ALLOW MARIJUANA USE

I find it disheartening that the Rockton chief of police is using
scare tactics and false logic to express his opinion of the medical
cannabis legislation ("Allowing medicinal marijuana could lead to a
slippery slope," Opinions, May 17).

The FDA classifies cannabis as a schedule 1 narcotic with no accepted
medical use. However, the federal government supplies medical cannabis
to a small group of patients from the Compassionate Investigational
New Drug Program, which was phased out because of an overwhelming
amount of applications.

Additionally, the United States of America represented by the
Department of Health and Human Services holds a patent for the use of
compounds found in cannabis to help in stroke recovery and an
anti-inflammatory medicine.

How is it the feds can continue to allow the FDA to classify cannabis
as a schedule 1 substance when they distribute the substance as
medicine and hold a patent for it as a medicine?

The evidence supporting medical cannabis is vast, but until Illinois
protects medical cannabis patients, patients will continue to face
arrest.

Illinois needs to protect these patients, even if some police officers
cannot fathom the idea of letting people use a medicine without a
single documented overdose fatality.

- -- Dan Linn, Sycamore