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Rallying for marijuana for patients

Kim Hanna
Wednesday June 12, 2002

To th Editor: 

Thank you for reporting on the nationwide protest of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as this agency has run amok and must be reigned in. The DEA's own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young ruled in 1988 that marijuana is 'the safest therapeutic medicinal substance known and should be made available to patients.  

The DEA overruled their own judge and continues the war on sick and dying people.  

If we as a nation are to solve the medical marijuana issue, which in nation wide polling show most (75 percent or more) Americans want, then the media must get more involved and report these important political actions. You have helped on this.  

These protest actions were carried out by sick, wheelchair bound, dying patients, giving their every ounce of energy to bring their need to the public's attention. 

Many were arrested, jailed and subjected to much distress.  

In Massachusetts our own medical marijuana research program cannot be implemented because the DEA refuses to provide the marijuana for research. But the head of the DEA, Asa Hutchinson, says marijuana needs more research. This is double talk, Catch 22 and pure politics at the expense of the sick and dying.  

 

Kim Hanna  

Worcester, MA