by a fine in these areas.

JAX NORML supports the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana
for personal use. We submit that the criminal prohibition of marijuana
has been a dismal failure. Although the number of arrests has risen
from 342,314 in 1992 to 829,629 in 2006, no significant decrease in
availability or rates of usage followed.

In fact, marijuana is now the largest cash crop in the United States.
The continuation of prohibition will result in nothing more than the
wasteful expenditure of public funds and law enforcement resources,
and the entanglement of otherwise law-abiding citizens in the already
overburdened criminal justice system.

About 89 percent of marijuana arrests in 2006 were for nothing more
than simple possession.

The laws, as they now stand, neither deter nor prevent anyone from
accessing or using marijuana.

Moreover, the discordant state of the laws has led to tension between
the federal and state governments, as federal law enforcement agencies
have continued to prosecute seriously ill medical marijuana users
under federal law.

In order to better inform the public and lawmakers, a bipartisan
congressional commission should be formed to objectively study the
issue and to make recommendations to the president and Congress.

Among the notable reports that support decriminalization of marijuana
are the findings of the LaGuardia Commission (1944), the Institute of
Medicine (1999) and the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug
Abuse (1972).

Any objective scientific inquiry will yield a similar
result.

Lawmakers should follow the recommendations of any commission that may
be empaneled to advise them.

FORD BANISTER, President, JAX NORML Inc.,Jacksonville