Pubdate: Wed, 03 Nov 1999
Source: Capital Times, The  (WI)
Copyright: 1999 The Capital Times
Contact:  http://www.thecapitaltimes.com/
Author: J.L. Driver

Dear Editor: This is in response to the editorial "Bradley leads on health
care" that appeared in the Sunday edition of The Capital Times (10/03/99).

I also applaud Bill Bradley's efforts to provide health insurance to every
American, as I cheered President Clinton's attempts to do so earlier this
decade.  In your analysis of the Bradley proposal, you point out that it is
flawed in that it "will not provide all Americans with the sort of
high-quality, affordable health care that they could and should have."

I would like to point out another flaw: Bradley's plan does not contain any
provisions for the legal use of physician-prescribed, medical cannabis
(marijuana). Bradley has recently announced that he is against the use of
Cannabis for legitimate medical uses.

I'm rather confused as to why Bradley is so concerned with healthcare
reform, yet would deny the only medicine that works for several illnesses
for thousands of Americans!

If Bradley is afraid of committing political suicide by supporting medical
Cannabis, he should not be. In every state that has voted on measures to
approve medical Cannabis, including California, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska,
Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and the District of Columbia, those measures
were approved by the majority of the people. In spite of these state
elections, federal laws still prohibit the use of cannabis for any reason
even though a White House-commissioned report from the Institute of
Medicine (released in March 1999) agreed that there are legitimate,
medicinal uses for the cannabis plant.

Thousands of sick people must continue to break the law in order to obtain
their medicine.

I urge all Bradley supporters to contact him or his campaign staff to point
out this error in judgment.

J.L. Driver, Fitchburg, WI

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