MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE IS FOR STATES TO DECIDE

The U.S. House of Representatives on June 15 voted on whether sick and
dying people should be sent to jail. Unfortunately the sick and dying lost.

The Hinchley-Roahrbacher amendment to the Science, State, Justice,
Commerce, and Related Agencies spending bill would have prevented the
Justice Department from using funds to prosecute and imprison medical
marijuana users in states where medical marijuana has been made legal.

This amendment would not have made marijuana legal for "recreational use,"
and it would not have made medical marijuana legal in all 50 states.

This amendment would have allowed each state to decide how it wants to
pursue the medical marijuana issue without the intervention of the federal
government.

So how did our representative, the honorable Jeff Miller, R-Chumuckla,
vote? Sadly, he sided with imprisoning sick and dying patients. He sided
with prosecuting doctors who recommend valid medical treatment. He sided
with big government and against states' rights. Lest you think that he was
ill-informed, his Web site had a poll on medical marijuana support. The
respondents were an amazing 75 percent in favor at the time of the vote.

Perhaps you are thinking that this poll was not a true sampling of the
populace. Then how about this one. A random sample of 732 registered voters
nationwide was interviewed by telephone between June 8 and June 11, by
Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C. To the questions,
"Do you think adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical
purposes if their doctor recommends it, or do you think that marijuana
should remain illegal even for medical purposes?," the poll showed an
overwhelming 65 percent in favor of making it legal for medical purposes.

Rep. Miller has let sick people across the nation down. By voting for more
government interference in states' affairs he has proved that he is no
longer the voice of conservative government in the State of Florida.

Kenton Henry is a computer programmer for a government contractor. He is a
resident of Fort Walton Beach.