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Political pot
SUE RUSCHE

You say your call for prescription marijuana is "no veiled attempt to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes" ("High time to prescribe marijuana"). Yet you base it on an article published by two long-time advocates of legalization, Dr. Lester Grinspoon and James B. Bakalar. Both men are leaders of pro-legalization organizations. The Journal of the American Medical Association, which published the Grinspoon-Bakalar article, clearly stated the AMA opposes legalizing marijuana for medicine.

At a government conference July 19, scientists repeatedly said evidence for the use of smoked marijuana as medicine is largely anecdotal and unsubstantiated in research. They added that there are safer and more effective drugs for most of the maladies that advocates insist only marijuana can treat.

Sue Rusche is co-founder and executive director of National Families in Action, a national substance abuse prevention organization based in Atlanta.