FEDERAL PROHIBITION ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT

To the editor:

Again, the Review-Journal steps up to the plate with the solid Jan. 5
editorial, "Medical marijuana." Your restraint is admirable. I would
have worded things a bit differently.

The federal government flat out lies, steals medicine from some of
our most suffering neighbors and (in the minds of many) exhibits
criminal behavior in its exhaustive pursuit of maintaining a
prohibition on cannabis.

In light of cannabis' place in our nation's history -- grown by
former presidents, used to make parachute lines and rope for our
soldiers and sailors in World War II -- there is a distinct absurdity
to its relegation as a demon weed.

Under what logic do SWAT teams raid homes and terrorize citizens for
gardening or possessing a once-common garden herb and farm staple?

Prohibition in its second incarnation -- aka the War On (some) Drugs
- -- is a failure. A failure in fact, practice and principle. End it now.

Allan Erickson, Drug Policy Forum of Oregon,

Eugene, Ore.