CANNABIS, MEDICINE AND PRIVACY

Hasso Hering has penned an excellent editorial, "Medical pot law needs
a fix" (Sunday, June 15). Throughout the years Hering has been a
stable voice on an issue that too often gets lowered to the level of
hysterics.

Oregon now has nearly 3,000 doctors who have signed recommendations
for patients to legally utilize cannabis (marijuana) as medicine.
Unfortunately pot's critics too often have a voice more powerful than
the message of criticism they spew. Kevin Mannix and many in Oregon's
law enforcement community condemn the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program
(OMMP), yet their criticism is based not on fact or science but on
perpetuation of the Reefer Madness myth.

For instance, the U.S. government has known since 1974 that cannabis
has anti-cancer properties, yet that study was buried. Continuing
research (usually in foreign nations) shows pot effective for many
medical conditions as an effective tool in reducing the need for (and
physiologic harms from) pharmaceutical drugs. Pot is one of the oldest
substances in humanity's pharmacopoeia, with no known fatal dosage (or
fatality).

Oregonians should continue to support patients' access to cannabis and
protect our most basic rights of privacy. There is nothing more
personal than an individual's health care and it should remain a
private matter between them and their doctor.

ALLAN ERICKSON

Eugene