Pubdate: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 Source: Olympian, The (WA) Copyright: 2002, The Olympian Contact: http://www.theolympian.com/forms/lettrfrm.shtml Website: http://www.theolympian.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/319 Author: Alma D. Sharpe, The Olympian PROPONENTS OF MEDICAL USE SAY WAR ON MARIJUANA ISN'T WORKING Protesters Rally At Capitol, Say Patients' Rights Are Threatened OLYMPIA -- Supporters of the medical use of marijuana defied sometimes rainy and cold weather Sunday to take a stand against what they argue are more frequent government attacks on patients' rights. A group that fluctuated between 10 and two dozen people gathered on the Capitol Campus, holding up banners to passersby and motorists, trying to drive home their point. Organizer Lee Newbury, director of the South Puget Sound chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, said state and federal government officials are moving to do away with patients' right to use marijuana, which is legally protected in several states. He cited a raid early this month in Santa Cruz, Calif., where federal agents seized marijuana plants from the property of a medical marijuana collective. Founders of the group were arrested. There's also been a move to enforce a federal law that prohibits financial aid from reaching college students with drug infractions in their backgrounds, he said. "We want to create awareness that this war on drugs isn't working," Newbury said. "The will of the people is not being supported." Controversial treatment Bruce Buckner of Olympia attended the event Sunday, carrying a sign that classified him as a medical marijuana patient and also a victim of the criminal justice system. He said he's used marijuana since he was in college to combat nausea and other problems related to Crohn's disease, which affects the digestive tract. "I do it to fight nausea and because it helps me eat," Buckner said. But along with the relief marijuana brings him, Buckner said, he's had to swallow the cost of fighting an arrest a year ago for growing the plant. His case is in appeal in Grays Harbor County, and he said he's doing everything he can to establish his legal right to the drug. "It's taken my life savings to do this," he said. Dr. David Edwards, a retired pathologist, said he's supported the medical use of marijuana for years because he believes in its healing benefits. And he said he's bothered by the denial by the medical community, as well as the government, of such benefits. "It pains me to be lied to by my government and my profession," he said. "I hate to have (medical use of marijuana) demonized in that fashion." As a pathologist, Edwards said, he conducted and reviewed thousands of autopsies and found that many deaths were caused by alcohol and tobacco abuse. "But I never found a case linked to the use of marijuana," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D