Medical Marijuana Initiatives Passed

* As I read your Nov. 5 editorial supporting medical marijuana, my eyes filled with tears. I was diagnosed with AIDS and cancer in March 1996. For 2 1/2 years I used medical marijuana under my doctors’ supervision to successfully counteract the side effects of chemotherapy, radiation and the AIDS combination therapy.

Last July, I was arrested by federal authorities on medical marijuana charges. Since then, I have been denied medical marijuana. Without the ability to keep down my anti-AIDS medications, my viral load (a measure of active AIDS virus in the body) is up 200-fold (from less than 20 to nearly 4,000), my T-cells are down 26% and I have lost more than 10% of my body weight.

For the first time since my AIDS diagnosis, I fear for my life. This is because the federal government chooses to ignore the will of the people of California. Perhaps now the government will turn at last from its “anachronistic and inhumane” ways.

PETER McWILLIAMS

Los Angeles

* There is one fundamental problem with the federal government changing any part of its marijuana policy--officials would have to admit they have been lying for decades.

CLIFFORD A. SCHAFFER

Canyon Country

* After our Nov. 3 elections, the next day the White House said it would ignore the overwhelmingly passed medical marijuana initiatives in five states and Washington, D.C. Wow! I hear now on the propaganda networks, and have since the first grade in public school, that we live in a democracy. I am afraid that’s a big lie. The truth is we live in a hypocrisy.

After voting Nov. 3, then hearing this news Nov. 4, I questioned my own participation in this fraud of a democracy. Now I understand why less than half of registered voters vote!

JONATHON OROS

Los Angeles