He is satisfied with the studies that have been done on marijuana and believes that, for patients, the benefits outweigh possible risks. His goal is for marijuana to be reclassified by the federal government so that physicians can prescribe it. It isn't science or compassion that is keeping the medicine from patients, Bayer says. It's politics, fear, and ignorance. Many people have been taught there is no difference between drug use and abuse.
Doctors know better.
By agreeing to be chief petitioner and spokesman of Oregon's initiative, Bayer has signed on to a national campaign. Dave Fratello, executive director of the group, which also coordinated Proposition 215, says the group's goal is to eventually persuade the FDA to reclassify the drug. AMR is largely funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros of New York, insurance mogul Peter Lewis of Cleveland and John Sperling, founder and president of the University of Phoenix. Locally, the campaign is being run by the Sugarman Group, which ran the Death with Dignity campaign in 1996. While it's still early in the campaign, the legislative committee of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, which represents more than 1,400 Oregon churches, has endorsed the initiative, as has the ACLU and the Coalition of Black Men.