Just want to correct one point [mentioned in ``Some doctors and
patients swear by marijuana."] Medical marijuana use was legal under
the Marijuana Tax Act until the law was declared unconstitutional in
1969. Marijuana was removed from the U.S. Pharmacopeia in 1942 because
of political pressure, not for medical or scientific reasons.

Drug crusaders pretend that some cosmic change in the nature of the
cannabis plant or the human body occurred destroying cannabis's
ability to relieve a wide variety of ailments just before they passed
the Controlled Substances Act prohibiting hemp and medical marijuana
altogether.

The recent Institute of Medicine report puts the lie to every Reefer
Madness excuse for outlawing marijuana for any use, so why do idiot
legislators still pretend to know better than the finest doctors and
scientists in the world?

Don't these lunatic legislators have anything better to do than
persecuting the sick and dying?

REDFORD GIVENS
San Francisco, Calif.