DOCTORS, NOT DEA, SHOULD DECIDE

A June 1 guest column, "Lawmakers need to listen up," stated: "The
majority of Americans want their physicians, not politicians, to
decide if marijuana should be used to ease suffering in sick patients."

Isn't this true with any medicinal drug?

All controlled substances are placed under one of five schedules. The
Drug Enforcement Administration, not doctors, decides which
substances are prohibited. Both marijuana and heroin are on schedule
one, which, according to the DEA, has no medical use.

If marijuana has medical use, it stands to reason that heroin has
medical use. In the United Kingdom, heroin can be prescribed by
doctors to relieve severe pain. Heroin has also been found to be
effective with terminally ill cancer patients.

If people want their doctors, and not the DEA, to decide what is
medicine and what is not, this should apply to "all" medicine, not
just marijuana.

Randy Vizyak

Mukwonago