I am writing to introduce myself and to confirm our up coming meeting on March 20, 2002 @ 10am. I apologize for the delay of this letter, as I have been very ill for over a month. I would like to request your emergency help for our sick, disabled, and dying citizens. Our major requests are relatively simple, protection for medical marijuana patients under state’s rights. The other issues I wish to discuss are the poor quality of marijuana being researched by the state of California, and the illegal scheduling of marijuana.

Over five million California citizens voted to protect the health, safety, and well being of their fellow citizens who are suffering over five years ago. Our president ran on a states’ rights platform. Does that not apply to the voters of our great state? It is clearly time for Attorney General Lockyer to stand up for the voters of the State of California and at very least protect individual patients from the federal government.

The DEA is cracking down, as you know, on medicinal marijuana. This is horrifically wrong because marijuana is illegally scheduled schedule 1. Two federal items, which prove this beyond any reasonable doubt, are the IND (Investigative New Drug) program, which provides ½lb. per month of terrible quality marijuana from the University of Mississippi to five lucky patients whom, arguably, are not as sick as I am. The second is Marinol, which on July 2, 1999 was reduced to Schedule 3 from 2 (triplicate prescription) by the DEA. If Marijuana has NO RECOGNIZED MEDICAL USE to be a Schedule 1, why would you replicate ANY chemical of the plant? Why do so many doctors and patients believe that marijuana has true medical value? Because it helps so much for nausea, hunger, vomiting, and pain.

The Supreme Court decision, United States vs. Jeffrey Jones and the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative, has been gravely miss-interpreted and is leading to patient after patient having their medicine taken away. The Supreme Court based its opinion on Congress having scheduled marijuana schedule 1.

Why can I eat, take my Aids drug cocktail, and control the nausea and vomiting? Because I use medicinal marijuana! I have tried prescription drugs like Compazine, Marinol, Megace, and many others and they didn’t help. I am on the SILCAAT research study of a cancer drug Interleukin-2 also known as Proleukin or IL-2, to attempt to boost my T-cells and survive a little longer and better. I cannot attempt to complete this study without the help of marijuana. The possible side effects of this drug are horrifying, but I must attempt to boost my T-cells. Marijuana, ironically, does not contain these harmful side effects. No ONE has ever died from marijuana overdose.

The DEA has announced part of their plan to stop the use of medicinal marijuana in California and across the nation. The only way you can stop the use of marijuana for medical purposes would be to cure aids, cancer, glaucoma, and many other illnesses, which is impossible. It is morally unjust to give a medicine to five patients in the country and send SWAT teams to raid and arrest the rest. This is propaganda at it’s worst. Are we under Taliban control? Aren’t they the ones who are supposed to control their people by sheer terror and no facts? Aren’t they the ones driven by religious extremism?

The New England Journal of Medicine on January 30 1997 already said the federal government’s treatment of patients is "misguided heavy-handed, and inhumane" and that medicinal marijuana should be available for patients. The National Institute of Health also said that reviewing all research, marijuana warrants further research, 1997 and 1999. Doctors and patients already won certain protection when we sued the federal government for threatening doctors (Judge Fern Smith, 1997). National polls have shown that an overwhelming number of citizens in the US believe in medical marijuana.

Even though there has been favorable research for the use of medicinal marijuana, the government forces doctors to use University of Mississippi marijuana that has seeds, stems, and is rolled in very harsh papers and is too dry. Marijuana in this form will cause harm because of the harsh properties of the cigarettes provided by the United States. The Marijuana that I have cultivated is of much higher quality than the IND program. I do believe this is a conspiracy by the DEA to attempt to flaw scientific study of marijuana. Somehow the study of quality marijuana needs to be forced to stop this horrendous injustice. Where’s the true science? I would not even think of going on the current study of marijuana by the state of California, because they use such poor quality marijuana rolled in a thick, harsh burning paper.

As you can see, to help patients like myself, it will take an act of Congress literally. Please contact DEA Chief, Asa Hutchinson and Attorney General John Ashcroft, and ask them to watch how they treat California’s dying citizens. Please stand up for state’s rights and consider a strong push for rescheduling. Feel free to contact me for any further information and/or assistance. I would appreciate it if you would keep me informed of any medicinal marijuana task force meetings as the Honorable Dave De Alba did while he served as deputy for Mr. Lockyer. This is so wrong and must be changed, my life and the lives of so many others hang in the balance.