EXPERTS ON POT

From Bruce Mirken, director of communications, Marijuana Policy Project:

Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) spokesman Tom Riley
gets points for chutzpah, if nothing else, for saying it is "an absurd
notion that the federal government is turning a blind eye to
[marijuana-derived medicines]" ("New drug could affect debate on
medical pot," Feb. 24).

In the February issue of Fast Company magazine, ONDCP Deputy Director
Andrea Barthwell is quoted as saying that marijuana-based medicines
like GW Pharmaceuticals' Sativex are not "a serious line of research.
. Marijuana is a crude plant product that is definitely not a medicine."

In the May 23, 2003, Washington Post, ONDCP Director John Walters
compared medical marijuana to "medicinal crack."

The medical community rejects such nonsense almost unanimously. The
American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Public Health
Association, the American Nurses Association and the American Academy
of HIV Medicine are just a few of the many medical and public health
groups calling for legal access to medical marijuana for seriously ill
patients. The New England Journal of Medicine -- widely considered the
world's most prestigious medical journal -- has called the federal ban
on medical marijuana "misguided, heavy-handed and inhumane."

They are right. Walters is wrong. And Riley, as usual, is spinning
furiously and ignoring the truth. Washington, D.C.