Implementing Prop. 215

You correctly call for the federal government to reschedule marijuana so that it can be legally used as medicine (editorial, Aug. 16). At the same time you incorrectly call for Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) to modify his California bill to limit its use to AIDS and cancer patients.

The law should allow for its use whenever the patient and her or his physician decide marijuana is the best medicine. Let the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance then monitor the medical community for appropriate prescribing patterns, just as is currently done for all other drugs.

It is far more likely that science, instead of politics, will determine the appropriate use of marijuana, if we let the current regulatory scheme function as designed.

JOHN FICHTENKORT MD

Modesto

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The Times has joined the long list of politicians and bureaucrats who long to practice medicine when it comes to marijuana. To say marijuana is only good medicine for “grave illnesses” is to take out of the doctor’s hands one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.

The Times also incorrectly assumed that the smoking of marijuana as medicine would be done discreetly. The voters know what marijuana smells like and know it cannot always be done discreetly by medical patients. Anywhere tobacco can be smoked is fine with me; at least we can see people healing and dying in the same locale.

Give the people a ranking of drugs according to how many deaths are caused annually. It’s the kind of safety knowledge the people need.

RICHARD M. DAVIS

Los Angeles