AMA COUNCIL STILL SUPPORTS MEDICAL MARIJUANA

CHICAGO (Reuters Health) - The American Medical Association's Council
on Scientific Affairs is asking the AMA to continue its support for
clinical trials of ``marijuana and related cannabinoids'' and
continued support for the ``compassionate use'' of marijuana.

Dr. Michael A. Williams, chair of the Council on Scientific Affairs,
said in an interview with Reuters Health that the report was written
before the recent US Supreme Court ruling that marijuana has no
therapeutic role. But he said the court decision ''would not change
the science of the report.'' Williams said there would be no final
word on the effectiveness of marijuana until ''clinical studies are
done.''

Council member Dr. Melvyn L. Sterling, an internist from Orange,
California, said the Council report was ``about the relief of
suffering, not about getting high.'' Although the Council recommends
more studies and continued compassionate use, it also ''recommends
that marijuana be retained in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances
Act,'' Sterling said.

A special AMA committee that conducted a hearing on the medical
marijuana issue allowed a disabled veteran, Michael Krawitz of
Roanoke, Virginia, to testify about the efficacy of marijuana to
relieve pain. Krawitz has an artificial hip and has had part of his
stomach and intestines surgically removed. He said he gets relief
from marijuana but not from marinol, a drug derived from marijuana.

Dr. David Edwards, a retired pathologist from Olympia, Washington,
said that although he is not an AMA delegate he traveled to Chicago
``to praise the work of this Council'' and to urge the AMA to
continue support for compassionate use of marijuana.

Although most of the testimony supported the Council report, some
physicians said they were worried that the AMA might be portrayed as
advocating legalized marijuana. One physician noted that the report
referred to ``smoked marijuana, which earlier studies have not
done.'' Williams said that the earlier report did reference smoked
marijuana but his Council actually deleted those terms in the new
report.

The AMA will begin voting on this and other issues Tuesday.