MAD ABOUT MARIJUANA

David Broder's Nov. 11 Op-Ed column, "DEA Marijuana Madness," hit the nail
on the head.

Why take away sick and dying Californians' source of medical marijuana,
especially during a time of national emergency? California voters passed
their medical marijuana law five years ago. While campaigning for the
presidency George Bush pledged to let states set their own policies on
medical marijuana.

It's time to end this wasteful war on marijuana. These attacks on some of
our most vulnerable citizens demonstrate that George Bush's claims of being
a "compassionate conservative" were just rhetoric. Keeping medicine from
sick people is not compassion but infliction of pain.

GARY STORCK, Madison, Wis.

Researchers at major universities have confirmed that marijuana cigarettes
are of no therapeutic value. Marijuana's most active psychoactive
ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), destroys the immune-system cells,
called lymphocytes, which also are impaired by the AIDS virus -- putting
AIDS patients who smoke pot in double jeopardy.

When we began our drug-prevention efforts 24 years ago, marijuana had a THC
content of approximately 2 percent. Today's higher-grade marijuana contains
up to 35 percent THC. The University of Maryland Center for Substance Abuse
Research reported marijuana-related emergency room visits now are as common
as heroin-related ones.

Not surprisingly, marijuana use is above the national average in eight of
the nine states that passed pro-marijuana initiatives. Kids in treatment
frequently say, "Everyone says pot is medicine. I thought it might be good
for you -- and before I knew it I was hooked."

The state initiative process that created the medical marijuana cigarette
myth is driven by the drug-legalization movement. In the past, David Broder
has criticized these initiatives, calling the results "laws without
government" [Op-Ed, March 26, 2000]. The "medical marijuana cigarettes"
initiatives need to be reversed.

Only the Food and Drug Administration has jurisdiction to approve anything
as medicine. Certainly, it is not the job of voters, elected officials or
journalists.

JOYCE NALEPKA, President, Drug Free Kids: America's Challenge, Silver Spring