DEA HAS NO PLACE IN MANAGING END-OF-LIFE PAIN

The Pain Relief Promotion Act would require the Drug Enforcement Agency --
the DEA -- to assess whether too many narcotics are given to patients by
their doctors ("Pain management on Senate's agenda,'' Times Union Sept. 24).
Why does anyone think that the DEA is capable of making such decisions?

In March 1999, the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine
concluded that marijuana is not an addictive drug and has bona fide medical
uses. To this day the DEA claims that "there are over 10,000 scientific
studies that prove marijuana is a harmful addictive drug.'' "There is not
one reliable study that demonstrates that marijuana has any medical value.''
The truth is the DEA's "10,000 scientific studies'' do not exist.

If the DEA is so biased against the medical use of marijuana and refuses to
acknowledge the facts stated in a federally sponsored study, how can they be
trusted to judge how much pain medication is too much for a dying
individual?

The federal government already has too much to say about how "we the
people'' live our lives -- do we really want them telling us how we will
die?

Walter F. Wouk

Director, The Thomas Paine Project

Cobleskill