SUPPORT FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Editor:

I found your recent piece on medical marijuana to be interesting and
timely ("Pot for people who are sick," by Ray Crow, Forum/Feb. 7).

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) marijuana is a
schedule 1 drug, meaning that it has "no accepted medical use." Not
everyone agrees.

In a recent position paper, the American College of Physicians
acknowledged that "indications for some conditions ... have been well
documented." The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society "supports legislation to
remove criminal and civil sanctions for the doctor-advised medical
use of marijuana."

In 2008, the American Nurses Association issued a position statement
in support of patients' safe access to therapeutic marijuana. Even
the staid American Medical Association has called for a review of
marijuana's status as a schedule 1 drug.

There has long been dissent within the DEA itself regarding the
medical efficacy of marijuana. As far back as 1988, the DEA's own
Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young ruled that marijuana be
rescheduled, stating, "The evidence in this record clearly shows
that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress
of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under
medical supervision."

It's time for the people of Wyoming to insist that we join our
neighbors to the north and south, and the dozen other states who have
made the sensible decision to support the medical use of marijuana.

LEROY CASTERLINE, Casper