Pubdate: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 Source: News-Press (Fort Myers, FL) Copyright: 2010 Mark Printz Contact: http://www.news-press.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1133 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n508/a08.html Author: Mark Printz GOING WITH SCIENCE Marijuana prohibition applies to everyone, including the sick and dying. Of all the negative consequences of prohibition, none is as tragic as the denial of medicinal cannabis to the tens of thousands of patients who could benefit from its therapeutic use. Since October of 2003, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services holds the rights to US Patent 6630507 "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuropretectants." How can the Controlled Substance Act legitimately list marijuana as Schedule I drug with no known medical use? How can the U.S. government continue to promote a policy that calls for the arrest and prosecution of patients who use a substance that 14 states and much of the rest of the western world now acknowledges as a safe and legitimate medicine? It's time for science, not political rhetoric, to determine the outcome. Mark Printz Fort Lauderdale - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake