Pubdate: Fri, 15 Nov 2002
Source: Oregon Daily Emerald (OR)
Copyright: 2002, Oregon Daily Emerald
Contact:  http://www.dailyemerald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1518
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2094/a05.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS ARE NOT JUSTIFIED

Your article on federal efforts to undermine Oregon's voter-approved 
medical marijuana law ("Search and Seizure," ODE, Nov. 8) underscored the 
need for a state distribution system free from federal intrusion.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration 
during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical 
Association. White Americans did not even begin to smoke marijuana until a 
soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding "reefer madness" 
propaganda.

Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been 
counterproductive at best. An estimated 38 percent of Americans have now 
smoked pot. The reefer madness myths have long been discredited, forcing 
the drug war gravy train to spend millions of tax dollars on politicized 
research, trying to find harm in a relatively harmless plant.

The direct experience of millions of Americans contradicts the 
sensationalistic myths used to justify marijuana prohibition. Illegal drug 
use is the only public health issue wherein key stakeholders are not only 
ignored, but actively persecuted and incarcerated. In terms of medical 
marijuana, those stakeholders happen to be cancer and AIDS patients. Oregon 
patients may be protected, but medical marijuana providers aren't.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has conducted numerous paramilitary 
raids on providers in California and Oregon. The very same DEA that claims 
illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing sick patients into the hands of 
street dealers. Apparently federal marijuana laws are more important than 
protecting the country from terrorism. Students interested in helping 
reform harmful drug laws should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy 
at www.ssdp.org.

Robert Sharpe, program officer, Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager