LTE: Forbidden drug

The Clinton administration's decision to prosecute doctors who
recommend or prescribe marijuana as a therapeutic agent for the treatment
of glaucoma, cancer chemotherapy, spasicity disorders, AIDSwasting
syndrome, or other ailments according to California and Arizona law is not
only an assault against states' rights and the will of the voters, but also
on the First Amendment and the relationship between a physician and
his or her patient. Such blatant interference on the part of federal
bureaucrats warrants public outcry from liberals and conservatives.

Eight states have laws allowing physicians to prescribe marijuana to
seriously ill patients and another 19 recognize its medical utility. It is
obvious that the voters are painfully ahead of Washington on this issue.

Marijuana is medicine, and several published scientific studies attest
to this fact. It has been used for thousands of years to treat a wide
variety of ailments. Marijuana was legal in the United States and prominent
in the pharmacopoeia until 1937, when possession and use of marijuana was
outlawed by the federal government; for all other Americans who could
benefit from its therapeutic value, it remains a forbidden medicine. The
provisions passed in California and Arizona were attempts to amend this
injustice.

Doctors and medical patients must not be used as pawns in the "War on
Drugs."


Signed: Robert Parnell, WACO,TX.

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