MEDICINAL MARIJUANA A MINE FIELD

The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments today on a volatile, extremely
important question: Should marijuana be legalized as medicine? Mark this
debate "handle with care."

Specifically, the justices are being asked to decide whether a state law
authorizing medical use of marijuana can override a federal anti-drug law
saying pot has no medical benefits and can't be prescribed for patients.

The case involves a California law, Proposition 215, approved by state
voters in 1996. It permits pot possession, sale, purchase and use for
medical purposes under a doctor's prescription.

The federal government sued a pot buyers' cooperative to get it to stop
distributing marijuana. A U.S. appeals court ruled last year that "medical
necessity" is a valid defense against federal laws banning marijuana
possession, sale, purchase or use.

Voters in six other states later approved similar measures. Two petition
drives in Florida, one to legalize medical marijuana and the other to
legalize it for all uses, have stalled.

Among legalization backers is Irvin Rosenfeld of Broward County, one of
eight Americans legally allowed to smoke pot under a doctor's prescription.
He claims marijuana is the only medicine that relieves chronic pain from
bone tumors.

While various studies of pot's medical benefits are under way, the drive to
legalize marijuana is based almost entirely on anecdotal testimony of sick
people. Supporters claim pot smoke can stimulate lost appetite and reduce
nausea caused by chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer and AIDS patients.
They also say it can reduce glaucoma, arthritis, chronic pain, headaches,
muscle spasms and other ailments.

It is legitimate to investigate and consider the potential medical benefits
of any drug, even mind-altering illegal ones. For example, morphine is a
proven pain-killer commonly used in hospitals and nursing homes.

But medical-marijuana backers see it only as a compassionate way to fight
pain and illness, ignoring many legitimate objections:

No other prescription drug is delivered to patients by smoking it. Doing so
prevents supplying measured, controlled, properly timed doses or providing
stringent quality control to avoid toxic pollutants. Marijuana smoke
contains about 2,000 separate chemicals, in an unpredictable, unmeasured
and unstable mix.

The active ingredient in marijuana, THC, is already available by
prescription in pill form.

Much current marijuana is far more potent, mind-altering and harmful than
before. The side effects can outweigh the benefits. Tests show pot smoking
can damage the heart, lungs, brain, reproductive organs and the immune
system. It can be especially dangerous to those who seek it the most,
suffering chronic, intractable illnesses.

For many of the conditions supposedly helped by marijuana, including pain
management, there are numerous adequately tested and proven, safer and more
effective medicines already available, without marijuana's harmful side
effects.

Studies have documented the similarity in marijuana addiction, and
difficulty of withdrawal, to that of heroin or cocaine. Drug experts
consider marijuana a "gateway" drug that opens the door to experimentation
with more harmful illegal drugs.

Legalizing pot could hurt sick people by encouraging them to use a
psychoactive (mind-altering) drug instead of something else that is more
helpful.

Finally, experts in drug policy believe this so-called "weedotherapy"
campaign is a thinly veiled, well-financed effort to eventually legalize
pot and other now-illegal drugs for purely recreational use.

So far, the negatives of legalization of medical marijuana far outweigh the
positives. State laws, no matter how compassionate the motivation, cannot
be allowed to override federal laws.