Pubdate: Wed, 02 Dec 2009 Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) Copyright: 2009 The Press-Enterprise Company Contact: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters_form.html Website: http://www.pe.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830 Author: Dorothy McMillan SUPPORT POT RESEARCH As a person who has a son with a serious and debilitating disease, I am a strong supporter of allowing medical research on the benefits of cannabis. During his adult life, my son was hospitalized often in order to control his disease. About nine years ago, he tried marijuana. His doctor gave him a prescription for it. And he has been symptom-free ever since. It has not led him to harder drugs. Cannabis should be researched by the medical community so that it can be dispensed as a legal medical drug. It can be of help to many who suffer from various diseases. It does need controls and I do not support making it available to everyone. However, a letter writer calls it "poison" but fails to mention the worst, most damaging drug we have: alcohol ("Pot destroys lives," Your Views, Nov. 27). Alcohol causes more deaths, broken relationships and hardships than anything else. Alcohol is far worse than marijuana. Dorothy McMillan Riverside - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr