ENDING THE IRRATIONAL FEDERAL WAR ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Re: "A war on drugs or a war on healing?" by Philip Terzian (syndicated
column, Jan. 5).

Terzian is right to be concerned about the federal government's
zealous prosecutions of physicians who treat pain. Unfortunately, the
targeting of doctors who prescribe OxyContin is just one facet of this
misguided policy.

Another is the irrational federal war on medical marijuana.
Marijuana's active components have been shown to be effective against
pain in virtually every experimental test of pain relief scientists
have devised. Medical organizations and journals such as the American
Academy of Family Physicians, American Nurses Association and the New
England Journal of Medicine have called for a change in federal policy.

Many physicians report that marijuana enables some chronic pain
patients to reduce or eliminate their use of highly addictive opiate
drugs. Yet the same federal law that allows doctors to prescribe
OxyContin bars them from prescribing marijuana even though marijuana
has never caused a single fatal overdose.

That, simply put, is crazy.

BRUCE MIRKEN, bmirken@mpp.org