BOB DORNAN AND THE NEW SORT OF REEFER MADNESS

Finally, Bob Dornan has made himself useful. In making medical marijuana
the focus in his attempt to take Dana Rohrabacher's seat in Congress,
Dornan has opened up a debate that's long overdue. The issue is normally
considered a political third rail and is purposely avoided in elections, so
the electorate is denied the opportunity to hear any meaningful debate.
Hopefully over the next few months, this debate will educate voters on the
science and truths concerning marijuana and expose the myths and spins that
prevent a rational national policy toward marijuana as medicine.

In this debate, letter-writer Trish McDonald ["Rohrabacher panders to the
pro-pot lobby," Dec. 26] took Rep. Rohrabacher to task for his position in
support of medical marijuana while making comments based on lack of full
knowledge on the subject and guided by political spin.

Her claim that "there are several prescription drugs that increase appetite
more effectively than inhaling carcinogenic smoke" is simply not a blanket
truth. First, today's patients have available to them vaporization delivery
methods that heat the marijuana to a point below combustion temperature but
hot enough to release the cannabinoids for inhalation. Inhalation is the
method of delivery most effective for most patients. Even when smoked,
though, the quantities consumed are far less than those consumed from legal
sources of possible carcinogenics.

Further, as to the safety issue, more than 100,000 people a year die from
the use of prescription drugs. Even aspirin causes hundreds of deaths each
year. Every prescription drug comes with disclaimers telling us who can and
who can't use the drug and detailing possible deadly side effects. By
contrast, marijuana has never caused a single death. In a National
Institute on Drug Abuse-sponsored study, it was found that "a smoker would
theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within 15
minutes to induce a lethal response."

This study is what led DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young to
rule in a 1998 rescheduling petition that "marijuana, in its natural form,
is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any
measure of rational analysis, marijuana can be safely used within a
supervised routine of medical care." Unfortunately, the DEA made a
political decision to deny the rescheduling petition as well as the facts
themselves.

As for replacing prescription drugs, marijuana does indeed more effectively
increase appetite for many patients, as well as being more effective for a
host of other symptoms.

I know of AIDS patients who can't keep down the cocktail of prescription
drugs needed daily to combat the disease's advances without the
nausea-suppressing effects of inhaled marijuana. The government-approved
alternative to marijuana, Marinol, is just another pill that comes up with
the rest of them and does little toward helping the appetite.

I know of multiple sclerosis patients who suffer chronic pain and
uncontrollable muscle spasms even while using prescribed corporate drugs
but who can lead normal lives, free of the pain and spasms common to the
disease, through the use of inhaled marijuana. Often, the corporate drugs,
even though effective for the intended symptoms, cause other symptoms for
many patients.

That happened with my childhood friend, Richard Hare. He died of brain
cancer in 1994. He had two legal choices in the last few months of his
life. He could live in constant, excruciating pain and discomfort from the
procedures used to keep him alive or he could take morphine and live out
his last days as a zombie. He chose to defy government know-it-alls and use
marijuana. He lived out his final days with a better quality of life than
what was legally available to him at the time.

That's what it's all about - the freedom to improve one's quality of life;
the very essence of liberty. No politician ought to dictate to any other
person a definition of liberty or a definition of quality of life. The
shame is that opponents of medical marijuana will twist and spin facts to
advance their own political cause to a public all too naive on the subject
and all too willing to believe the drug war propaganda that is today's
reefer madness.