A VALID USE FOR MARIJUANA

Medical marijuana has been used over the last 12,000 years. Cannabis
has been used for medicine, fuel, clothing, food; it has been used in
religion.

So let's see: Marijuana has been used for 12,000 years and never, I
repeat never, has there ever been one recorded report of "death" due
to cannabis. Now aspirin in the United States alone kills over 1,000 a
year, according to government reports. So which is safer, cannabis or
aspirin?

The government wants more study? Cannabis is one of the most studied
herbs known to man. None of the studies independent of the U.S.
government has ever shown it to be harmful, addicting, habit-forming,
a "gateway drug" or in general bad for you in any way.

On the contrary, people who use marijuana scored slightly higher on IQ
tests, had slightly lower rates of illness and cancer, and lived
longer on an average than the non-user. Who said this? Ian Williams
Goddard, who references such publications as the Harvard Medical
School Mental Health Letter.

My suggestion is that the federal government is lying to us about
medical marijuana. Look at all the money they have tied up just to
keep marijuana illegal. If it were decriminalized and medical
marijuana use made legal, look at the tax money we all could save.

My big gripe is that if medical marijuana has been approved by the
people in several states, then how can it be deemed illegal for
medical use anywhere in the United States?

There is a reason the government put cannabis on the illegal drug
list: money. I do not advocate the legalization of drugs. No way. What
I do advocate is common sense--medical use of marijuana by anyone who
feels it benefits him or her, nothing more, nothing less.

Robert Niewoehner
Clinton