PRO MEDICINE 1

Thank you for coverage of the medical cannabis issue, (“The right to feel better,” Oct. 18). It was discomforting witnessing my 17-year-old dying with cancer, allowed to self-induce morphine every six minutes for pain, denied cannabis use. As government stats indicate, one out of four citizens will confront cancer, which translates to every American family. This issue is crucial.

The original prohibition on a national scale was worse than the booze prohibited, and the sequel, now, on an international scale, is worse. Needless to say, civilized society must stop voting for prohibitionist politicians. Do cannabis prohibitionists even comprehend that they’re admitting a desire to cage humans, even sick humans, for using a plant?

Thank Christ God, Our Father for cannabis. Accept cannabis (known as kaneh bosm, before the King James Version) for what it is as described on literally the very first page of the Bible (Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30).

Stan White

Dillon, CO

PRO MEDICINE 2

Sam Pfeifle’s interview with California medical marijuana patient and provider Valerie Corral (“The right to feel better,” Oct. 18) underscored the need for state-level regulatory systems free from federal intrusion. Marijuana prohibition itself should be subjected to a cost-benefit analysis. Unfortunately, a review of marijuana legislation would open up a Pandora’s box most politicians would just as soon avoid.

America’s marijuana laws are based on culture and xenophobia, not science. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. White Americans did not even begin to smoke marijuana until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. An estimated 38 percent of Americans have now smoked pot. The reefer madness myths have long been discredited, forcing the drug war gravy train to spend millions of tax dollars on politicized research, trying to find harm in a relatively harmless plant.

The direct experience of millions of Americans contradicts the sensationalistic myths used to justify marijuana prohibition. Illegal drug use is the only public health issue wherein key stakeholders are not only ignored, but actively persecuted and incarcerated. In terms of medical marijuana, those stakeholders happen to be cancer and AIDS patients.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

Program Officer, Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, DC

REMEMBER VETERANS

As the Bushmen beat their war drums, ready to send our troops to Iraq (“Anti-war effort continues,” Oct. 18), the president and his administration are pinching the penny when it comes to tending the wounded. The Bush administration is going all out to prevent retired, disabled veterans from receiving their pensions and disabilities simultaneously. Presently, retired veterans may receive one, but not the other. This is in stark contrast to federal retired civil servants, who are allowed to access both. Deliver the mail? Both your checks are in the mail! Defend your country? You have to choose one or the other. Eighty-three percent of senators, and 90 percent of representatives are in support of “concurrent receipt” for the disabled military retirees. Representatives have added it to the National Defense Authorization Act (HR 4546) for 2003. Yet House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is refusing to allow the bill to come to the House floor if it has any meaningful provision for the retirees. He has succeeded in getting the conference committee’s decision on the NDAA delayed until after the November elections so that the threatened presidential veto will not cost Republicans Congressional seats. The Administration’s allies in the House have launched a second sneak attack on career military personnel presently serving in our armed forces. The VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee has inserted a provision in the VA Appropriations Bill for 2003 (H.R. 5605) that will bar the Department of Veterans Affairs from deciding any claim for service connected disability if the veteran is retired.

Military retirees are the only class of veteran ineligible for disability if they insist on receiving their pension. The future warriors who defend our freedom will not even have that choice if the later bill passes. They just simply will not be compensated for wounds, diseases, or occupational hazards connected to their service. In other words, by all means defend us against our enemies, but whatever you do, don’t get shot!

I’m proud to report that the Maine Congressional delegation both in the House and Senate are for concurrent review, and do not support HR 5605. If you really believe in “supporting the troops,” you will contact them and commend them for their support. You might also drop a line to the administration staff and sharply criticize them for not supporting the troops they are sending into harm’s way.

John M. Flagler

Alfred