UNACCEPTABLE SCIENCE

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the medical use of marijuana
reinforces the fact that there are stringent procedures for the
evaluation and testing of medical procedures in place to protect
citizens. When a pharmaceutical company seeks to market a new drug, we
do not submit it to a public referendum to decide if it is safe and
effective, we rely on science to make that determination.

Many advocates of medicinal marijuana want to legalize all marijuana.
Parents and their children must be given accurate information about
the very real health dangers of using marijuana. Contrary to what its
supporters claim, marijuana is a gateway drug, and youngsters who use
marijuana are 85 times more likely to move on to harder drugs than
those who do not.

The notion that marijuana smoking is an acceptable means of therapy
for those with chronic illnesses is ludicrous. A study from the
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA has found that people who
habitually smoke marijuana are more likely to develop head and neck
cancers -- and the more they smoke the greater the risk.

Is the medical community clamoring for the ability to prescribe
smoking marijuana? No. In fact, in 1997, the International Federation
of Multiple Sclerosis Societies concluded that there was no generally
accepted scientific basis for medicinal use of marijuana.

Several other respected medical organizations, including the American
Medical Association, the American Glaucoma Society, and the American
Academy of Ophthalmology have also expressed concern about marijuana.

The only impact that the legalization of marijuana for medicinal use
would have is to lessen the seriousness and risks of marijuana use and
increase demand, use, abuse and addiction.

Craig J. Yaldoo
Director Office of Drug Control Policy
Michigan Department of Community Health, Lansing