MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW A MISTAKE

Your article on the sentencing of Steve McWilliams ("Marijuana activist
sentenced to prison," April 29) has some serious deficits that tend to
paint McWilliams as a victim of the feds.

You fail to mention that police confiscated 448 plants from McWilliams in
l999. That's not advocacy, that's possession, and that's what got him in court.

California and now San Diego law on medical use of marijuana is unworkable.
Sick and dying people are not the only ones who can use marijuana under
Proposition 215. Illnesses are not limited, and quantity or quality of
home-grown marijuana is impossible to control. Marijuana cannot be
prescribed because it does not meet the Food and Drug Administration
standards for safety and efficacy.

"Medical" marijuana is a ruse for legalization, one step at a time. Making
marijuana more available and more acceptable will get society more
unfulfilled dreams, broken families, drugged driving and problems in the
workplace.

Libba Jackson-D'Ambrosi

San Diego