SCIENCE SUPPORTS MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE

New Jersey Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini sounds naive and gullible
in her guest opinion article, "Medical marijuana: Opening a Pandora's
box?" (Jan. 20, The Times of Trenton). She states that marijuana has
not been approved by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) -- as
if FDA approval means that a drug is safe. This from the same people
who brought us Vioxx. Or that the federal government hasn't had enough
time (the last 70 years) to investigate and research the effects of
cannabis.

Ms. Angelini is motivated by dogma and not science. The research and
the investigations have been done. In 1988, the administrative judge
of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) ruled that cannabis was
"the most benign therapeutically ac tive herb known to man," and
"should be re-scheduled." To preserve its own jobs, the DEA ig nored
the ruling, just like it ig nored the more recent one stating that
University of Massachusetts professor Lyle Craker should be allowed to
grow medical cannabis for research, breaking the monopoly of the (weak
grade) government-grown herb. I wonder if perhaps Ms. Angelini is as
afraid of science as the U.S. government. There is no le thal dose to
this herb. It cannot hurt you. It is not a gateway drug. It's just
what the country needs right now.

David Seroy

New York