STOP ARRESTING MEDICAL PATIENTS

To the editor:

Your editorial aptly notes that the patients, doctors and families of
medical marijuana patients refuse to back down ("Down, but not out:
Ruling against medical pot may help cause" June 23).

We adamantly stand our ground in demanding that patients be allowed to
medicate with their medicine of choice as recommended by our doctors
and other health care providers. No longer should patients be
restricted to only using government-approved, heavy-duty narcotics
which are often addictive with horrible side effects, up to and
including death.

Patients in 11 states have succeeded in obtaining the legal right to
possess their preferred medicine. In the past two weeks following the
U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Gonzalez v. Raich, the state of Rhode
Island's House and Senate overwhelmingly passed new medical marijuana
legislation that currently is veto-proof, despite their governor's
insistence that he will wield that impotent club against the new law.

We will continue to call on our federal legislators to block the DEA
from arresting and jailing patients, despite the fact that to date,
our cries are falling on deaf ears clogged by ardent drug-warrior
propaganda. Recently, the DEA began to exploit its regained federal
power when it raided three different state-legal medical marijuana
dispensaries in San Francisco.

We call on all compassionate citizens to contact their federal
representatives and demand that they order the DEA to stand down and
no longer arrest, prosecute and cage medical patients.

STEPHEN HEATH

Drug Policy Forum of Florida

Clearwater, Fla.