LAW MUST CATCH UP WITH MARIJUANA REALITY

To the editor:

The Eagle-Tribune's editorial, "Pot bill needs careful review," of Jan. 12
ignored the growing evidence of marijuana's medical benefits.

A brief filed in the U.S Supreme Court by a group of medical experts,
including the Lymphoma Foundation of America and the HIV Medicine
Association of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, stated,
"Marijuana has therapeutic properties not replicated by other
currently available medications. ... For certain persons, the medical
use of marijuana can literally mean the difference between life and
death." While it would be ideal to have medical marijuana distributed
through pharmacies, federal law, still stuck in the 1930s, makes that
impossible at present. However, the experience of the 10 states that
had medical marijuana laws prior to this year shows that allowing
patients to grow their own medical marijuana has produced remarkably
few law enforcement problems.

Indeed, marijuana use by young people in states with medical
marijuana laws has declined across the board since those laws were
passed.

It is simply beyond dispute that some patients with cancer, AIDS,
multiple sclerosis and other terrible illnesses benefit from marijuana
when conventional medicines fail. To continue to deny them relief or
threaten them with jail for simply trying to live without constant pain and
nausea is unconscionable.

Bruce Mirken Director of Communications

Marijuana Policy Project

Washington, D.C.