From: norml@henson.cc.wwu.edu (Robert G Halvorson)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: NORML: Sick of the WOD
Date: 12 Dec 92 00:44:28 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Distribution: na
Organization: ?
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu

Here is a letter from a member of the Living Proof Taskforce of the Seattle
chapter of WCDPR.  Share it, spread it, augment it ... 
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 92 23:31 GMT
From: "Gerald X. Diamond" <0003281350@mcimail.com>
To: "Wayne Smith, NORML" <norml@henson.cc.wwu.edu>
Subject: Letter requested by WCDPR member to combat destructive propaganda

This is going to Channel 5
==========================
 
My name is Katherine Donnelley.  This refers to your lead story on December 
1, 1992, showing the destruction of marijuana plants in Hawaii.  It was 
presented in a manner derogatory to your public, and it falsely condemns a 
medicine that keeps people free from pain and imparts vision and insight.  
I want you to stop showing that [falsity] on TV. 
 
We (people who are sick or disabled) are not pawns to be used in your phony 
war on drugs.  We, the sick, are the people you are fighting.   We are sick 
and tired of paying more than its weight in gold for our medication and 
having to go to the streets for it, which is more dangerous than the drug 
itself.  You have to understand that we are fighting for our LIVES.  We do 
not want to have to fight our government also.  I don't want to go around 
begging for medicine for $300 bucks an ounce; all I want is the freedom to 
grow it for free. 
 
We want the right to choose what goes into our bodies and the right to 
decide what we believe helps us.  I'm searching for medical FACTS on the 
uses of cannabis and in the criminal justice atmosphere you are creating
this makes it impossible for us to know the truth.  It makes the search 
dangerous. 
 
We are tired of being planetary social outcasts because we suffer from 
gastroparesis or sclerderma or glaucoma or cancer or AIDS, for being sick 
and using a medication the government feels is so dangerous that harsh 
criminal penalties are imposed.  We, the members of Living Proof, are going 
to take our rights back because we are too busy being sick or dying to care 
what the government thinks.  Cannabis (Marijuana) is medicine.  You can 
call it whatever you want to, but it will not change that fact.  It is an 
herb, not a drug and it is NOT dangerous -- it is an herb like camomile, 
comfrey, vervain, rose hips and thousands of other herbs that have been 
safely and effectively used by people for thousands of years.
 
Marijuana is medicine.  Whether you like it or not, whether you believe it 
or not, doesn't matter and you have no right telling me what to do with it 
or bad-mouthing it for public sensationalism.  Our aim in life is to follow 
the universal law of self-preservation.  The number one law is survival.  
We cannot help but follow this basic, instinctive law.  
 
Your approach to survival is to advocate destruction of a useful plant: 
cannabis hemp grown for its psycoactive and pharmacoactive benefits.  
We are not willing to suffer and die so someone who is obviously corrupt 
can sit in hills of bills.   We believe this is asking too much of any 
American.  We would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.  
 
In the words of the DEA's chief administrative law judge, Francis Young, 
"Marijuana, in its natural form, is the safest therapeutically active 
substance known to humankind."  I believe that death is more detrimental to 
my health than cannabis.  
 
Under the guise of "safe and effective" is a pill called Marinol.  It is 
the same thing as marijuana but it is called "safe and effective" so that 
drug companies can make a buck off of it.  How can they say one is safe and 
effective when the natural product is equally safe and effective. 
 
Your misuse of the TV media to promote destructive acts paid for by 
taxpayer dollars has produced enough mental suffering.  Now, it is time to 
put a stop to it, or shut down the media that continue to promote violence, 
destruction and bigotry by teaching people to call drug users "addicts" 
instead of "patients".  By denigrating our character and inciting the 
"thrill of the chase" in law enforcement people, you make it necessary for 
us to hide from society our necessary use of this drug, or go to jail.   
Imprisonment is NOT a solution to medical problems.  Legalization of 
cannabis, on the other hand, IS a solution, and deserves equal air time.
 
I will march my patients off to war against this cruel hoax of a ":war on 
drugs".  It is not a war on drugs -- it is a money war on people, including 
sick people.  Stop condemning our medicine and tell the truth about it!!!!
 
Catherine Donnelly
P.O. Box 3504
Silverdale, WA 98383-3504
Tel: 206-297-4179
 
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive