Pubdate: Fri, 13 Feb 2009
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2009 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs.
Author: Jeff Brown

Another Look At Pot

FOR MEDICINAL USE, AT LEAST

Marijuana should be legalized or at least removed from schedule I of 
the Controlled Substances Act.

In 1972, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse 
conducted more than 50 studies and surveys of opinions of 
professional experts, district attorneys, judges, probation officers, 
clinicians and public officials. The commission found that "no 
sufficiently social reason, predicated on existing knowledge, 
justifies intrusion by the criminal justice system into the private 
lives of individuals who smoke marijuana."

In 1988, after extensive hearings, an administrative law judge found: 
"Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutic 
substances known to man." He recommended that marijuana be moved to 
schedule II so that doctors could prescribe it.

Since 1996, 13 states have legalized the medical use of marijuana 
involving about 25 percent of the U.S. population. It is high time 
that the federal government either reschedule marijuana or legalize 
it outright. Alcohol is a far more dangerous substance, and yet it is 
advertised along our highways.

Jeff Brown

Florida Ambassador for Americans for Safe Access Groveland
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom