MEDICAL MARIJUANA EARNS CLINICAL, POPULAR SUPPORT

As a marijuana-smoking, -eating and -drinking cancer patient, I must take
umbrage at The Republic editorial board's morass regarding medical
marijuana ("Let smoke clear on pot report," April 27).

What are those people smoking?

We are talking about patients with serious illness and you want to wait for
some smokeless delivery system that has about as much chance as a snowball
in hell. Dying patients need relief from their symptoms, not a lecture from
you or the government based on superstition, ignorance, arrogance or greed.
For shame.

Current polls, one recently by the Phoenix-based Behavior Research Center,
for the umpteenth time proved massive support for medical marijuana. The
will of the people prevails. As it should. According to the poll, 66
percent of Arizonans oppose federal intervention in the medical marijuana
debate.

Politics aside, marijuana as a medicine is almost a non-issue. Those in the
know actually sing the praise of medical marijuana as it regulates
appetites, weans patients of habit-forming dangerous narcotics as it ebbs
the pain and quiets the nausea. A science of 2,000 years, without an
overdose fatality, that really works. For some it works better than
anything else available for any price or prescription. Accordingly, the
recent report by the Institute of Medicine ordered by the White House
Office of National Drug Central Policy indicates significant medical
benefits; it is not a gateway to drug abuse nor would medical use increase
its use among the general population. Bingo!

So what's all the bobbing and weaving about? Pure unadulterated politics
and the greed that goes with it. Know any drug companies lining up to fill
prescriptions? They already know there isn't any money to be made because
it cannot be controlled by patent -- not while it can be produced anywhere,
anytime by anyone with the inclination.

The buck drops on the desk of the administrator of the Drug Enforcement
Administration. A political appointee without appropriate credentials
standing between me and my doctors. Something is very wrong with this
picture. The DEA is quoted as not concerned with which states have or don't
have provisions for medical marijuana; federal statue takes precedent, the
will of the people will be damned. The U.S. Department of Justice
recommended in 1988 that marijuana be transferred to Schedule II for use
under medical supervision. Those instructions continue to be ignored.

The people need to know the real facts of the matter. There are about 40
states with laws on the books providing compassionate use of marijuana. But
not one with implementation that actually enables a person with the
required prescriptions, as in Arizona, to get them filled. Federal
interference continues to stomp on the sovereign rights of the states and
its citizens despite the fact their own study proves the medicinal use for
marijuana.

Arizona had a compassionate marijuana law on the books in 1980 that
provided medical marijuana to patients. Then the politicians declared war
on drugs and compassion faded. Worse yet, they refuse to recognize after
all of this time that the war is lost, and they must stop throwing tax
money at that enormous black hole.

Incarceration for alcohol-related crimes during Prohibition did not work
then, and incarceration for drug-related crimes doesn't work now. Treatment
for alcohol problems began when Prohibition ended, as should treatment
replace jail for non-violent drug offenders today.

Arizona voters have led the way as the only state in the Union providing
treatment and proving it works. We, the people, will continue to speak and
demand response.