DOCTORS: EASE PENALTIES FOR MEDICAL USE, RESEARCH.

Phila. Group Prescribes New Look at Pot for U.S.

In a move it hopes will spur research into medical uses of marijuana,
the nation's second-largest physicians' group is calling on the
government to ease criminal penalties for doctors who study and
recommend the plant, and patients who smoke it.

The American College of Physicians says several nonmedical factors -
a fierce battle over legalization of the drug, a complicated approval
process, and limited availability of research-grade marijuana - has
hobbled scientists from looking into its full benefits.

"A clear discord exists between the scientific community and federal
legal and regulatory agencies over the medicinal value of marijuana,
which impedes the expansion of research," the Philadelphia-based
organization states in a 13-page policy paper.

A White House official dismissed the report yesterday as a "political
act" that contained no new science, and noted that other doctors'
organizations think differently.

Researchers generally agree that there is some medicinal benefit to
the drug. The policy paper reviews evidence that its psychoactive
ingredient - tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC - is useful for the
treatment of glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, nausea and pain.

But the report also argues that marijuana in its raw form may be
helpful in ways that THC alone is not. It explains, for example, how
patients who experience nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy may
prefer smoked marijuana's milder effects over those obtained from its
active ingredient in approved pills.

The paper was three years in coming, and the organization knew it
would be controversial, said its president, David C. Dale, a Seattle
internist and professor at the University of Washington.

"In terms of advocating for the public good and the good of medicine,
this was the right thing to do," he said.

"We recognize that this is a drug that may be able to help and harm,"
he said, noting that medicines often work at that interface. "But the
prejudices of the past shouldn't limit research into the good it can do."

Of concern to many physicians is the patchwork of state laws on the
issue, and federal agencies' power to prosecute them regardless,
making physicians reluctant to pursue research.

"If it's permissible by state law, patients and physicians should not
be guilty of a crime for marijuana and its uses," Dale said.

To encourage study, the college wants the federal government to
downgrade the drug from its status as a schedule 1 controlled
substance - the same as heroin, crystal meth, LSD, and other drugs
with no clear medicinal value.

A dozen states - Pennsylvania and New Jersey are not among them -
have approved the use of medical marijuana or offered some protection
to patients. The Food and Drug Administration has also approved two
medicines containing THC.

Medical-marijuana advocates hailed the paper as a breakthrough.

"This is 124,000 doctors that have just told the federal government
they are wrong," said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana
Policy Project, a Washington group that lobbies for medical use of marijuana.

"The question about whether this is useful has been studied, and it's
time to move on and figure out how to use it."

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said it changed nothing.

"This is not medical science," said chief scientist David Murray.
"This is a policy paper. A political act calling for political response."

"It says, 'We want more research,' and we generally support more
research as well."

Murray noted that other medical organizations - the 240,000-member
American Medical Association, the National Cancer Institute, the
American Cancer Society, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
- - do not support the smoked form of marijuana as medicine.

He acknowledged that compounds in marijuana, mainly cannabinoids,
have some value with certain illnesses, such as when treating
neurological disorders or used as an analgesic.

Research into those applications should be pursued, but drugs given
to patients must be only isolated, purified compounds proven in
clinical trials and approved by the FDA, Murray said. "Whatever it
looks like, it will not be the raw, crude weed delivering a stew of
chemicals that are demonstrably harmful and toxic."

The American College of Physicians is hoping the paper will encourage
the government to help science thoroughly investigate a plant that,
after 40 years of study, researchers still know less about than they
would like.