Pubdate: Wed, 09 Dec 2009
Source: Goldstream Gazette (Victoria, CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Black Press
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/vvfJCciY
Website: http://www.goldstreamgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1291
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n1062/a10.html
Author: Kirk Tousaw

MARIJUANA STUDIED, USED FOR MILLENNIA

Re: Trapped between sickness and the law, News, Dec. 2, 2009.

Thank you for your article on Kevin Wilde. It highlighted one of the 
many problems with our government's failed medical marijuana regime. 
That said, I write because reading your article could leave your 
readers with the impression that cannabis for medical purposes is a 
scientific unknown. It is not.

Cannabis is one of the most studied plants in human history. It has 
been used as a pain reliever, anti-inflammatory and anti-nauseant 
since the dawn of recorded history.

It was the primary treatment for more than 50 chronic conditions in 
the U.S. Pharmacopeia until 1937, when it was made illegal. A search 
for cannabis or cannabinoids (the primary therapeutic agents in 
cannabis) in PubMed, an online database of peer-reviewed research, 
results in more than 20,000 articles.

That is why all experts, including those put on the stand by the 
federal government in medical marijuana cases, agree that cannabis is 
safer than most prescription drugs and as safe or safer than many 
over-the-counter drugs.

The science is in. Cannabis is a beneficial and safe natural health 
product that has been bringing relief to humans for millennia. It is 
unconscionable that people such as Mr. Wilde face eviction and 
possible criminal prosecution for using it.

Kirk Tousaw Executive director Beyond Prohibition Foundation Vancouver
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