MARIJUANA MORALITY

White House drug czar John P. Walters' dishonesty about medical marijuana
("Drug czar calls Maryland marijuana bill 'immoral,'Y" Metro, yesterday)
now borders on the pathological.

Mr. Walters, presumably with a straight face, called a bill to reduce o not
eliminate o criminal penalties for patients who use marijuana to relieve
pain and nausea caused by cancer, AIDS and other illnesses, "scientifically
irresponsible and contrary to our high standards for approval of medications."

Surely, Mr. Walters is aware that the New England Journal of Medicine,
considered the world's most prestigious medical journal, called for lifting
the ban on medical use of marijuana back in 1997, calling it, "misguided,
heavy-handed and inhumane." Surely, he remembers that the Institute of
Medicine, in a 1999 report commissioned by his office, stated, "Nausea,
appetite loss, pain and anxiety ... all can be mitigated by marijuana."

And, surely, Mr. Walters knows that the movement to protect medical
marijuana patients from criminal penalties includes the American Academy of
Family Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the California
Medical Association, the Florida Medical Association and at least one
former U.S. surgeon general, among others.

It is Mr. Walters, not these experts, who is "cynical, cruel and immoral."

BRUCE MIRKEN

Director of Communications Marijuana Policy Project

Washington