THERE IS NO 'CURE'

RE: 'A case against smoking marijuana' (July 25).

According to Dr. Andrea Barthwell, "marijuana, whatever its value, is
intoxicating, and it's not surprising that sincere people will report
relief of their symptoms when they smoke it. The important point is
that there is a difference between feeling better and actually getting
better. It is the job of modern medicine to establish this
distinction."

I am a medical patient and not a medical doctor. But it seems to me
that there has never been a medicine that "cures" pain. Some 90
million Americans suffer from pain each day. I guess Barthwell wishes
us all to suffer endlessly and needlessly or be jailed.

Or is she saying my prescribed Oxycodone I take each day for my
military service connected injuries is not intoxicating? Or is the
Oxycodone supposed to make me grow a new hip? I'm confused.

Michael Krawitz,

Ironto, Virginia.