RESEARCH, NOT RHETORIC: MARIJUANA CAN SAVE LIVES

As Illinois legislators prepare to debate a new, practical plan for
legalizing the medical use of marijuana (the Legislature actually
passed a medical marijuana bill in 1971 but that flawed measure was
never put into practice), they should consider a new study, published
in the journal Neurology last month.

That Feb. 13 study, conducted by Dr. Donald Abrams of the University
of California at San Francisco, found smoked marijuana to be safe and
effective at treating peripheral neuropathy, which causes great
suffering among HIV/AIDS patients. This type of pain, caused by damage
to the nerves, can make patients feel like their feet and hands are on
fire, or being stabbed with a knife. Similar pain occurs in a number
of other illnesses, including multiple sclerosis and diabetes, and
responds poorly to conventional pain medications -- even addictive,
dangerous narcotics.

Abrams' study matches my own experience in studying the natural
history of AIDS. This experience has led me to focus on complementary
medications for treatment of peripheral neuropathy, taking leads from
my own patients who have used marijuana for pain relief even though
this exposed them to possible arrest and imprisonment.

The federal government has long claimed that -- as a 2003 White House
press release put it -- "research has not demonstrated that smoked
marijuana is safe and effective medicine." The study from Abrams and
colleagues demolishes that claim and underlines the urgent need for
federal and state governments to change their policies.

In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (the design
that's considered the "gold standard" of medical research), a majority
of patients had a greater than 30 percent reduction in pain after
smoking marijuana. For many, that level of relief means having a
significantly improved quality of life, and for some it actually
permits return to careers cut short by HIV infection.

This is only the latest in a growing accumulation of research showing
that medical marijuana can provide real -- sometimes even lifesaving
- -- benefits. In a study published last year of patients being treated
for the hepatitis C virus, those using marijuana to curb the nausea
and other noxious side effects of anti-hepatitis drugs were
significantly more likely to complete their treatment. As a result,
the marijuana-using patients were three times more likely to clear the
deadly hepatitis C virus from their bodies -- in plain English, to be
cured -- than those not using marijuana.

While we don't yet have a way of ridding the body of HIV, there is
strong evidence that continuing on treatment without interruption
increases one's chances of keeping the virus under control. That
translates directly to increased survival. And again, there is
published evidence that use of medical marijuana to relieve nausea and
other treatment side effects can help HIV/AIDS patients stick to their
regimens.

Does all this sound too good to be true? That might be because our
government spends many billions of dollars in its "War on Drugs" to
make us believe that marijuana is an addictive and dangerous drug and
actively spreads disinformation about its medical usefulness.

Clearly, the White House and its drug czar, John Walters, should
abandon their rigid, unscientific rejection of medical marijuana and
start reshaping federal policy to match medical reality. And if they
won't act, Congress should. There are a number of actions Congress can
take to put federal medical marijuana policy on a path toward sanity.

The first, and simplest, is to prohibit the Drug Enforcement
Administration from spending money to raid and arrest medical
marijuana patients and caregivers in the 11 states where the medical
use of marijuana is legal under state law. This would remove the cloud
of fear that now hangs over hundreds of thousands of desperately ill
Americans and those who care for them.

But that should be just the beginning. Everything about federal
medical marijuana policy should be reconsidered, based on science,
common sense, and simple human decency.

There is no longer any doubt that marijuana can be a useful medicine
for some very ill patients, a medicine that can literally help people
stay alive. So even as we await federal action, Illinois -- where the
Senate Public Health Committee will hold a hearing on the medical
marijuana bill Tuesday -- should create a workable medical marijuana
program, like those now in place in 11 states.

It is time to end our government's war on the sick and
dying.