SMOKESCREEN

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that there is no exception in
federal law that would allow people suffering from serious illnesses to use
illegal drugs, advocates of so-called "medical marijuana" should turn their
attention toward development of a pharmaceutical form of the drug.

Advocates claim smoking marijuana can ease side effects from chemotherapy,
alleviate nausea in AIDS patients and give multiple sclerosis sufferers
greater mobility. However, there is no definitive medical evidence of the
drug's supposed curative effects. And while a marijuana buzz might mask
symptoms, it is not demonstrably better than, or even as effective as
conventional, legal treatments.

More to the point, the debate about possible medical uses for marijuana has
always been largely a smokescreen sent up by advocates of legalization of
pot and other drugs for recreational use.

That said, the cannabis plant itself may have pharmaceutical applications.
Researchers at UMass-Memorial Medical Center have derived a chemical from
marijuana that may have therapeutic value without pot's psychotropic
properties. The drug seems to have no ill effects, but its medicinal value
has yet to be established.

If the goal of medical marijuana advocates is to help people with
debilitating diseases, rather than to promote recreational drug use, they
should lobby for the development of a legal marijuana derivative.
Uncontrolled private distribution of the illegal form of the drug is not
good medicine, good science or good law.