DRUG AGENCY'S OWN JUDGE SAYS MARIJUANA'S SAFE

In response to Terence P. Farley's letter ("Studies prove that marijuana's
dangerous, Dec. 27, 2003), Farley does the work for us by pointing out that
in spite of dedicating $65 billion dollars to the "War on Some Drugs"
annually, "marijuana mentions . . . were up 140 percent between 1994 and 2000."

He only mentions emergency rooms as an attention-getting "danger" tactic.
It is well known that marijuana is more widely used than any other
"illicit" substance, and highly likely that it is mentioned more often,
even in emergency rooms.

Many statements that Farley makes in support of his position are misleading
and deceptive. He states, "Strictly from a health standpoint, studies have
shown that marijuana contains much more tar, carbon monoxide and other
dangerous chemicals than ordinary tobacco."

He wants recent studies? A British study as recently as this year
determined that marijuana actually reduces the size of cancerous and benign
tumors.

Farley hit the nail on the head with his second point -- marijuana does not
kill. In fact, with his great knowledge of the marijuana studies funded by
the federal government, he neglects to point out that -- unlike alcohol,
tobacco, and every single prescription "medicine" ever created -- marijuana
has never killed a single human being in all of recorded medical history.

The Drug Enforcement Agency's own Administrative Law Judge Frances Young
found marijuana to be "one of the safest therapeutically active substances
known to man" and recommended that its prohibition be repealed. President
Jimmy Carter said that no punishment for a crime should be more harmful to
an individual than the crime itself, and nowhere is this more evident than
in the case of marijuana.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just last month recognized the medicinal
value of marijuana by ruling that the federal government can no longer deny
the will of voters in states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal use.

California's Proposition 215 is a great example of how the system in
America is supposed to work -- the will of the voters has changed state
law. It is a travesty, and a usurping of our very Constitution that the
federal government would undermine the state and the people's authority
over matters such as these.

Unfortunately, Farley and other paid prosecutors, who work for the system
and not the people, will always fight for the drug war. Their very
livelihood depends upon its continuation.

SUSAN J. WOLFE, Green Bay, Wisc.