Medical Marijuana

To the Editor:

A May 25 editorial says the effort to block the use of marijuana as
medicine "flies in the face of mainstream medical opinion." It says, "One
Harvard study of 2,000 oncologists found that 44 percent had recommended
marijuana to patients undergoing chemotherapy."

This was a 1991 project by a Harvard professor and a student. Their
questionnaire was sent to 2,430 oncologists. Most had never recommended
marijuana and favored prescribing THC pills over smoking pot. Wouldn't that
be the mainstream?

A lead author of a 1999 Institute of Medicine report warned that marijuana
is so toxic that it should be limited to carefully controlled situations
involving terminally ill patients or those whose suffering is not relieved
by other treatment.

This is not what the movement to legalize medical marijuana is seeking.

REED IRVINE Chairman, Accuracy in Media Washington, May 30, 2002