RECLASSIFY POT

Twenty-one years ago, New Mexico became the first state to initiate a
pilot program that ultimately concluded what a federal study stated
only this past week: Marijuana can relieve suffering for some ill or
terminally ill patients, and that legalizing it for medicinal use
would not lead to widespread abuse.

U.S. drug policy director Barry McCaffrey hailed ... National Academy
of Sciences' Institute of Medicine report as "the most comprehensive
analysis of medical marijuana ever done" and supported its conclusions
- -- a significant endorsement considering McCaffrey had commissioned
the study to support opposition to medical marijuana initiatives in
California, Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

This study, and McCaffrey's turnaround, should give Congress the
scientific and political backing it needs to finally eliminate federal
restrictions on states that allow medical marijuana use. ...

Congress should change this view ... to reclassify marijuana as a
Schedule II drug. This change acknowledges a legitimate medical use,
allowing doctors to prescribe it under tightly-controlled conditions.
Schedule II prescriptions are subject to both federal and state review.