FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 14, 2002
Medical Marijuana Meeting Scheduled
Arkadelphia, AR. "Illegal Healthcare: Medical Marijuana and
Arkansas," a 20-minute video, will be featured at a public meeting 1:30
pm Saturday October 19 in Room L202 of the Garrison Conference Center on
the campus of Henderson State University, Arkadelphia. Arkansas patients
who have used marijuana for critical medical need are featured in the
film. Also included is a brief history of marijuana’s 5000 year history
of medical use, a review of current state and federal laws, and
statements by a physician and religious leaders.
"The guts of the medical marijuana story rest in patient
testimonials," states Denele Campbell, coordinator of programs for Drug
Policy Education Group, Inc., a nonprofit Arkansas organization working
to reduce the harm caused by drugs and by failed drug policies. The
video was produced as part of the group’s educational programs. "People
think they know everything about marijuana, but they really only know
drug war propaganda that has been circulating for the last thirty years.
Very few know, for example, that marijuana was widely used in this
country for over 100 ailments up until 1937, or that in 1987 an
administrative law judge of the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration
ruled that marijuana was the "safest therapeutically active substance
known to man’ and that it should be made available for medical use."
A question and answer period will follow the film. The meeting is
free and open to the public. This meeting is one in a statewide series
of meetings to be conducted in October and November of this year.
Currently, a medical marijuana study bill is scheduled for review by the
Arkansas Legislature’s Joint House and Senate Committee for Public
Health, Welfare and Labor. For more information on Drug Policy Education
Group, visit www.dpeg.org
or call 479-839-2475. For more information on the issue of medical
marijuana, visit
www.ardpark.org
###
Contact: Denele Campbell at 479-839-2475 or 479-466-2282 or
dpeg@mindspring.com