Pubdate: Mon, 23 Feb 2004
Source: Press Journal (FL)
Copyright: 2004, The E.W. Scripps Co.
Contact:  http://www1.tcpalm.com/tcp/press_journal/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2977
Author: Scott Russ
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n289/a06.html?19232
Note: Titled by MAP

RESPONSE TO OFFICIAL

Apparently, Andrea Barthwell doesn't realize that parolees get sent back to 
prison if they test positive for cannabis. As I'm sure would second or 
third time offenders for simple possession. There are plenty of people in 
prison for using cannabis. And plenty of lives and families torn apart due 
to criminal convictions for something that past presidents and many other 
politicians have admitted to doing.

Nor does she realize that in 1986 the DEA heard a petition to have cannabis 
rescheduled, from Schedule I to Schedule II. The administrative law judge 
that heard the case was Judge Francis Young. In 1988, after an exhaustive 
two-year investigation into cannabis as medicine he concluded: "One must 
reasonably conclude that there IS accepted safety for use of marijuana 
under medical supervision. To conclude otherwise, on this record, would be 
unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious."

"The cannabis plant considered as a whole HAS a currently accepted medical 
use in treatment in the United States, there is NO LACK of accepted safety 
for use under medical supervision and it may lawfully be transferred from 
Schedule I to Schedule II. The judge recommends that the Administrator 
transfer cannabis."

Here is a link to the complete ruling: 
(http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/YOUNG/young.html). 
Please note that his judgment was overturned in appeals court based on a 
technicality, not based on error of facts. The technicality was that the 
person(s) bringing forward the petition had no right to because they 
weren't being harmed by its current scheduling. Meaning, they, themselves, 
weren't medical-marijuana patients.

Sgt. Brad Fojtik can keep telling himself that cannabis has no medical 
value but he cannot deny the existence of the cannabinoid receptors in our 
brain that doctors around the world know are activated by the cannabinoids 
found in cannabis.

We've had more than 80 years of propaganda. Enough is enough.

Just Say KNOW.

Scott Russ,

Baton Rouge, La.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom