Subject: Clinton's General declares war on Doctors....
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 11:05:36 -0500

The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
ACT UP Washington DC
825 5th Street NE Suite A       Washington, DC 20002
December 30, 1996                                phone 202.547.6780
McCaffery Declares War on People With AIDS!!!!
ACT UPWashington Declares War on McCaffery
Medical Use is not Abuse!

Washington, DC -- The AIDS advocacy group ACT UP in Washington DC condemns
the Clinton Administration's assault on terminally ill patients who use
marijuana to alleviate their symptoms.  In a plan outlined today by Drug Czar
General Barry McCaffery, the federal government will target physicians who
recommend marijuana to patients in an intimidation campaign that utilizes
government informants and criminal prosecutions.

 Voters in California and Arizona approved ballot initiatives last month
protecting patients and caregivers from prosecution.  Marijuana is already
widely used by AIDS sufferers as an appetite stimulant and anti-nauseate, to
counter deadly wasting syndrome in which patients, unable to keep food or
medication down, literally starve to death.

 "Medical use is not abuse" states ACT UP spokesperson Wayne Turner.  "If
Gen. McCaffery wanted to win the war on drugs, we wouldn't have an 8 month
waiting list for drug treatment slots in DC." Marijuana is also commonly used
to treat the side effects of chemo and radiation therapy in cancer patients,
as well as glaucoma and other chronic and debilitating illnesses.

 Steve Michael of ACT UP, who is HIV positive states, "This two bit General
has declared war on people with AIDS.  It's outrageous that the President who
'didn't inhale' is denying sick and dying people the relief that medical
marijuana provides."

 The President's own HIV/AIDS Advisory Council proposed that "the
Administration should resist any attempts to use the federal government to
intrude on the integrity of the doctor/patient relationship."  This apparent
contradiction in policy only illustrates the powerlessness of Clinton's AIDS
'czar', and the President's willingness to sacrifice the lives of AIDS
sufferers for political expediency.
 "We refuse to allow Bill Clinton to make people with AIDS collateral damage
in his failed drug war." adds Michael.  "They're choosing this fight because
they think it's an easy win."
 Gen. McCaffery said that the the voters who approved medical marijuana were
"asleep at the switch" in approving "hoax referendums" according to the
Associated Press.  "McCaffery is proving to be a bigger liar than Bill
Clinton.  His attacks on the medical benefits of smoking marijuana have been
laughable.  For this president to put a general in charge of  America's AIDS
policy is dangerous and completly unacceptable.  We call on all the Gay and
Lesbian Democrats, both in and out of the administration to speak on against
the McCaffery witch-hunts," states Michael.
Clinton's Gay apologists....
                                  ........silent Again!!!

 Clinton supporters in the Gay community are maintaining their silence as
this President launches an unprecedented witchhunt against AIDS patients.
 "We demand that  Congressmember Barney Frank (D-MA.), the sponsor of a
medical marijuana bill in Congress, put public pressure on the president that
he campaigned for in the Gay and Lesbian community--- to reel in his
general," adds Turner.   He continues, "The Gay Democratic apologists that
promised a great second term have egg on their face.  All we heard from the
inside the beltway bozo's of the Human Rights Campaign and the  worthless Gay
and Lesbian party hacks with mid-level jobs in this administration was that
Bill Clinton, would in a second term, be free to do what he needs to do to
protect the lives of  people with AIDS.  Well, this is the second term.  And
it's already proving to be a bigger nightmare than the first."  Clinton
recently release a "National AIDS Strategy" that activists from across
America have called worthless and disapointing.  Clinton has also stalled
action on a national needle exchange program and failed to implement a
"Manhattan-style Project to Cure AIDS.
 
Coming in from behind...
 ....attacking the General from the rear

 ACT UP Washington's Michael has filed a ballot initiative in the District of
Columbia similar to the measure that  passed in California.  The ACT UP
Washington Medical Marijuana Initiative improves upon the language in the
California initiative by including age restrictions with parental approval
for those under , and protection for physicians.  Filing an initiative here
in Washington is a win-win situation.   If we run this campaign in a smart
and aggressive manner,  McCaffery won't have time to chase doctors in
California and Arizona that recommend marijuana to their patients.  We will
be here, attacking his rear flank, gathering signatures, winning the hearts
and minds of the people and exposing his lies to the press."
 Concludes Turner, "Clinton inhaled, and we the ones that will go to jail."