RESPONSE TO OFFICIAL

Andrea Barthwell of the White House Drug Czar's office continues to spread
misinformation about marijuana. Barthwell's biggest whopper: "The people
that have this [medical marijuana] as an agenda are not concerned for the
sick or dying."

Barthwell knows full well that legal access to medical marijuana is
supported by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Nurses
Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Academy
of HIV Medicine and hundreds of other medical and public health
organizations. To claim that these groups don't care about the sick and
dying is a reprehensible lie.

In a 1997 editorial, in no less than the New England Journal of Medicine --
widely considered the world's most prestigious medical journal -- called
the federal prohibition on medical use of marijuana "misguided,
heavy-handed and inhumane," and called for marijuana's legalization for
medical use. It is Barthwell, not these respected medical organizations,
who is spreading myths and falsehoods.

Bruce Mirken,

Director of Communications Marijuana Policy Project San Francisco