WAGING WAR AGAINST SUFFERERS

New York Times columnist John Tierney deserves credit for drawing attention
to the ever-increasing problem of patients becoming targets in the war on
drugs ("Punishing the sufferers," July 22). What if it was your mother or
father, your daughter or son, serving 25 years in jail for taking medicine
prescribed by the family doctor?

More troublesome than that is while the government is intent on harassing
and punishing doctors who prescribe narcotic pain relievers to their
patients, they are simultaneously campaigning against the far safer and
virtually nonaddictive alternative of medical marijuana.

How can the government justify ignoring abundant scientific evidence that
demonstrates that marijuana can be an effective and appropriate pain
reliever -- for certain types of pain -- including the pain experienced by
multiple sclerosis patients?

Fortunately, several states have taken the compassionate step of allowing
patients with serious conditions to use small amounts of marijuana to
alleviate their symptoms and to ease their pain. In Vermont, the law is
limited to patients with multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and cancer. I hope that
as the Vermont Legislature examines ways to address the problem of the
increasing incidents of addiction to prescription medicines, they will act
to expand the medical marijuana law to include other seriously ill Vermonters.

I would also ask Vermont's congressional delegation to push for more humane
laws at the federal level.

Sick and dying people should not have to live in fear of police kicking in
their door and dragging them off to jail for simply trying to relieve some
of their pain and suffering.

NANCY T. LYNCH

(Vermont Marijuana Policy Project)

Montpelier