Pubdate: Wed, 21 Jun 2000
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)
Copyright: 2000 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Contact:  P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802
Fax: (808) 523-8509
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Author: Eric Terashima

PATIENTS DESERVE RIGHT TO SMOKE MARIJUANA

Your editorials calling Hawaii's new medical marijuana law a mistake
are evidence of your paper's paternalistic attitude. It indicates a
failure to understand the desire of Hawaii's citizens to take a new
look at our society's rigid, unrelenting attitude toward a
"controlled" substance that may have benefit to certain people.

By saying that there is no medical evidence of marijuana's positive
effects, you fail to note that it is the federal government that has
resisted attempts by qualified medical researchers to conduct such
research.

By pointing out that it is still illegal under federal law, you fail
to recognize that several states have also passed similar medical
marijuana laws.

The most rigid anti-medical marijuana proponents always seem to be
law-enforcement agencies but, then again, their world is always
colored in black and white. Editorial writers should not be as rigid
and hard-nosed.

Eric Terashima
Hilo
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