Pubdate: [Sat, 01 Mar 1997]
Source: Olympian Olympia (WA)
Author: David L. Edwards

To the Editor:

One of the prime reasons that the Drug Enforcement Agency and its fellow
drug warrior organizations are striving so desperately to block the
approval of medicinal marijuana is that if marijuana does become accepted
as a valid medicine it will have to be reclassified from Schedule I (too
dangerous for physicians to prescribe) to Schedule II (available for
doctors to prescribe).

It would then be possible for any physician or medical institution to do
the unbiased, objective research that has been blocked so effectively by
the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the DEA for all these years.

When the DEA loses its strangle-hold monopoly on allowing or preventing
research, studies demonstrating that marijuana is a safe and effecttive
medicine can and will be done. These studies also will expose as baseless
the myriad exaggerated claims about the dangers of marijuana use. The truth
will out.

No longer will it be possible to hoodwink the public with florid rhetoric
about the addictive, reefer-madness menace that warrants jailing (and
confiscating the property of) otherwise law-abiding adult users.

No wonder the drug warriors are frantic. Their jobs are at risk.

Very sincerely,
David L Edwards, MD
Olympia, WA