GORE LIES ABOUT MEDICAL BENEFITS OF MARIJUANA

Regarding your October 12, 2000 editorial, ``The `Gore's a liar' lie'', in
which you dismissed Gore's reputation for fabrications and embellishments
as a political tactic by the Bush campaign.

That may be mostly true, but no one can deny that Gore was lying when, in
an MTV appearance a few weeks back, he stated his opposition to the
medicinal use of marijuana to a woman who told him a member of her family
was in jail for giving the drug to a cancer patient. Gore said, ``I don't
agree that it's medically effective. Doctors have studied this question
pretty extensively, and so far there is absolutely no evidence that it has
the effect that some people say.''

This directly contradicts the Clinton-Gore administration's own Institute
of Medicine (IOM) report, released March 17, 1999, that said, ``There is no
clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might
be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting.'' It also
disregards a vast collection of both medical evidence and expert opinion.

Gore had it right, when during a forum in New Hampshire last December, he
said, ``where you have sufficient controls, I think that doctors ought to
have that option''.

Apparently, with the election looming, Gore decided to abandon that
sensible position and let politics trump science.

For a man who touts patients' rights, this turnabout is a major slap in the
face to the many patients across the U.S. who find marijuana the best
therapeutic option. Gore should follow the recommendations of the IOM
report and end the suppression of medical marijuana, instead of fanning the
fires of ignorance and intolerance that leads to needless suffering and
criminalization of some of our most vulnerable citizens.

Gary Storck
Madison