`THE DEA'S PITCH FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA'

Editor -- While the federal government is doing everything in its power to
deny medical marijuana to sick and dying people, apparently to send the
``right message to our children,'' politicians and the media are guilty of
a cultivated historical and cultural amnesia!

The DEA's own law judge, Francis L. Young, concluded in 1988 that
``marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically
active substances known to man . . . One must reasonably conclude that
there is accepted safety for use of marijuana under medical supervision. To
conlude otherwise, on the record, would be unreasonable, arbitrary, and
capricious.''

The DEA's own judge concluded this. Please, don't contribute to the
hypocrisy, help inform Americans of the facts!

With the creation of the FDA in 1970, marijuana was classified as a
Schedule I drug, meaning it has zero recognized medicinal value. By always
clinging to the Scheduling status, government has kept the public and the
media in the dark.

It is time for Americans to re-evaluate inconsistent and ineffective drug
war strategies, we need to reduce harm, not increase draconian rhetoric!

JOSHUA M. SINOWAY
Santa Cruz