Pubdate: Sun, 23 Feb 2003
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2003 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author:    Patricia Schwarz

FINDING SOLACE IN MEDIPOT DESPITE U.S. DRUG POLICY

Our drug czar, John Walters, wants to compare medical marijuana to snake 
oil. Snake oil is something that was pushed on people by traveling 
hucksters. People were promised that it would cure their pains, but by the 
time they tried it and realized it did nothing, the huckster was gone, 
already plying his wares to a new town of suckers.

Medical marijuana is not being pushed on anyone by hucksters, traveling or 
otherwise. The people who regularly use it are the ones pushing for its 
legalization. If we want to use old American concepts, it's more like a 
beloved and time-tested home remedy. Walters has so little respect for 
traditional American values of freedom, truth and democracy that I think he 
must have been cloned from old Soviet DNA. The whole medical marijuana 
debacle makes me wonder who actually won the Cold War.

Patricia Schwarz 
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