US NV: PUB LTE: A REAL DOPE

I, a poor dumb Nevadan, didn't know how to vote on Question 9, the state's
medical marijuana initiative. Then the smart federal government came to the
rescue. President Clinton's drug doyen, the so-called "drug czar," Barry
McCaffrey told me the facts in the his Oct. 18 commentary, "Seeing through
the haze of medical marijuana."

Mr. McCaffrey told me, for example, that, "This amendment does not represent
the grass-roots sentiments of Nevadans." The fact that he doesn't live
within 1,000 miles of Nevada is irrelevant.

Also some of his reasoning is a touch spotty. To take a few examples:

- -- He says that marijuana addles the brain and is the second leading cause
of car crashes, after alcohol. He doesn't, though, want to outlaw alcohol.

- -- He suggests that instead of taking marijuana people should take pills
that contain only its so-called "active ingredient;" to smoke marijuana
instead, he says is like eating bread mold rather than taking penicillin.
Using this reasoning, it certainly sounds as if I don't really have to eat
food. I could take vitamins instead.

- -- He urges us to wait until there is more scientific evidence on marijuana.
He fails to discuss, though, either the federal rules that hobble this
research or the difficulty that truly impartial researchers have in getting
federal funds.

These lapses of reasoning aside, I'm sure that I can trust the general to
tell me how to vote in a Nevada election. After all, my federal tax dollars
are paying him handsomely to do it. Also, he works for President Clinton who
is rather a marijuana expert himself. The First Pot Smoker knows, first
hand, the dangers of smoking the stuff, if not of inhaling it.

Bruce Allen Tonopah [Nevada]

Checked-by: Don Beck