Pubdate: Mon, 23 Feb 2004
Source: Press Journal (FL)
Copyright: 2004, The E.W. Scripps Co.
Contact:  http://www1.tcpalm.com/tcp/press_journal/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2977
Author: Bruce Mirken
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n289/a06.html?19232
Note: Titled by MAP

RESPONSE TO OFFICIAL

Andrea Barthwell of the White House Drug Czar's office continues to spread 
misinformation about marijuana. Barthwell's biggest whopper: "The people 
that have this [medical marijuana] as an agenda are not concerned for the 
sick or dying."

Barthwell knows full well that legal access to medical marijuana is 
supported by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Nurses 
Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Academy 
of HIV Medicine and hundreds of other medical and public health 
organizations. To claim that these groups don't care about the sick and 
dying is a reprehensible lie.

In a 1997 editorial, in no less than the New England Journal of Medicine -- 
widely considered the world's most prestigious medical journal -- called 
the federal prohibition on medical use of marijuana "misguided, 
heavy-handed and inhumane," and called for marijuana's legalization for 
medical use. It is Barthwell, not these respected medical organizations, 
who is spreading myths and falsehoods.

Bruce Mirken,

Director of Communications Marijuana Policy Project San Francisco
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom