MARIJUANA SAFER THAN SOME GOVERNMENT-APPROVED DRUGS

Re. Jan. 25 story, "Speaker: Pot potency higher":

I see Dr. Andrea Barthwell is still spreading U.S. drug war propaganda. THC
levels have not jumped like she wants you to believe. Most imported
marijuana still comes from Mexico, and this commercial marijuana has not
changed much in the last 30 years. What the U.S. government needs to focus
on is the increased potency of hard drugs being pushed to our kids daily.
Prohibition of drugs is not working, just as it did not with alcohol.

There are studies out there that show that marijuana can help people with
cancer, MS, HIV, glaucoma, nausea and many other illnesses. Organizations
such as the Marijuana Policy Project and the National Association for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws are just trying to change unjust marijuana laws.
There is no reason for those who suffer to be forced to live in fear of
getting robbed, beaten up, arrested, shot or even killed over their
medicine. Marijuana as a drug is safer than aspirin, which kills more than
1,000 people a year. There has never been a recorded death due to a THC
overdose.

The "deadly medicine 'cure-alls' sold from the back of a horse-drawn cart"
that Dr. Barthwell speaks of are driven by the pharmaceutical companies,
and our government is riding shotgun.

Richard J. Rawlings

Illinois Marijuana Party

Bartonville