The New York Times published a letter to the editor from Jerry Epstein of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, in which he cites the federal governement’s obstruction of Dr. Lyle Craker’s proposed MAPS-sponsored medical marijuana production facility as an example of its “insane policy against the medical use of marijuana”.
From the New York Times
Sunday May 21
Originally appearing here.
To the Editor:
Your article about the rising costs of diabetes serves to highlight our insane policy against the medical use of marijuana.
Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem just reported an experiment with marijuana cannabinoids that significantly reduced the prevalence of Type 1 diabetes in mice from an incidence of 86 percent in non-treated controls to an incidence of only 30 percent.
Meanwhile, even powerful figures like Senators John Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy, working with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on behalf of would-be researchers, cannot break through the barriers to research thrown up by the federal government.
The witch hunt on marijuana has endured for years; we got past the Salem witch trials a lot faster.
Jerry Epstein
Houston, May 17, 2006
The writer is a board member, Drug Policy Forum of Texas.
