In 1990 this program was banned by the Bush administration.

"Research has shown that those with terminal cancer and AIDS who smoke marijuana get increasingly sicker, and die thereafter," the administration claimed. "The idea of marijuana as a medicine sends a dangerous message to our children about a dangerous drug."

In 1993 a federal appeals court upheld this ban. The spokesman for the court, Robert DuPont, a former admitted marijuana user and Nixon’s drug czar, told the press, "Marijuana hasn’t proven itself to be a cure for anything!" It was pointed out, at this time, that the DEA’s number-one drug for these diseases was Marinol®, a synthetic form of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana).

In 1997, after the people of California and Arizona had voted to legalize the medical use of marijuana, the federal government responded with threats of arrests of physicians and patients, and revoking of medical licenses. The Attorney General, the Secretary of Health, the director of NIDA, and the Director of the ONDCP all spoke to the press.

The Attorney General said, “Federal laws rule.”

The Secretary of HHS said, “This sends a dangerous message to our children about a dangerous drug.”

The director of NIDA said, “There have been thousands of studies on medical marijuana and not one of them has resulted in a single positive response.”

The drug czar said, “This is nothing more than an attempt to legalize a dangerous drug. There is no scientific research proving smoking marijuana is a medicine, and until there is it will remain illegal under federal law. If these patients need this kind of help they have Marinol®, an FDA approved THC available by prescription.”

Since that time six other states have voted to accept marijuana as a legal medicine -- Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Hawaii’s legislature approved the use of medical marijuana and Virginia has had an existing law allowing the medical use of marijuana, although this is never acknowleged. Upon learning of this existing law, during the California controversy, some state lawmakers of Virginia were surprised and voted to repeal and strike the law. However, it failed in the senate, and the law remains as follows: "Possession or distribution of marijuana for medical purposes permited. No a)person, b)medical doctor, c)pharmacist shall be prosecuted for possession, dispensing or distributing marijuana or tetrahydrocannabinol when that possession occurs pursuant to a valid prescription issued by a medical doctor for medical purposes in the course of such doctor's professional practice for treatment of cancer or glaucoma." Virginia also allows for medical marijuana under its schedule one, non- medicinal drugs listing. "Tetrahydrocannabinols, except as present in marijuana and dronabinol (Marinol®)."

In 2000, Oakland’s cannabis buyers club sued the federal government for the right to supply marijuana to the sick under the medical necessity ruling. The Supreme Court ruled the following year, “Under federal law marijuana is an illegal drug with no current accepted medical use.”

Is our government concerned about the sick taking dangerous drugs? As far as dangerous drugs go, just look at the drugs that are used for chemotherapy in the first place. Each of these drugs is potentially lethal with just one dose. There are many drugs that are dangerous and kill people yearly, they are addictive and abused, but they are used medically and legally across the US. Under Schedule 2 status these drugs are considered to have a high potential for abuse, but having medical acceptance in treatment in the US, and safety for use under medical supervision. Cocaine and opium are both Schedule 2 drugs.

Is our government concerned about the terminally ill becoming addicted from the use of marijuana? They aren’t too concerned when it comes to the highly toxic doses of addictive morphine that these patients receive. Doses that become so increasingly powerful they would kill the ordinary human being.

My mother’s cousin in Alexandria, Virginia, during the early 1970’s, smoked marijuana for her cancer. She was informed by her physician that, “marijuana prevented malnutrition, which was the leading cause of death among cancer patients.” In this way it is literally a life-extender. Yet, in total disregard to the “extensive medical-literature” on marijuana, and the enormously positive patients’ response to marijuana’s effectiveness, the federal government continues to deny patients the legal right to smoke marijuana. Anything violating these laws sends a dangerous message to our children, they claim.

"How can you tell them it is a dangerous drug and has no medical use, when it is used medically and helps people who are sick?" The federal government says, "There is no research on smoked marijuana, and these patients have Marinol®."

Marinol® itself is the proof of the research. Marinol® itself is the proof that marijuana proved to be effective. If it didn’t, why would they have made a pill of it? If there were no research, how could there be a Marinol®, and how would it gain FDA approval? Marinol® itself is proof of the lie!

In 1938, months after marijuana was illegalized, the Pure Drug Act was passed allowing for “drugs made out of single compounds only”. Marijuana, being a complex compound botanical plant, was forever outlawed. In 1970, after the Supreme Court found the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act to be unconstitutional, the DEA placed marijuana in the Schedule 1 status of the newly written Controlled Substance Act. With this new regulation, marijuana lost all but brief and negative history before this event.

In the 1999 report of the ONDCP on Medical Marijuana: Assessing the Scientific Base, the director stated, “Bringing marijuana to market as a new drug is fraught with uncertainty for at least three reasons: marijuana is a botanical product; it is smoked; and it’s a drug with abuse potential. The three marketed botanical preparations are older drugs that came to market years before safety and efficacy studies were required by legislative amendments in 1938 and 1962 respectively, and before modern chemistry and manufacturing controls came into being.”

The historical statements from the documents of the federal government prove that this, as well as everything else they’re saying about medical marijuana, is a lie. It is nothing more than an attempt to cover up the fact that they have lied about everything they have said about the cannabis hemp plant since 1937, when they illegalized it and started to arrest people for using it in any fashion, “industrially, medically, scientifically” or otherwise.

Meanwhile, since October 2001, president Bush's DEA, under the direction of Asa Hutchinson, has been raiding voter approved medical facilities in California, even on days when terrorist alerts had been issued. They have been arresting some of the propietors, suppliers, practitioners and patients (whether terminally ill or crippled), seizing properties, computers, financial documents, medical marijuana and the medical records of thousands of current and former patients throughout the state as well as physicians. They are charging these individuals with federal crimes and the defendants are facing enormous sentences, up to life in prison with no chance of parole, on top of having their properties and assets confiscated! People who have worked in legitimate facilities, approved by the state and operated by local city governments in California, are actually seeking political assylum in Canada to avoid dying in prison because our government is calling them criminals. "The reduction--not the promotion--of illicit drugs is a national proiority." DEA

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