ALLOW MARIJUANA AS MEDICINE?

Thank you for the support your paper has given to the medical marijuana
issue that will be on the Detroit ballot in August ("Medical Pot: Detroit
has important vote ahead on issue," Jan. 5). It is hard to believe that
anyone would deny a person anything that would help alleviate pain and
suffering.

Clinical studies have shown marijuana to be an effective tool in
treating certain ailments. Most drugs that treat serious ailments have
side effects. The side effects of marijuana are minor compared to
those of some prescription drugs, and not one documented death has
ever been caused by the use of marijuana.

The privacy between doctor and patient is as old as medicine itself.
If this trust is broken, then priest and attorney privacy would be
next. Marijuana should not even be a federal government issue; the
state's right to implement its own policy on marijuana should not be
infringed upon.

I hope the people of Detroit will do the right thing by passing this
ballot proposal.

Larry Bonner Lippert

Director, MiNORML

Hastings