The Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association should be commended for its report, “Marijuana: Its Health Risks and Therapeutic Potential.” The report not only outlines evidence of marijuana's potential harms, but distinguishes this concern from the legitimate question of marijuana's important medical benefits. Too often the hysteria that accompanies public debate about the social abuse of marijuana undermines a clear appreciation of this fundamental distinction. Since 1978, 32 states have abandoned the federal ban on legislative recognition of the important medical properties of marijuana. Federal law, however, continues to define marijuana as a drug "with no accepted medical use," and federal agencies continue to prohibit doctor-patient access to marijuana. This outdated federal ban is corrupting the intent of state laws and depriving thousands of glaucoma and cancer patients of the medical care promised to them by state legislatures. This is an excerpt from a letter written in 1982 to the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Its author was a citizen concerned about the total lack of rationality repeatedly demonstrated in the federal government's attempts to justify the prohibition of the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. It wasn't some burnt-out ex-hippie who wrote the letter. The concerned citizen was none other than the current Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich. He was sponsoring a bill intended to end the federal ban on marijuana as medicine. He has since abandoned support for such initiatives and has begun to engage in the sort of hypocrisy and misinformation typical of the federal government's policy toward medical marijuana. Gingrich's bill failed despite overwhelming public and factual support. Lawmakers, pandering to a vocal minority, overturned it. Fourteen years later, the silent majority spoke. In a move that must have made Nixon spin in his grave, the silent majority apparently supports this drug use. In the fall of 1996, two states passed a referendum to legalize marijuana. Both California's Compassionate Use Act and Arizona's Drug Medicalization, Prevention and Control Act passed by convincing margins despite well-funded opposition. Support for medical marijuana extends far beyond the traditionally libertarian Southwest. A recent survey of the American public by the American Civil Liberties Union showed that 85% of the American public supports making marijuana legally available to the seriously ill. Unwilling to let the people have the final say, the Clinton administration quickly moved to impose a de facto veto on these referendums.