DRUG COMPANIES WANT TO KEEP MEDICAL MARIJUANA ILLEGAL

Dear Dig,

Your article titled "Medical Marijuana, Myth or Miracle?" is excellent. The
key factors with medical marijuana and government approval are obviously
political, not scientific. A huge percentage of government budgets are
allocated for drug war funding, and marijuana is the No. 1 enemy.
Therefore, every government department has an innate resistance to any
letdown in marijuana enforcement.

Also, consider that the most profitable industry of the last decade,
pharmaceuticals, doesn't want to see cheap medicine available. Instead of
allowing cancer patients to grow their own marijuana for close to $0, they
want to force them to spent $200/month for less effective Marinol. Rather
than allow patients and scientists to discover the benefits of marijuana,
they want to patent each cannabinoid while keeping the source plant
illegal. The lobbying ability of these companies is amazing, and they have
especially close ties to the Bush family. There is no way that they will
let marijuana drop to schedule 2 without a fight.

Mark Lehrer, Salt Lake City, UT