FEDS TO STUDY MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA

The issue: The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has approved a
program to study the medical benefits of marijuana.

Our view: Results of the study should be useful in determining
whether legalization of marijuana for medical use is wise.

Perhaps with reluctance, the Clinton administration has approved a program in
California to study and assess the potential medical benefits of marijuana.
Congress and the federal Food and Drug Administration have taken the position
in the past that marijuana is unsafe, but that has not kept several states,
including Hawaii, from legalizing marijuana for medical use. The study should
provide some badly needed answers.

In 1996, California voters approved an initiative allowing the
possession, cultivation and use of marijuana for medical purposes. The
law allows patients to use marijuana, based on a doctor's
recommendation, without risking state prosecution.

Federal drug policy chief Barry McCaffrey responded by saying that
doctors prescribing or recommending marijuana would lose their federal
licenses to prescribe drugs, would be excluded from Medicare and could
be prosecuted criminally. A federal judge earlier this year ruled that
the threat against doctors recommending marijuana violated their
free-speech rights.

Hawaii and seven other states have enacted laws allowing medical use
of marijuana. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of marijuana's medical use
remains a matter of debate.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has approved a program that will
allow San Mateo County, Calif., to give away government-grown
marijuana to 60 HIV and AIDS patients who suffer from neurological
disorders. The 12-week study could begin as early as January. The
program also has the blessing of the FDA, the Department of Health and
Human Services and the National Institutes of Drug Abuse.

It will not be the first such study. Dr. Donald Abrams of the
University of California at San Francisco recently found that 20 AIDS
patients who smoked marijuana for three weeks gained 7.7 pounds more
than 22 others who smoked placebos. Promoters of marijuana for medical
use say it also settles the stomach, steadies spastic muscles and
relieves PMS, glaucoma, insomnia, arthritis, depression, childbirth
and attention deficit disorder.

Government involvement in the study of the medical benefits of
marijuana is proper for the FDA to decide whether to approve its use.
Results of the study also should provide insight into whether state
legalization of medical marijuana was justified.