PHYSICIANS GROUP URGES EASING OF BAN ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

It Calls on the Government to Drop Pot's Shared Classification With
Drugs Such As Heroin and LSD That Are Considered to Have No Medicinal Value.

SACRAMENTO -- A large and respected association of physicians is
calling on the federal government to ease its strict ban on marijuana
as medicine and hasten research into the drug's therapeutic uses.

The American College of Physicians, the nation's largest organization
of doctors of internal medicine, with 124,000 members, contends that
the long and rancorous debate over marijuana legalization has
obscured good science that has demonstrated the benefits and
medicinal promise of cannabis.

In a 13-page position paper approved by the college's governing board
of regents and posted Thursday on the group's website, the group
calls on the government to drop marijuana from Schedule I, a
classification it shares with illegal drugs such as heroin and LSD
that are considered to have no medicinal value and a high likelihood of abuse.

The declaration could put new pressure on Washington lawmakers and
government regulators who for decades have rejected attempts to
reclassify marijuana.

Bush administration officials have aggressively rebuffed all attempts
in Congress, the courts and among law enforcement organizations to
legitimize medical marijuana.

Clinical researchers say the federal government has resisted full
study of the potential medical benefits of cannabis, instead pouring
money into looking at its negative effects.

A dozen states including California have legalized medical marijuana,
but the federal prohibition has led to an enforcement tug of war.

In California, federal agents continue to raid cannabis dispensaries,
and the small cadre of physicians specializing in writing cannabis
recommendations so that people can use medical marijuana has come
under regulatory scrutiny.

Given the conflicts, most mainstream doctors have steered clear of
medical marijuana.

The American College of Physicians' position paper calls for
protection of both doctors and patients from criminal and civil
penalties in states that have adopted medical-marijuana laws.

"We felt the time had come to speak up about this," said Dr. David
Dale, the group's president. "We'd like to clear up the uncertainty
and anxiety of patients and physicians over this drug."

Medical-marijuana advocates embraced the position paper as a
watershed event that could help turn the battle in their favor.

Bruce Mirken, a San Francisco spokesman for the Marijuana Policy
Project, said the ACP position is "an earthquake that's going to
rattle the whole medical-marijuana debate."

The group, he said, "pulverized the government's two favorite myths
about medical marijuana -- that it's not supported by the medical
community and that science hasn't shown marijuana to have medical value."

But officials at the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy said calls for legalizing medical marijuana were misguided.

"What this would do is drag us back to 14th century medicine," said
Bertha Madras, the agency's deputy director for demand reduction.
"It's so arcane."

She said guidance on marijuana as medicine ought to come from the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which she said is unlikely ever to
approve leafy cannabis as a prescription drug.

Two oral derivatives of marijuana's psychoactive ingredient, THC,
have won FDA approval, and the agency is also in the early stages of
considering a marijuana spray.

An FDA spokeswoman declined to comment on the group's position and
referred inquiries to a 2006 media advisory noting that the agency
has never approved of smoked marijuana as a medical treatment

In the 12 years since California voters approved the nation's
first-ever medical marijuana law, several medical organizations --
including the American Nurses Assn. and the American Public Health
Assn. -- have urged Congress to make cannabis a legal medicine.

But the ACP is second in size only to the American Medical Assn.,
which has about 240,000 members.

The AMA has urged research into medical marijuana but opposes
dropping it from Schedule I. Backers of the ACP's position expressed
hope that it could help nudge the AMA to adopt a similar stance.

"This could be a sea change," said Dr. Abraham L. Halpern, a
professor emeritus at New York Medical College.

Halpern said he intends to petition the AMA to endorse rescheduling
marijuana and to push for changes in federal regulations that would
prevent federal anti-drug agencies -- the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse -- from
having virtual veto power over cannabis research.

The ACP position paper urges the use of non-smoked forms of cannabis
as well as further research to identify the illnesses best treated
with cannabis and the proper dosages for specific conditions.

It called for further research into cannabis as a pain reliever for
conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and as an aid in treatment of
neurological and movement disorders such as spasticity, pain and
tremor in patients with multiple sclerosis, spinal-cord injuries and
other trauma.

But it cast doubt on marijuana's efficacy for treating epilepsy and
intraocular pressure caused by glaucoma, conditions that cannabis
specialists in California routinely recommend be treated with pot.

The biggest effect of the report could be symbolic.

With a presidential campaign under way, the ACP's stand could gain
traction on the campaign trail or in a new administration.

"It's going to depend on how the wind is blowing -- how we the people
are thinking and reacting, where we stand on this," said Dr. Jocelyn
Elders, U.S. surgeon general during the Clinton administration and a
professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine.

"I think we've come a long way in the last decade or so."