Drew Carey Defends Medical Marijuana

    LOS ANGELES, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "I think it's clear by
 now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana. People who
 need it should be able to get it -- safely and easily," says The Price Is
 Right and Power of 10 host Drew Carey in a new Reason.tv video examining
 medical marijuana and the war on drugs.
 
     Voters in 12 states have legalized medical marijuana and California
 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently said marijuana "is not a drug. It's
 a leaf." Yet the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) ignores these laws
 and continues to assault patients and caregivers in states where medical
 marijuana is legal. Why is the federal government disregarding state laws
 passed by millions of voters? Because the feds classify marijuana and
 heroin as equals. The government bogusly claims marijuana has "no accepted
 medical use" and a "high potential for abuse." Cocaine and methamphetamine
 are just two of the drugs the government puts in a less restrictive
 category than cannabis.
 
     To make these false claims the federal government has to ignore
 research it commissioned. In 1999 the Institute of Medicine, part of the
 National Academy of Sciences, concluded that marijuana has "therapeutic
 value" that relieves pain, controls vomiting and nausea, and stimulates the
 appetite. This year, in a study funded by the state of California, doctors
 at the University of California at San Francisco and San Francisco General
 Hospital proved marijuana provides significant relief to HIV-infected
 patients suffering from neuropathic pain. Dozens of credible studies have
 demonstrated marijuana's medicinal benefits.
 
     "The DEA is ignoring a large and growing body of evidence and needs to
 reschedule marijuana," said David Nott, president of Reason Foundation.
 "Cancer patients, HIV and AIDS patients, and millions of sick Americans
 deserve access to the drugs that ease their pain and suffering, and
 Congress can and should facilitate that."
 
     Full Video Online
     Medical Marijuana, hosted by Drew Carey, is available online at
 http://reason.tv/video/show/57.html.
 
     About Reason.tv
 
     Reason.tv is an online community showcasing the best free market ideas
 and videos on the Internet. Reason.tv gives you the opportunity to create
 videos, share videos and suggest topics for Drew Carey's upcoming
 documentaries. For more information, please visit http://www.reason.tv/.
 
     About Reason Foundation
 
     Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank dedicated to advancing free
 minds and free markets. Reason Foundation produces respected public policy
 research on a variety of issues and publishes the critically acclaimed
 monthly magazine, Reason, and its website http://www.reason.com/. For more
 information, please visit http://www.reason.org/.
 
 
 
 

SOURCE Reason Foundation