Viewpoint Letters to the Editor

MARIJUANA USE NOT SMOKE SCREEN

To the editor:

Regarding the Nov. 27 letter from Altoona Police Chief John L. Gray
("Against legalizing drugs"), I would like to correct some errors. Chief
Gray is mistaken about the location of the recent vote on medical
marijuana. The vote was not in the state of New York, it was in the state
of Washington. Also, it was not really a vote on medical marijuana. The
Washington initiative also included the medical use of substances such as
LSD and PCP.

The Washington initiative was clearly too radical for the voters. The
inclusion of substances such as LSD and PCP in the Washington initiative
clearly destroyed any chance of passage the initiative might have had.
Even though the initiative was crippled by the inclusion of other illegal
substances, it still got over 40% of the votes cast.

Chief Gray is also in error when he accuses proponents of medical marijuana
of wanting to legalize illegal drugs for entertainment purposes. The voters
in Washington just proved that they make a distinction between medical use
of marijuana and other illegal substances. If medical marijuana is a smoke
screen for a scheme to sell angel dust and methamphetamine to kids, then
why aren't we hearing arguments that medical use of cocaine and morphine is
a smoke screen for selling crack and heroin to kids?

The sad fact is that distortions such as those made by Chief Gray deprive
medical patients of what an administrative law judge for the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration called, "one of the safest therapeutically
active substances known to man." Final Ruling, DEA Docket No. 8622, Sept.
6, 1988. More recently, medical marijuana was endorsed as a medicine by
the New England Journal of Medicine (Jan. 30, 1997). If anyone is
responsible for creating a decrease in the perception of risk, it is the
opponents of medical marijuana who have exaggerated the risks. Credibility
is an important tool in the fight against drug abuse.

Perhaps the most revealing thing about Chief Gray's letter is his praise of
the intelligence that went to crafting Iowa's drug law. Iowa's drug law
has classified marijuana as a medicine since 1979. If Chief Gray really
means it when he says that police officials are ready and willing to
fullfil their sworn duty to uphold the law, then he needs to take a moment
to read the law and find out what it says.

Carl E. Olsen
Des Moines