MARIJUANA, PAIN AND CRUELTY

MISPLACED hysteria over the medical use of marijuana has prompted the
American Cancer Society to give a $361,000 grant to the Albany College
of Pharmacy to conduct research on whether a marijuana patch on the
skin could help ease the nausea and pain of cancer patients undergoing
chemotherapy.

A 1991 report by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that the
active ingredients in marijuana can ease pain, nausea and vomiting,
especially in chemotherapy patients.

But since then, medical use of marijuana has become a political
casualty.

While patients suffer or resort to illegal street purchases of
unregulated substances that could contain other drugs, the most
vehement anti-drug crusaders have prevailed in preserving baseless
fears.

In 1998, Dr. Jerome Kassier, editor of the New England Journal of
Medicine, endorsed the medical use of marijuana, saying, "the argument
that it would be a signal to the young that using marijuana would be
OK is false." But with Congress finally showing small signs that it
may listen to reason, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, head of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, told a congressional hearing last summer
that a "carefully camouflaged, well-funded, tightly knit core of
people" is using public sympathy for cancer patients to advance a
stealth agenda for legalizing all drugs.

Marijuana remains classified by Congress as a Schedule I controlled
substance, in the same category as heroin and LSD. Only a few states
have voted to legalize medical marijuana.

Marijuana is still banned by federal law -- discouraging scientists
from studying it and doctors from prescribing it even in states where
it is legal.

Studying a patch method of dispersal has several advantages. Removing
smoking from the procedure may assuage opponents by making it look
more like medicine and less like the illegal activity.

Dr. Audra Stinchcomb, the assistant professor who will conduct the
research, noted that a patch method will give a more accurate, steady
dose, making it easier to test in clinical trials.

Smoking marijuana, Dr. Stinchcomb said, produces a hard-hitting peak
and makes it difficult to tell how much tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and
cannabidiol (CBD) have been absorbed. Smoking can also have side
effects such as dizziness and lung problems.

But some advocates of medical marijuana say that smoking is the most
efficient method precisely because it is absorbed so quickly into the
bloodstream.

Studying a patch method should not signal any retreat from current
methods of medical use, nor preclude the study of smoking the substance.

The cruel battle to stifle the use of medical marijuana has gone on
far too long, and for no reason other than political posturing by
those who deliberately draw false connections between suffering
patients and street-corner drug abusers. Let the healing begin.