PUNITIVE POT LAW

HOUSE Resolution 372 declares that marijuana should not be utilized for
medicinal purposes and it 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.

Californians voted in favor of allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana in
this state. More state voters backed Proposition 215 than voted for
President Clinton. Now the federal government, and the Clinton
administration, are threatening doctors, dispensers, cultivators, and sick
patients in an effort to thwart the will of the majority of Californians.

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.

What ever happened to states' rights, or the will of the majority of voters
in a democracy? The House of Representatives 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.

- -- Glenn N. Rands

San Jose