A nice letter from Michael Krawitz. I can't speak to the meaning of the treaties insofar as they could be said to support medical marijuana, but at a bare minimum the DEA's claim that international treaties preclude medical marijuana is amazingly bogus -- even by DEA standards! And Michael is right -- in moral terms, at least, what's going on now is a crime against humanity. Dear Interpol, My name is Michael Krawitz. I am a patient advocate in the United States of America. My organization [NGO] is Patients Out of Time, an organization on the roster of the International Narcotics Control Board. I have come to you today in a desperate attempt to seek justice in a matter of grave importance to thousands of seriously ill individuals of the state of California in the United States of America and by extension tens of thousands of similarly situated individuals across America. The crimes I am about disclose are crimes against humanity involving violation of the Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs, the international Declaration of Human Rights and involves either corruption or gross incompetence at the highest levels of police agencies of the United States. Background: As I am sure you know Cannabis [aka marihuana or marijuana] is both a schedule 1 and schedule 4 drug in the Single Convention On Narcotic Drugs simultaneously calling for the prohibition of non medical use and providing for it's medical use. I also feel confident that you know that the Netherlands is currently distributing Cannabis to patients via prescription [and has done so for 5 years] under the control of the appropriate United Nations bodies attesting to it's international legality as a medicine. I am not sure that you realize that the United States government drug police, the United States federal Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, has been misstating the international law for years to justify an overall prohibition of this important medicine even from those who most need it medically for the relief of suffering. Please accept as evidence of this the following link to DEA United States Congressional testimony from 2001. http://www.dea.gov/pubs/cngrtest/ct032701.htm This misstatement of the international law has been propagated down the food chain to lower government bodies and is most recently evidenced in the text of a lawsuit brought to California state court by the council for the County of San Diego, California USA. Please see the text of the lawsuit at the following link: http://aclu.org/images/asset_upload_file802_23911.pdf The Crime: Evidently emboldened by the misguided lawsuit from San Diego the United States federal Drug Enforcement Administration has taken the unprecedented step of seizing medicine from every not for profit distribution center in the area. They have done so without making arrests and have made it clear they do not intend to return the medicine and further have threatened these same facilities with further raids should they restock with medicine. Please note that these distribution centers and indeed the California medical Cannabis law itself was set up as a humanitarian and stop gap measure to deal with the fallout from the United States intransigence with regard to the medical access to this important medicine. In 1988 a federal judge working for DEA ruled the medical prohibition improper even by DEA's own rules and the DEA instead of following the judges order to reschedule the medicine to allow patient access appealed the ruling and was allowed to disobey the judges ruling for administrative reasons. Before 1970 and since 1937, in the United States, prescription access to Cannabis was expressly allowed and taxed for control. Since 1970 prescription access to Cannabis has been arbitrarily prohibited by the United States Government in violation of both the Single Convention Treaty and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but to my knowledge the DEA has never undertaken to actually take away this medicine directly from those who need until recently. Most recently, this last Friday to be exact, I began receiving panicked emails stating "the DEA is here taking away our medicine" from patients and care givers across San Diego. Patient access to Cannabis under California law is only allowed via doctors orders as part of medical care, access to wit is specifically protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I am being very kind when I say this may just be caused by gross incompetence since surely the DEA must be considered the United States leading experts on the international drug control convention and surely they know that patient access is not prohibited. To be honest I am personally afraid of reprisals from the DEA just for coming forward to bring you this information. Please, in honor of those who have given their lives to ensure member nations worldwide the protection of these treaties, act on these charges and bring justice back where it has been pushed aside. I say this as a disabled veteran of the United States Air Force, a citizen of the United States of America and a representative and volunteer of a non governmental organization working to defend the truth about this important medicine and those who require it to relieve their suffering. Sincerely yours, Michael Krawitz Patients Out of Time www.medicalcannabis.com ###