LA CUCARACHA

Partnership for a Drug Free America receives a majority of their funding
from the tobacco, alcohol and pharmacuetical industries. They spend
billions of dollars demonizing marijuana and fueling the hysteria in order
to keep this valuable plant from ever becomimg legal. By law, pharmacuetical
companies cannot patent a plant. Cannabis, cocca and opium, better known as
marijuana, cocaine and heroin are all in their natural form- plants.

Marijuana's true name is Cannabis. It has been used as a medicine
throughout the world for thousands of years. Cannabis was used for 193
years and was an ingredient in over twenty different medicines at the time
Congress passed the " Marijuana Tax Act " in 1937.

Dr. William C.Woodward, a long-time legislative counsel for the American
Medical Association, criticized the use of the term " marijuana " as being
deliberately misleading. The word marijuana was Mexican slang for cannabis
taken from the song " La cucaracha ". Dr.Woodward went on to say that " No
medical man would identify this bill with a medicine until he read it
through, because " marijuana " is not a drug...simply a name given
cannabis...The obvious pupose and effect of this bill is to impose so many
restrictions on the medical use as to prevent such use altogether".

On September 6th, 1988 the United States Department of Justice -Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) released Docket # 86-22. The DEA's own
Administative Law Judge, Francis Young, came to the conclusion that (page
57, paragraph 15), " In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than
many foods we commonly consume. For example,eating ten raw potatoes can
result in a toxic response. By comparison,it is physically impossible to
eat enough marijuana to induce death. (paragraph 16) Marijuana in its
natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to
man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within
the supervised routine of medical care".

Legal phamacuetical drugs account for 70% of all drug related deaths and 50%
of all emergency room admissions. Aspirin is responsible for approximately
1,000 deaths each year. In 5,000 years of human experince with marijuana,
there has not been one proven, documeneted marijuana induced death. The
prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, has gone as far as to say
that, " The smoking of cannabis,even long term, is not harmful to health".

Partnership for a Drug Free America is nothing more than a lobbyist group
for the pharmacuetical industry and those who contribute to their coffer.
They continue to run their smear campaign against marijuana, spending
billions of dollars all in the name of saving our children from this
terrible and dangerous drug. These groups don't give a damn about the
children, all they give a damn about are their profits. There is a very
good chance that the voters in the state of Oregon will have the opportunity
to vote for medical marijuana in the November 1998 elections. I encourage
people who are not sure how they feel about this issue to take the time and
educate thenselves. The most recent,comprehensive and unbiased studies on
the effects of marijuana can be found in the book "Marijuana Myths,
Marijuana Facts " by Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D and Dr.John P Morgan, M.D.. I picked
up my copy at Barnes and Noble bookstore in Bend.

Anyone that is truly interested in the history of marijuana can feel free to
contact me and I will educate you with the true facts and show you
documentation to back-up what I say. For example: Did you know that diesel
engine was designed to run on the oil pressed from the seeds of the
marijuana/hemp plant, a biofuel. It took the petroleum industry ten years
to synthesize their putrid petroleum crap before it would even burn in a
diesel engine. As a result,we now have acid rain, depletion of the ozone
layer and massive oil spills which are contaminating and killing our earth
and its inhabitants. Another example: Hemp will produce four times the
amount of fiber for paper than trees, yet we continue to cut down half a
million acres of trees a day for paper. The facts are staggering. By
continuing the prohibition of this plant we are causing the needless
suffering of countless people who could benefit from its medicinal use. We
are also allowing the massive human induced global distruction that is
taking place at a rate faster than anytime in our history. Your future and
the future of your children depends on your knowledge of this issue and the
actions you take as a result of that knowledge.

Thank you,

Curt Wagoner
P.O.Box 1025
Bend, OR 97709