MARIJUANA HAS MEDICINAL PROPERTIES

Dear Editor: I feel obligated to correct a couple of comments made by DEA
representative Mr. Robert Stutman to the 700-plus University of Alabama
students attending a recent debate about marijuana.

Several medical groups endorse marijuana under physicians' guidance; the
American Nurses Association, the Association of Family Physicians, the New
England Journal of Medicine, and several others.

These groups voiced their support of an amendment (H.R. 2799) that would
have curtailed funding DEA persecution of state-sanctioned medical
marijuana patients, but their medically and scientifically grounded
opinions received little attention.

Marinol is the only FDA-approved cannabis-/sderived drug. There are,
however, more than 10 other compounds that have been isolated from cannabis
that can treat diseases or conditions, and the associated pain and other
symptoms.

The only way to get these other cannabis compounds for treatment of these
conditions or diseases is to eat, vaporize or smoke marijuana. Marinol
doesn't help all these conditions. Any man who calls a physician a fool for
mentioning marijuana as a treatment for these other diseases and
conditions, as Mr. Stutman did, is ignorant or biased. We spend 50-plus
billion taxpayer dollars for jobs and equipment annually just to fight
marijuana, there's one reason for bias.

I don't condone the use of any drug, but we should concentrate on keeping
drugs away from our children and treating those who've become addicted
rather than arresting them like criminals who've directly harmed others.