HOPE FOR THE BUCKEYE STATE

The Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR) has
endorsed Ohio Senate Bill 74, which would allow for the use of
marijuana for medicinal purposes. The bill, in committee since
February, would regulate the use of marijuana by requiring a
physician to conduct an assessment and provide a statement verifying
that a patient would benefit from marijuana therapy (see "Toking the
Cure," issue of March 2-8).

"The WONPR, along with our coalition members, represent a total
membership in excess of 2.5 million women nationwide," said Jean
Marlowe, executive director of the organization. "We believe in drug
policies based on compassion, human and civil rights and common
sense. We are honored to endorse the humanitarian efforts of the Ohio
Legislature to protect their citizens from misguided and cruel
government policies where the health and well-being of our citizens
are at stake."

In the 1930s the WONPR was instrumental in the movement to dismantle
alcohol prohibition. The organization recently re-formed "to return
dignity to school children, responsibility to families and
credibility to law enforcement" by ending the war on drugs.