PRESS RELEASE

     In October of 1994 the Virginia Nurses Association joined Patients 
Out of Time in crafting a resolution calling for the immediate 
availability of therapeutic cannabis - medical marijuana for the sick.  
This demand echoed that of a sister organization the Virginia Nurses 
Society on Addictions who first voiced the needs of physicians to be able 
to prescribe cannabis as a medicine in August of 1993.  In May of 1995 
the National Nurses Society on Addictions (NNSA) joined this call to 
compassion.  The sponsor of the VA resolutions, Mary Lynn Mathre RN, an 
expert in substance abuse and consultant in that field to the University 
of Virginia's Health Sciences Center, said of the NNSA resolution, "This 
is a clear demonstration that addiction experts and specialists 
understand that cannabis has potential therapeutic value and patients 
should be allowed access to this medicine."

     The Mississippi Nurses Association passed a therapeutic cannabis 
resolution in October of 1995 as did the Colorado Nurses Association in 
November 1995.  Also in November the annual conference of the American 
Public Health Association issued their demand for therapeutic cannabis, 
to be published in their March 1996 journal, after "sailing through" the 
voting process according to their representative.  Patients Out of Time 
either prepared or spoke for all of these resolutions.

     Patients Out of Time is an organization that recognizes the need for 
some patients to be accorded the compassion and dignity to alleviate 
their pain and sickness by using a natural plant, cannabis, under a 
doctor's care.  Patients Out of Time is composed of legal and illegal 
cannabis using patients; health care professionals; and tolerant but 
affirmative citizens who desire a pro choice modality of treatment for 
the ill and dying.

     Mary Lynn Mathre RN, MSN, CARN, president of Patients Out of Time 
will be presenting "Therapeutic Cannabis & the Law: Ethical Dilemma for 
Nurses" at the 100th Anniversary Conference of the American Nurses 
Association on June 17th, 1996 in Washington, DC.  With her will be 
Barbara Douglass, a Director of Patients Out of Time and one of eight 
legal marijuana patients and Irvin Rosenfeld, the second patient to 
receive U.S. Government supplied marijuana and National Spokesman for 
Patients Out of Time.  Contact Patients Out of Time at (804) 263-4484 or 
e-mail at MLM4S@virginia.edu or write to Patients Out of Time, Fish Pond 
Plantation, 1472 Fish Pond Rd., Howardsville, VA 24562.