DEBATING POT

It's ironic that Robert Weiner, former public affairs director for the
White House Drug Policy Office, chose to willfully misconstrue the facts
regarding the medicinal use of marijuana ("Canada, Maryland going to pot,"
Op-Ed, yesterday) mere days after delegates of the American Nurses
Association (ANA) convened in Washington and resolved to "support the right
of patients to have safe access to therapeutic marijuana."

Who do you believe? A career-long policy wonk with no medical training or
experience, or the registered nurses who have dedicated their lives to
attend to the needs of the sick and dying?

Despite the propaganda spread by those like Bob Weiner, 80 percent of
Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, according to
the latest Time magazine/CNN poll. So also do the boards of no less than 80
state and national health care organizations, including the American Public
Health Association, the AIDS Action Council and the New England Journal of
Medicine.

Our neighbor to the north, Canada, recently legalized and regulated the use
of marijuana under a physician's supervision -- a decision that rightly
creates a legal distinction between the medicinal and recreational use of
marijuana and sensibly removes patients from the front lines of the war on
drugs. Congress and the Bush administration would be wise to do the same.

PAUL ARMENTANO

Senior policy analyst; National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

Washington