MARIJUANA HELPED GOULD

The recent wave of obituaries for the brilliant scientist and author
Stephen Jay Gould commonly left out a significant fact: Gould was a
medical marijuana user.

Diagnosed with a particularly lethal form of cancer in 1982 and given
eight months to live, he survived 20 years -- and endured the horrors
of chemotherapy thanks to medical marijuana. While other drugs failed
to curb the nausea from the treatment, he wrote, marijuana "worked
like a charm." He added, "It is beyond my comprehension that any
humane person would withhold such a beneficial substance from people
in such great need."

Gould went on to testify in the 1998 Canadian court case that
eventually resulted in the establishment of the Canadian medical
marijuana program.

What a shame the leaders of the United States -- as addicted to "war
on drugs" rhetoric as they are allergic to facts -- failed to consult
this great scientist before declaring war on the medical use of
marijuana.

Bruce Mirken, director of communications, Marijuana Policy Project,
Washington, D.C.