Madison NORML

Unfortunately, under federal law, my doctor could not prescribe marijuana then and still cannot do so today. Marijuana could be prescribed up until 1970, when Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act classing marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug with a high potential for abuse and no medical use. 36 years later and counting, they have still not corrected this grave error, and many millions of patients over several generations have paid the price.

The letter was significant personally in that it represented the first time a doctor had recognized, in writing, that cannabis would benefit me and that it should be available like any other medication. Seven years earlier, October 3, 1972, I had stumbled upon pot as a treatment for the congenital glaucoma that had steadily stolen my sight all through childhood. I had smoked some pot with friends after school and headed off to see a different eye doctor. He found my normally highly elevated intraocular pressures normal. Since that day I have continued to medicate with cannabis every day I could obtain it, through the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's and today over halfway through the 00's.

If America truly is the land of liberty and justice for all, the Berlin wall of cannabis prohibition must fall, like the lies and myths that have been perpetrated in the name of keeping this gentle herb from patients in need. The sky is blue not green, and its time to stop the lies and the war and let the healing begin.