Pubdate: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 Source: Orange County Register (CA) Contact: http://www.ocregister.com/ Author: Anthony Patton JUDGING MARIJUANA POLICY I must respond to the letter written by Deputy District Attorney Carl Armbrust regarding medicinal marijuana [Talk Show, Sept. 29]. I agree with Armbrust's assertion that medicine should be based on science, not ideology; however, I also think that science should be based on facts, not the bottom line. Marijuana is a plant and, therefore, cannot be patented. Pharmaceutical companies are opposed to marijuana's medical use because less-effective anti-nausea drugs would be less profitable if it were allowed. So we should scrutinize Armbrust's quote of the president's Office of National Drug Policy. As a survivor of a three-year battle with cancer, I'm painfully aware that pills are of no use to someone who is too ill to keep them down. I'm skeptical of any "study" that my be underwritten, lobbied by or otherwise financially connected to drug companies and conducted under the auspices of the president, who is a notorious liar. I will reserve my judgment of any study until I find out who conducted it, how it was conducted and, most important, who paid for it. Anthony Patton Anaheim Hills - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry