COURT JUST SAYS NO

A good move on use of medical marijuana.

Bummer.

That sums up much of the reaction from marijuana-growing cooperatives to
this week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that federal law will continue to bar
the growing or sale of the drug for medical purposes.

The ruling appeared to ignore long-standing reports that marijuana has
benefited people suffering from AIDS, glaucoma, chemotherapy-related nausea
and other maladies.

While the ruling did not affect laws in nine states that condone use of
"medical marijuana," it effectively threw a monkey wrench into national
efforts to legitimize the illegal drug as legal medicine.

But here's the thing: The 8-0 decision was a sound one. It fairly balances
medical need against the need to stop back-door legalization of a substance
that - unfairly or not - remains an illegal drug. A glance at the
background shows why the ruling makes sense.

First, after years of controlled studies, there is scant evidence that
marijuana is good medicine or serves its putative medical purposes any
better than legal drugs. In the case of glaucoma, research has found
marijuana indeed lowers pressure in the eye. But, as the National Eye
Institute found, a host of legal drugs do the same.

Research also has found that medical marijuana is not entirely benign:
There is some research suggesting it promotes tumor growth. Some older
patients using it suffer negative psychological reactions.

Yes, more research is needed. Several government-funded studies continue to
explore marijuana's medical potential.

In fact, in order for researchers to have enough marijuana to study, the
National Institutes of Health has its own marijuana plot down South.
Non-government funded researchers can purchase the government marijuana for
their own studies.

In the meanwhile, individual AIDS and cancer patients who feel they have
experienced benefits from marijuana need not hang out in back alleys or
wait for the drug's legalization.

A synthetic form of marijuana's major active ingredient, THC, is available
in the FDA-approved drug Marinol. It's been sold since 1986, and recently
the federal Food and Drug Administration reclassified the drug to make it
more easily prescribed.

Some argue medical marijuana is more effective when smoked. But, setting
aside the fact that smoking itself is bad, the problem remains that
research has not proved the drug to be medically effective in any unique way.

America will someday have to directly confront the issue of whether to
decriminalize or legalize marijuana. But cloaking that agenda in the robes
of medicine is not an honest way to go.