Pubdate: Thu, 20 Sep 2007
Source: Daily Forty-Niner (Cal State Long Beach, CA Edu)
Copyright: 2007 Daily Forty-Niner
Contact: http://www.daily49er.com/home/lettertotheeditor/
Website: http://www.daily49er.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1391
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1074/a06.html
Author: Allan Erickson

REEFER POLICY OUT OF WHACK

As I read the Tuesday, Sept. 18, Daily Forty-Niner editorial "Pot 
raids make no constitutional sense," I smiled. I smiled because, as 
one of those who has worked off and on for legalization of cannabis 
since the mid 1970s, I know that there is still hope.

What aggravates me most about the federal cannabis policy is what 
happens when a patient entering a federal court is denied the right 
of mentioning their medical use of cannabis.

Because the feds deny that pot is medicine, they allow themselves the 
legal chicanery of denying that a patient can use the good herb 
medicinally. Even though, of course, the feds are the only legal 
dispensers of medical pot through the Compassionate Investigational 
New Drug program.

The [five] remaining patients enrolled in the CIND are the sole 
proprietors of medical cannabis in the U.S. Beyond that, however, the 
treacherous theft of patients' medicine shows the nastiness of a 
bureaucracy, drunk with power and addicted to its wealth (our tax dollars).

The feds have known since 1974, when a study conducted at the Medical 
College of Virginia found that THC slowed the growth of three kinds 
of cancer in mice - lung and breast cancer and a virus-induced leukemia.

The Federal prohibition of cannabis is pure governmental criminality. 
It is a prohibition founded on bigotry and perjured testimony before 
the Congress of the U.S. and has no rightful place in our nation.

Allan Erickson,

Drug Policy Forum of Oregon,

Eugene, Ore.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom