I found Dr. James Dobson's column on marijuana (Feb. 21) long on
propaganda and short on references. After quoting the "facts" as
presented by one other doctor, he concluded that advocacy of medical
marijuana is "unconscionable." I urge your readers to dig a bit deeper.

Working under the department of Justice, the DEA's own administrative
law judge, Francis L. Young, ruled that marijuana should be
rescheduled to allow prescription use. Medical use of marijuana has
also been advocated by the editor of the New England Journal of
Medicine The NYC Bar Association and the National Research Council of
the National Academy of Science favor an end to the Prohibition. These
and the results of dozens of major studies of marijuana can be found
online at www.druglibrary.org/schaffer. From what I see, there is a
tremendous amount of respected science cited by drug law reformers.
The vast majority of the prohibitionists just stick to rhetoric.

After concluding that the federal government wasn't willing to give up
its abstinence just yet, several states recently passed referenda
permitting the medical use of cannabis.

However, even in those places, patients are having to fight an uphill
battle for their medication, due to decades of an ignorant War on
Drugs. Dr. Dobson got it all wrong, it is his stance on marijuana that
is "unconscionable."

Danny Terway
Sante Cruz, Calif.