HYPOCRITICAL ON MEDICINAL POT

To the editor:

Re: "Down, but not out: Ruling against medical pot may help cause"
(June 23). The most interesting aspect of the battle for legal
medical marijuana is the utter hypocrisy of the Republican Party
getting into a lather over Terri Schiavo while ignoring the plight of
hundreds of thousands of seriously ill people who can benefit from marijuana.

Tragic as Terri Schiavo's case was, she was only one person -- a
person now dead -- compared to hundreds of thousands of living
patients who can get relief using cannabis. The GOP came down on the
unpopular side of both issues.

In an ABC news poll, 78 percent of respondents did not want to be
kept alive in Terri Schiavo's condition. Sixty percent opposed
sending Schiavo's case to federal courts and 70 percent oppose
congressional interference in how we die.

In an American Association of Retired Persons poll, 72 percent of
respondents agreed adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana
for medical purposes if a physician recommends it. A Time/CNN Poll
showed 80 percent support for allowing adults to "legally use
marijuana for medical purposes." A Gallup poll had 73 percent of
respondents ready to "vote for making marijuana legally available for
doctors to prescribe."

Despite overwhelming support for medical marijuana, even in red
states, the GOP plods along in its reefer madness crusade against marijuana.

Redford Givens

San Francisco