Pubdate: Sat, 10 May 2008
Source: Asheville Citizen-Times (NC)
Copyright: 2008 Asheville Citizen-Times
Contact:  http://www.citizen-times.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/863
Author: David Oppenheimer

A PRO-STANCE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS MORALLY RIGHT

Last July 25, Congressman Shuler voted against the Hinchey Amendment
that would protect states' rights and patients' rights.

Medical marijuana is an essential medicine for hundreds of thousands
of patients.

A poll by the AARP showed that 80 percent of American seniors support
the enactment of federal legislation to protect patients who use
medical marijuana at their doctors' recommendation. Recently, the
second largest medical organization in the country, the American
College of Physicians, with 124,000 members, issued a declaration
supporting protection for medical marijuana patients and for marijuana
to be rescheduled as a therapeutic drug.

Despite this, Shuler currently plans to vote no on the Hinchey
Amendment as he did last year. By doing so, Shuler is asking to use
our tax dollars to hunt and imprison patients who use medical marijuana.

Patients who use medical marijuana are in a fight for their health,
and some, their lives, and they do not belong in prison.

Currently, 12 states have enacted protections for patients relying on
medical marijuana, yet the DEA continues to arrest and fight for the
imprisonment of people who are following their doctors' advice and
their states' laws. I urge Shuler to stand up to drug companies and
the DEA and vote in favor of the Hinchey Amendment and end this brutal
treatment of patients and their families.

David Oppenheimer

Asheville
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin