REEFER BEEFER

What Is Your Guy's Problem With Medical Pot?:

Thanks to Matt Smith for his ongoing concern that not all medicinal
marijuana patients in San Francisco are either terminal cancer patients
trying to alleviate the side effects of chemotherapy or AIDS victims wasting
away ["Hey, Man, Got Any ID?," June 11]. I think I speak on behalf of most
of his publication's readers when I say that we all sleep a little better at
night knowing that Mr. Smith is so diligently exposing these alleged abuses
of S.F.'s medicinal marijuana program.

And speaking of the politics of marijuana, I'm just curious: Does Mr. Smith
ever report on our government's policies toward marijuana that actually do
impact the citizens of this country? Over the last few decades the U.S. has
spent billions of dollars to fight marijuana and put several million of its
citizens in prison for the crime of possessing marijuana. I strongly urge
Mr. Smith to read Eric Schlosser's Reefer Madness to get some better
perspective on his crusade.

Joe Sokolinsky

Mission

This Is His Problem, Bub:

Smith hit another home run with his article on the mess in the medical
marijuana program.

I'm not surprised to read about the three heavy hitters who approve of the
use of marijuana for their "patients." Too bad Smith didn't "name names"! I
wonder if they are some of the same doctors who are "gatekeepers" for the
Marin County version of the S.F. marijuana clinic. (I practice psychiatry in
Marin.) I guess he felt that he was opening himself up to something or other
if he did so.

"Medical marijuana" is a farce. I agree with Bob Marley and William F.
Buckley Jr.: "Legalize it!" (And I mean all drugs, not just marijuana.)

Arnold Knepfer, M.D.

Via the Internet