IS THIS COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM?

Dear Sir:

The federal government's campaign against seriously ill Americans who use
marijuana medicinally is an atrocity in the "war on drugs" ("Federal
Boondoggle - Use of medical marijuana by terminally ill under siege," The
Times, March 3, 2002.) Agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) recently closed several dispensaries in California that were
providing marijuana to over a thousand patients. Even in the midst of a
war, it is considered humane to allow the sick and dying to be medically
treated. It is inhumane to do otherwise.

The dispensaries that the DEA agents closed were providing marijuana to
patients with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma. All these
patients had marijuana recommended to them by licensed physicians in
California. The dispensaries were operating with the full cooperation of
the local authorities, and in accordance with state law. Mr. Bush had
promised in his presidential campaign to let the states decide for
themselves about medical marijuana. Yet now, barely a year after the
election, federal agents are attacking California's Compassionate Use Act,
and the weakest members of society are made to suffer even more. Is this
compassionate conservatism?

Marijuana is a safe, effective and inexpensive therapeutic agent. To deny
sick and dying patients the relief available to them from medically
recommended marijuana is unconscionable.

Sincerely yours,

Kenneth R. Wolski, RN/MPA