MEDICAL MARIJUANA INSANITY

Dear Editor:

Congress will soon be voting on a heartless anti-medicinal marijuana
resolution. House Resolution 372 declares that marijuana "should not be
legalized for medicinal use." This extremist resolution further urges "the
defeat of state initiatives which would seek to legalize marijuana for
medicinal use."

If passed, this non-binding resolution would not create new law, but it
would send the wrong message -- that our federal legislators support
putting seriously ill people in prison for using medicinal marijuana.

Indeed, medicinal marijuana is already illegal under federal law: A patient
convicted of possessing one joint faces up to one year in prison; a patient
growing even one marijuana plant for personal, medical use faces up to five
years in prison.

Patients should be allowed to use medicinal marijuana if their doctors
approve. Furthermore, doctors should not be penalized for recommending such
use.

Whether or not you support changing the medicinal marijuana laws, what ever
happened to states' rights? The U.S. House should not go out of its way to
dictate to the voters what their state laws should be. This arrogant,
Washington-knows-best attitude must be defeated.

I urge all readers to contact their U.S. representative and ask him or her
to vote "no" on House Resolution 372. Stop arresting patients!

Sincerely,
Joshua M. Sinoway
Coordinator, University Drug Policy Forum of DrugSense
http://www.drugsense.org/udpf

Checked-by: Richard Lake