Pubdate: Mon, 16 Nov 1998
Date: 11/16/1998
Source: Independent, The (UK)
Author: David Ryan
Sir: It is morally wrong to withold proven medical treatment from patients.
The great debate is whether cannabis is proven to be medically useful.

Further clinical trials, which the Government requires, are
unnecessary because if there was a debilitating side-effect then 2000
years of medical usage would have made it apparent ("Cannabis is
'safer than drinking' ", 13 November). Anecdotal and historic evidence
proves the superiority of herbal cannabis in the treatment of MS,
epilepsy and many other diseases.

Cannabis treatment is witheld because the pharmaceutical companies
will not make money from a common plant. If cannabis is God's gift to
the sick then it is our duty to make sure they can legally obtain it.

In the past cannabis has been targeted as a menace and a threat to
society; now the media should champion the cause of those who undergo
persecution because of a quirk in the law.

David Ryan,
Keble College, Oxford