BAN ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA DOES ILL

Thousands of New Yorkers have a serious or life-threatening medical
condition that can be improved by medically approved use of marijuana.

The law and the Supreme Court's negative ruling Monday in a California
case should not stand between the ill and life-sustaining treatment
under physician supervision.

Many physicians now recognize that marijuana has important medical
uses. An article in the June 21, 1995, Journal of the American Medical
Association reported: "In a 1990 survey, 44 percent of oncologists
said they had suggested that a patient smoke marijuana for relief of
nausea induced by chemotherapy." Many people with HIV have extensive
weight loss or "wasting" that can be fatal. Marijuana can restore
their ability to eat. It can improve muscle control for people with
multiple sclerosis.

An illegal drug can have a legitimate, legal medical use. Steroids,
morphine and Valium are properly prescribed by doctors every day, even
though it is a crime to take these drugs without a
prescription.

The law recognizes that these and many other controlled substances
have legitimate medical uses. It's time to recognize this for
marijuana. This doesn't mean it should be legalized or that marijuana
abuse isn't a problem-only that it has medical uses that should be
allowed by law.

The Medical Use of Marijuana bill I have introduced in Albany would
allow physician-supervised use of marijuana to treat a patient with a
serious illness. It would provide state monitoring of the required
physician "certification" (like a prescription), to prevent abuse, as
New York does with many other controlled substances. Marijuana would
be available, solely for medical use, through state-monitored
nonprofit providers or from the state or local health departments. The
Health Department would review, analyze and periodically report on the
whole process.

Several states, including California, have passed laws similar to my
bill. The Supreme Court's decision upholding the federal ban on the
medical use of marijuana is bad law for patients' rights.

Justice Clarence Thomas said, in effect, that Congress decided
marijuana has no medical use and that's that.

But, when Congress plays doctor, it is legislating in the
constitutionally protected area of privacy and the
practitioner-patient relationship. That ought to be subject to careful
judicial scrutiny.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recognized THC (the active
ingredient in marijuana) as a legal, safe and effective medicine (in
capsule form) for more than a decade. But an editorial in the Jan. 30,
1997, New England Journal of Medicine noted that using the natural
form of marijuana is "more likely to be therapeutic" than the
capsules. Both have intoxicating effects.

The choice-swallowing a pill or inhaling-should be a medical issue for
doctors and patients - not the business of the criminal-justice system.

New York's message on illegal drugs is clear: using them is wrong and
against the law. That message is not undermined by the fact that many
of those drugs are used medically thousands of times a day.

Allowing physician-approved use of marijuana for treatment of serious
medical conditions will strengthen-not weaken-our message that
nonmedical use of drugs is wrong.

If we want young people to believe what we tell them about drugs, our
message must be intelligent and honest. If a controlled substance such
as marijuana has medical uses, we must acknowledge it.

Most families have a loved one struggling to live with cancer, HIV or
multiple sclerosis. If your family member's physician believed
marijuana could make that person's life longer or more tolerable, I
want that person to have that choice. The government shouldn't stand
in the way.

The New England Journal of Medicine editorial strongly endorsed
allowing medical use of marijuana and said the choice is "between the
rights of those at death's door and the absolute power of bureaucrats
whose decisions are based more on reflexive ideology and political
correctness than on compassion."

Sometimes a bad court decision can grab the public's attention and
bring about reform. States should continue to pass medical marijuana
laws to help build pressure on Congress to act.