Pubdate: Wed, 13 Nov 2002
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Dale Gieringer

MEDICAL POT DEFENDED (3 OF 3)

NORML RESPONDS

Editor -- In his column about the recent defeat of state drug reform 
initiatives (Nov. 11), Joseph Perkins wrongly asserts that the National 
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Marijuana Policy Project 
have a hidden agenda on drugs.

There is nothing secret about NORML's position: We favor the right of 
adults to use marijuana legally, just like alcohol and tobacco, a policy we 
believe to be best for users and nonusers alike. We emphatically do not 
advocate legalization of other drugs (which many of our members oppose) nor 
do we necessarily insist that marijuana be "legalized" in the sense of 
being commercially advertised and mass marketed.

Our support for medical marijuana is based on the testimony of thousands of 
patients, physicians and researchers, who have found it both safe and 
effective in relieving pain and suffering. It is not ourselves, but drug 
warriors like drug czar John Walters and Perkins who have displayed a 
callous disregard for truth and compassion by denying seriously ill 
patients access to medical marijuana on the spurious grounds that the issue 
is "drug legalization. "

DALE GIERINGER

Coordinator, California NORML

San Francisco
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth