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

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Contact: Denele Campbell at 479-839-2475 or 479-466-2282 or dpeg@mindspring.com

Denele Campbell, Executive Director
Drug Policy Education Group, Inc.
541 West Meadow, Fayetteville AR 72701
479-839-2475 * www.dpeg.org * dpeg@mindspring.com
Working in Arkansas to Reduce the Harm Caused by Drugs and by Failed Drug Policies