HARVARD DOCTOR PRAISES MARIJUANA AS MIRACLE DRUG

Dr. Lester Grinspoon Says Pakalolo Is Safer And Cheaper Than Conventional Drugs

Despite conflicting state and federal laws, medical marijuana is here
to stay, says Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard University.

Not only that, "it will be seen as a kind of miracle drug during the
next decade," the psychiatry professor predicts.

A nationally recognized authority on marijuana, Grinspoon is among
key speakers at a two-day conference, "Marijuana in 2001: Medical and
Social Issues," that opened yesterday at the Ala Moana Hotel.

The third annual Hawaii Conference on Addictions, sponsored by the
John A. Burns School of Medicine, is aimed at giving medical
professionals and others the latest information about the science of
marijuana, benefits, risks, and national and international
perspectives.

Hawaii and other states have authorized use of marijuana for certain
illnesses, but the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a federal law
classifying marijuana as illegal makes no exception for seriously ill
people.

"It is a great disillusional system, in my view," said Grinspoon,
author of "Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine." In an interview
yesterday, he said medical marijuana "simply can't be denied, once
people discover for themselves how useful it is and how nontoxic it
is compared to conventional drugs."

They will "become believers" when they find that marijuana "is a hell
of a lot cheaper and easier to take" for cancer than a series of
pills costing $35 each, he said.

When his book was first published in 1993, Grinspoon said, the
associate dean of Harvard's medical school read it but said nothing.

A few years later, he called Grinspoon to ask if taking Marinol, a
synthetic form of marijuana, would help his 67-year-old
mother-in-law, who had pancreatic cancer.

Grinspoon said the man was horrified when he told him it would not
help as much as if she smoked marijuana. "He said she'd never use
marijuana. So I gave him instructions on Marinol and said if she has
difficulties, call me."

The next call to Grinspoon was from the ailing woman, asking for
help. Grinspoon asked if she had a grandchild who could teach her to
roll a joint and smoke one with her. She said her grandchildren had
been urging her to smoke marijuana.

Grinspoon advised her to take one puff and wait a few minutes to see
how she felt. He told her to call him if she had any problems.

About a month later, the associate dean told him at a meeting, "My
whole family is indebted to you."

At a Christmas party at the associate dean's home after the woman
died, his wife greeted Grinspoon, again saying how indebted the
family was to him because the quality of her mother's life had
improved so much.

She said she was angry at herself for carrying on "like a banshee"
when her three sons smoked marijuana in college, Grinspoon said.
"What's all the fuss?" she concluded.

Grinspoon said the public is misled by the government, that there is
nothing toxic in marijuana. Yet more than 700,000 people, mostly
young, are arrested annually on marijuana charges -- 88 percent just
for mere possession, he said.

Grinspoon referred to a talk yesterday by Dr. David H. Friar,
University of Hawaii assistant professor in psychiatry, discussing
why marijuana is important to brain science.

"If we are to get at the truth about medical marijuana, about
recreational marijuana use, about marijuana abuse and dependence,"
Friar said, "we must go beyond the emotional polarity of the
lionizers and the demonizers and commit ourselves to fearless and
objective investigation."

Grinspoon said he was a "demonizer" until he started to see how
marijuana helped patients. It is not harmless, he said, but it will
be seen as one of the safest drugs when added to the thick book of
pharmaceuticals.

Marijuana has never caused a death, while more than 7,000 people die
annually in the United States from aspirin and other nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs, he said.

"It is a myth imposed upon this country that this is a terrible,
dangerous drug. What's happening, as people see it as medicine, they
ask, 'What's all the fuss?'"

When asked about who is pushing to keep marijuana classed as illegal
under federal law, Grinspoon said he could not answer that. But if it
is legalized, he pointed out, "conventional drug companies are going
to lose."

He said he was surprised that drug companies were supporting the
medical school's marijuana conference.

Friar described the chemical structure of marijuana and some of the
latest studies. He said research is important to learn how marijuana
causes its effects in the brain, but "science has been stifled for
decades" because most research money is controlled by the federal
government, which is "in the ranks of the demonizers."

Dr. Donald Abrams, assistant director of the AIDS Program at San
Francisco General Hospital and professor of clinical medicine at the
University of California-San Francisco, said it is a "Catch-22"
situation: Marijuana cannot be used legally as a medicine because
adequate research has not been done, and adequate research cannot be
done because marijuana is illegal.

William Haning III, University of Hawaii associate professor of
psychiatry, said one of the most controversial issues is what
constitutes dependence, and dosage and frequency do not matter in
determining that.