Pubdate: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 Source: Monitor, The (McAllen, TX) Copyright: 2005 The Monitor Contact: http://www.themonitor.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1250 Author: Redford Givens Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) HYPOCRITICAL ON MEDICINAL POT To the editor: Re: "Down, but not out: Ruling against medical pot may help cause" (June 23). The most interesting aspect of the battle for legal medical marijuana is the utter hypocrisy of the Republican Party getting into a lather over Terri Schiavo while ignoring the plight of hundreds of thousands of seriously ill people who can benefit from marijuana. Tragic as Terri Schiavo's case was, she was only one person -- a person now dead -- compared to hundreds of thousands of living patients who can get relief using cannabis. The GOP came down on the unpopular side of both issues. In an ABC news poll, 78 percent of respondents did not want to be kept alive in Terri Schiavo's condition. Sixty percent opposed sending Schiavo's case to federal courts and 70 percent oppose congressional interference in how we die. In an American Association of Retired Persons poll, 72 percent of respondents agreed adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a physician recommends it. A Time/CNN Poll showed 80 percent support for allowing adults to "legally use marijuana for medical purposes." A Gallup poll had 73 percent of respondents ready to "vote for making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe." Despite overwhelming support for medical marijuana, even in red states, the GOP plods along in its reefer madness crusade against marijuana. Redford Givens San Francisco - --- MAP posted-by: Beth