FACT VS. FICTION

The unsubstantiated claims that marijuana has medicinal value are
finally going to receive a scientific hearing - long after California
voters approved the use of pot for medical purposes. Researchers at
the University of California San Diego are about to conduct studies
to determine whether marijuana can relieve pain and other symptoms
associated with AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

It's about time for some scientific facts on this issue.

No fewer than eight states have approved measures legalizing the use
of marijuana to treat health ailments. Under federal law, however,
marijuana remains a controlled substance. State and federal law
enforcement officers have shut down several cannabis buyers clubs
that are in violation of the law. California's medicinal marijuana
initiative did not legalize the sale, but rather only the possession,
of the drug. The U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear a case on the
issue.

UCSD's state-financed center on cannabis research is ideally suited
to learn whether the drug has any therapeutic value and, if so,
whether the potentially harmful health effects of smoking it outweigh
the potential benefits. This will be the first time that pot-smoking
patients will be subjected to a strict scientific evaluation.

The irony, of course, is the timing.

This study should have been conducted long before 1996, when
California voters approved Proposition 215. That would have enabled
voters to make a rational decision based on scientific evidence.

Instead, the ballot initiative was approved, then state lawmakers
finally got around to earmarking the funds to establish a medicinal
marijuana research center at the University of California. Five years
later, researchers at UCSD are gearing up to study whether smoking
the drug can help relieve nerve pain experienced by AIDS patients.
Another study will assess whether pot smokers afflicted with multiple
sclerosis can benefit from the drug. Another study will look at how
pot smoking affects one's driving ability.

The UCSD studies should help resolve much of the confusion about the
drug's alleged therapeutic effects. If nothing else, this scientific
examination should give policy-makers in California and elsewhere a
clearer path from which to proceed.