To the editor:

I am very disappointed that Rep. Dennis Moore voted against the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment to the Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations bill. I wish he had made an effort to stop the Department of Justice raids, arrests and prosecutions of medical marijuana patients.

This amendment would have prevented the federal government from targeting people who use marijuana to treat serious illnesses with their doctors’ recommendations and in accordance with state laws.

By casting this vote, Rep. Moore has aligned himself with a small and diminishing segment of society. According to a Time/CNN poll taken in October of last year, 80 percent of the American people “think adults should be able to use marijuana legally for medical purposes.”

The vote also directly contradicts the position of the 2.6 million-member American Nurses Assn., which recently passed a resolution supporting “legislation to remove criminal penalties including arrest and imprisonment for bona fide (medical marijuana) patients.”

I wish Rep. Moore had voted to take patients out of the state-federal conflict over laws regulating marijuana’s medical use. Patients should not bear the burden of this conflict.

I hope Rep. Moore will reconsider his position in the future so that patients do not have to fear the federal government when they use a state- and doctor-approved medicine that relieves their suffering and extends their lives.

Randal Geringer,

Lawrence