Pubdate: Thu, 21 Oct 2004
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2004 The Billings Gazette
Contact:  http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Author: Adam Jones
Cited: Office of National Drug Control Policy (www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov )
Cited: Initiative 148 ( www.montanacares.org/ )
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Initiative+148
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA OFFERS COMPASSION

This letter is to voice my disgust at the federal government's abuse
of our tax dollars by sending the Office of National Drug Control
Policy's own Deputy Drug Czar Scott Burns on a rampage of lies through
our state. Mr. Burns was sent here as a result of the voter initiative
brought about by the citizens of Montana concerning the protection of
users of medical marijuana from federal agents like these.

Mr. Burns made three stops in Montana during which he demonized those
citizens by stating, "This is a con" and "... it's about the
children." Well let me say, it is about the children, and the children
have nothing to fear from a state that is compassionate for its own
suffering people.

Mr. Burns also stated "smoking this weed is not a medicine," well not
according to the American Nurses Association and countless other
reputable sources, whose medical opinion I trust far more than Mr.
Scott Burns's. How does Mr. Burns respond to Ms. Teresa Michalski
whose son, Travis, died last year due to Hodgkin's. When prescription
medicines didn't help his nausea, his pain, or his appetite loss - but
medical marijuana did. Simply put, I-148 is trying to protect the sick
and dying from being caught up in our government's failed "war on
drugs." I don't pay my federal tax dollars to be told how I should
feel.

Adam Jones

Billings 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake