Dear Americans for Medical Rights,

This inquiry is in response to all the emotion caused by the proposed initiatives presented by AMR in recent months in various states.

It has come to the attention of many who wish to see medical freedom prevail as well as the complete freedom of hemp production for a cleaner environment and social freedom for all Americans.

Too many people are going to jail (642,000 last year alone with 80% of which being personal possession) for a crime that shouldn't be. Recreational freedom is a constitutional right that should not be overlooked by those quick to change the laws concerning medical Cannabis.

Some of us wish to know the future plans of the AMR that have been "set in stone" that will have enormous impact over the lives of many patients as well as those that are currently criminals for using and or possessing a not so simple plant.

Many of us realize the medical urgency surrounding medical marihuana. We also realize the nutritional supplement available to us in the form of hemp seed. We wonder why utilization of hemp seed as a nutritional foundation for medical marihuana has been overlooked. Many a western doctor never treats the source of disease but only the disease itself by prescribing medicine that perpetuates the illness. Medical marihuana will never cure the sick of their sickness, only ease their suffering.

With proper nutrition being the basis of good health, should not the nutritional possibilities of the cannabis seed be at least addressed?

How long will we go on ignoring the comprehensive nature of this plant?

Polling data that has been available from a variety of sources for over a period of more than a decade consistently indicates between 70% to 80% of the American people believe marijuana should be legally available, by prescription, for the treatment of life- and sense-threatening diseases. Why then dose the AMR find a need to place such extreme limits on patients rights by presenting legislation that encourages a further loss of personal freedom?

Many of us realize that in 1991, the federal government closed the program that allowed the seriously ill to obtain legal access to marijuana. That program -- the Compassionate IND program -- was the only means by which individuals could obtain federal supplies. Twelve individuals were receiving supplies in 1991 and they were "grand fathered" when the program was closed. Four individuals -- all AIDS patients -- have died. The remaining eight continue to receive three hundred marihuana joints per month free of charge.

The legislation proposed by the AMR would not even allow patients to possess as much medical marihuana as the government itself provides to its chosen few.

The Compassionate IND program was closed because too many people were asking for access to medical marijuana supplies. In order for marijuana to be classified as a prohibited Schedule I drug it must not have "accepted medical use in treatment" in the United States. The federal government knew that hundreds of approved Compassionate INDs would quickly undermine that criteria and marijuana would have to be rescheduled. Rather than respond in an honest and open way, the federal government closed the Compassionate IND program for marijuana.

It seems you have also chosen to ignore the honest approach and take a more hypocritical approach, which puts patients in jeopardy. Is not the goal of the AMR to ease suffering?

Just because I am ill do I have to become a ward of the state and register with the police?

And why does the AMR choose to put limits on plant production? Do you really think people will not vote for a law that does not mention plant production? How does the AMR expect a sick patient to produce enough medicine to last any length of time with a limit of six plants with only three producing usable marihuana?  Does AMR have any experience in the growing of medical marijuana? How did it come to these conclusions?

The Feds have been running a seven-acre patch, which supplies eight people, known to agency bureaucrats simply as the Farm, since 1968. Over the past ten years, the Farm has produced about 5,000 pounds of U.S.-inspected marijuana--worth roughly $22 million on the street.

When asked to reconcile the Marijuana Project's pro-pot message with recent White House policy, federal officials react as if they've just been handed a smoldering joint: They decline and nervously pass it along. "We just do what we're told," says Sheryl Massaro, a NIDA spokeswoman. "If we are told to provide marijuana to eight people, then that's what we do." She defers to the Food and Drug Administration, which granted the "compassionate IND" (investigational new drug) waivers that have made it possible for a few people to benefit from the program.

Is it that the AMR is also following federal policy of politics first, truth last.

Why does the AMR initiative put the burden of proof on the patient instead of the law enforcement agency, which clearly has more resources? Guilty until proven innocent is not how our constitution was designed.

Why at the same time we are watching AMR push initiatives in other states when the vehicle to run the one in California has not been created?

The people deserve answers to these as well as many other questions that quickly come to mind. Is AMR ready to answer?

Sincerely,

An anonymous California medical cannabis user and a victim of the Drug War.