MassCann Protests Summit

from The Daily Free Press of Boston University
by Heather Levitt
Issue date: 10/9/03



Gov. Mitt Romney and five other New England governors met with White House officials Wednesday morning at Faneuil Hall to discuss drug problems in New England, as protesters outside called for drug reform, including the legalization of medicinal marijuana.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, met with the governors and other officials for the “Anti-Drug Summit of the New England states,” to discuss the heroin problem in New England and the legalization of medicinal marijuana. The summit also discussed President George W. Bush’s “Access to Recovery Treatment Initiative,” a new three-year, $600 million federal treatment program, legislation on which Congress has not yet decided.

The group heard from doctors from Harvard University and Virginia Commonwealth University, and other leading experts on drugs and the use of medicinal marijuana.

“Marijuana is a serious drug problem in today’s America,” said Brian Blake, a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “Over 60 percent of those in drug treatment programs are dependent on marijuana.”

Blake said the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition and other legalization groups are “cynically using the sick.” He said the ONDCP relies on scientific evidence for its policies. So far, the Federal Department of Agriculture has not found any scientific proof to support medicinal marijuana.

Blake also brought up the point “that only activists are protesting for the legalization of marijuana, not medical doctors or scientists.”

Approximately 25 members from MassCann, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and student-led groups protested for medical marijuana legalization outside the conference while Walters, known as the “Drug Czar,” spoke.

“Marijuana is proven to alleviate pain for those that are ill, according to Dr. Lester Grinspoon, a Harvard doctor and an authority on the subject,” said Mitch Fava, a member of MassCann. Fava and other MassCann members held signs and passed out flyers with the slogan, “It’s evil to deny sick people medicinal marijuana.”

Fava pointed out statistics that Dr. Grinspoon had found — 41 percent of U.S. doctors favor the legalization of medical marijuana and 44 percent have admitted to recommending cannabis for their patients. According to MassCann, marijuana can effectively treat many conditions like arthritis and cancer.

MassCann was joined by other protesters from outside Massachusetts.

Nathaniel Lepp, a sophomore at Brown University and the president of Brown’s chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, came to protest the war on drugs.

Lepp said he and his fellow students “are seeking to show marijuana as another option of relief and a valuable alternative.” Lepp also mentioned that “there were no policy makers present inside Faneuil Hall that were sympathetic to the cause, even though there are plenty of doctors who believe in this.”

Lepp and many of the other protesters came to Boston to promote legislation for medicinal marijuana in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts legislature is currently considering a bill that would permit medicinal marijuana that is approved by both physicians and the Department of Public Health.