MEDICINAL MARIJUANA IS UP IN SMOKE

Yesterday's article "Hill protests target marijuana, oil policies" may have
left readers unclear as to why 10 of my associates chose to be arrested
protesting at the Justice Department. As the arrestee pictured alongside
your article, allow me to explain.

Since last October, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration repeatedly
has raided medical marijuana distribution centers operating legally under
California law. Those centers worked in close cooperation with local public
health and law enforcement officials, but the raids have continued despite
vehement objections from those officials - odd for an administration that
claims it wants a smaller federal government and respects states' rights.

The real victims of these raids are patients with cancer, AIDS and other
terminal illnesses. In a June 3 letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee,
Dr. Mitchell Katz, San Francisco's director of public health, wrote, "These
[DEA] actions have resulted in 4,000 persons with chronic illness left
without access to critical treatment upon which they rely."

At the protest, I carried a photo of my friend Mary Lucey, a woman with
AIDS. To stay alive, Mary must take dozens of pills a day - a harsh, toxic
regimen that she is able to tolerate only with the use of medical
marijuana. Without it, she literally would be dead, but the DEA has cut off
her safe, quality-controlled supply.

As long as our government chooses to torture the sick, those of us who are
healthy have an obligation to stand up for them.

BRUCE MIRKEN

Director of communications

Marijuana Policy Project

Washington