MARIJUANA IS NOT MEDICINE

Re "After the pot shot," editorial, June 8: The Bee and other liberal
thinkers believe that the U.S. attorney general should reclassify marijuana
the same as other drugs with accepted medical use. For what accepted
medical use? If proponents of marijuana use want it classified as a medical
drug, they should do what every other drug manufacturer must do: Get the
drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Of course, they have not
done this, raising the question, why? Well, maybe it's because marijuana
has never been scientifically shown to be safe or effective for any medical
condition.

We have laws to protect patients from physicians who prescribe drugs that
can do more harm than good. Marijuana proponents sound like the tobacco
companies that downplayed that their product was addicting and caused cancer.

Marijuana is addictive, psychotoxic, cancer-causing, immunosuppressive and
harmful to the lungs, reproductive system and a developing fetus.
Organizations such as the American Medical Association, American Cancer
Society, American Academy of Ophthalmology and the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society are on record as stating that marijuana has never been
shown to be safe or effective as medicine.

- - Ed Kaempf, Granite Bay