PROF'S STATEMENTS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA ARE NOT FOUNDED IN REALITY

To the Daily:

Prof. Lloyd Johnston's statements about medical marijuana laws are simply
false (Medicinal pot use on A2 ballot, 09/23/04). Johnston asserts, "There
has never been a real implementation of laws (to legalize medical
marijuana) because the federal law always trumps the state laws, and state
laws in turn trump local laws." In fact, not only are nine state medical
marijuana laws in force and being implemented every day -- protecting tens
and probably hundreds of thousands of patients from arrest by state and
local police -- but federal courts have put severe limits on federal
government attempts to undermine such laws.

For example, the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, a patient-run
co-op in Santa Cruz, Calif., was raided by the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration in September 2002. It now operates under the protection of a
federal court injunction barring further DEA raids. The state of Oregon
alone has over 10,000 registered patients in its medical marijuana program.

Johnston further claims, "Federal authorities made it clear that physicians
prescribing marijuana risked losing their licenses to prescribe all
controlled substances, including all of the traditional psychotherapeutic
drugs." In fact, physicians in states with medical marijuana laws do not
"prescribe" marijuana, they recommend it -- a right that has been
specifically upheld by the federal courts in a case known as Conant v.
Walters. As a result of this litigation, federal authorities are absolutely
barred from threatening the prescribing rights of doctors who recommend
medical marijuana.

Johnston, who presides over a huge, annual, federally funded study of drug
use, should not put his academic credibility at risk by repeating blatant
misinformation -- misinformation that coincidentally happens to track
perfectly with federal opposition to medical marijuana.

Bruce Mirken Director of Communications, Marijuana Policy Project