Medical Marijuana
Guidlines 
PLEASE RE-TYPE (or copy in your text editor and email or fax) 
THE FOLLOWING 'LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR' AND MAIL IT TO YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE: 

[YOUR NAME] 
[YOUR ADDRESS] 
[YOUR TELEPHONE #] (?) 

To the editor, 

Seriously ill people who need to use medical marijuana have once again been betrayed by the federal government. On December 1, the Clinton administration implemented its new medical marijuana research guidelines, which are still far too cumbersome. The guidelines also explicitly reject the Institute of Medicine's recent recommendation to open a federal compassionate- use program to give individual patients immediate legal access to medical marijuana. The administration claims that there is no longer a need to change state laws because the federal research and approval process is wide open for medical marijuana. That's not true: The new guidelines still place a much greater burden on medical marijuana researchers than on drug companies that develop and study newly synthesized pharmaceuticals. Presently, the only hope for protecting medical marijuana users from the threat of prison is to remove criminal penalties in the states. A statement criticizing the new HHS guidelines was signed by Susan Sarandon, Richard Pryor, scientist Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D., former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, best-selling natural health author Andrew Weil, M.D., 'National Review'- senior editor Richard Brookhiser, AIDS Action Council, New York State Nurses Association, National Black Police Association, Reagan administration official Lyn Nofziger, and hundreds of other patients, doctors, medical organizations, celebrities, and concerned citizens. When will the federal government finally listen? 

Signed, 
[YOUR NAME]