GOVERNMENT TYRANNY

The case of Richard Paey ("Drug War Offers Bitter Pill," Other Views, July
21) is a heartbreaking example of how suffering patients become needless
casualties in the war on drugs. But the situation is even worse than
columnist John Tierney describes.

While harassing and punishing doctors who prescribe narcotic pain
relievers, our government is aggressively campaigning against a far safer
and virtually nonaddictive alternative: medical marijuana.

Abundant scientific evidence has demonstrated that marijuana can relieve
certain types of pain - including the pain experienced by many multiple
sclerosis patients - that don't respond well to conventional drugs.

In a review published in May 2003, the journal The Lancet Neurology noted
that marijuana has been shown effective in virtually every experimental
test that scientists have developed to measure pain relief.

Seriously ill patients should not have to live in fear of police kicking in
their doors and dragging them off to jail for simply trying to relieve some
of their suffering.

BRUCE MIRKEN, Washington, D.C.

The writer is director of communication for the Marijuana Policy Project.