by Neal Levine

In an April 21 letter, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom reiterates the misleading commentary about the medical marijuana bill that he has repeatedly presented in testimony before the Legislature.

Backstrom's claim that the American Medical Association has "rejected" medical marijuana dismisses the substantial medical support for these compassionate laws and is false: The AMA neither supports nor opposes medical marijuana, but it does oppose penalties for doctors who recommend it to patients.

For a county attorney, Backstrom sure sounds as though he has a medical background. He does not. But four doctors and 10 nurses testified in favor of the medical marijuana bill; nearly 3,000 Minnesotan medical professionals have signed a statement of support in favor of its passage, and it has the backing of the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Minnesota Public Health Association and the Minnesota AIDS Project.

The two largest papers in the state have endorsed the legislation, and highly esteemed national groups like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the American College of Physicians -- the country's second-largest physicians group -- have urged compassion for seriously ill patients.

Medical marijuana should be a matter of health care and not ideology. We hope both the house and Gov. Pawlenty will heed the experts' voices and pass this bill into law.

NEAL LEVINE, MINNEAPOLIS;
STATE CAMPAIGNS DIRECTOR,
MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT