#305 New York Times Criticizes Medical Cannabis

Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005
Subject: #305 New York Times Criticizes Medical Cannabis

NEW YORK TIMES CRITICIZES MEDICAL CANNABIS

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #305 – Tuesday, 29 March 2005

Today’s New York Times includes an article titled “Medicinal Marijuana
on Trial” by Dan Hurley. Please read it here:

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n523/a02.html

And it is currently on line at the New York Times website
(registration may be required) here:

Readers who have been following medical cannabis issues will have a
hard time calling it fair and balanced. The spin against medical
cannabis is clear, even though a few lines give lip service to the
positive.

We find this website among those useful for research to help respond
to points in the article: http://medicalmarijuanaprocon.org/

The Ottawa Citizen’s senior writer, Dan Gardner, wrote a column ‘How
Science Is Skewed to Fuel Fears of Marijuana’ that covers some of the
issues of the New York Times article. See http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n474/a07.html

Please consider writing a letter to the editor to the New York Times.
Email it to letters@nytimes.com

There are many potential ways you could write a LTE. You need not
focus just on the negative spin. You could elaborate on the positive
in the article. Whatever you send, we suggest you keep your letter
short, under 200 words, and focused on only one or two points.

Thanks for your effort and support.

It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do

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Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for personal
tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.

heath@mapinc.org

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PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list (sentlte@mapinc.org) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to heath@mapinc.org if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list (sentlte@mapinc.org) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

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Prepared by: Stephen Heath, MAP Media Activism Facilitator

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