POLICY PROJECT DIRECTOR POINTS OUT MEDICINAL BENEFITS OF MARIJUANA

Dear Editor:

Regarding the medical marijuana bill recently proposed in Tennessee
discussed in "Marijuana legislation proposed" in Wednesday's Beacon, it was
not the FDA that put marijuana into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances
Act, labeling it as unsuitable for medical use. That was done by Congress,
not by any medical or scientific body. The power to change this
classification lies with either Congress or the Drug Enforcement
Administration -- once again, not scientists or doctors.

As for claims that there is no evidence of marijuana's medical value, a
great many medical and public health organizations have reviewed the
evidence and come to the opposite conclusion. Organizations supporting
legal access to marijuana for medical use include the American Public
Health Association, American Nurses Association, American Academy of HIV
Medicine and the state medical societies of New York, California and Rhode
Island, among many others.

The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, in a White
House-commissioned report that was the product of two years worth of
research and analysis, stated, "Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety are
all afflictions of wasting and all can be mitigated by marijuana."

The evidence is clear, but some prefer to ignore it.

Bruce Mirken, director of communications

Marijuana Policy Project, Washington, D.C.