MARIJUANA SCIENCE

"The question of whether marijuana has any legitimate medical purpose
should be determined by sound science and medicine." So said Asa
Hutchinson, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which granted
final approval last week for a University of California, San Diego study of
medical marijuana use.

Two neurology professors at the university's San Diego Medical Center will
study the effects of marijuana on both multiple sclerosis patients and AIDS
patients suffering neuropathy, or nerve pain.

All will smoke marijuana provided by the National Institute of Drug Abuse
in Washington. Half of the smokes will look and smell like marijuana but
will lack THC, the active chemical compound in marijuana.

If smoked marijuana truly does have medicinal value, if it truly does
ameliorate the symptoms suffered by patients suffering from MS and AIDS and
other debilitating illnesses, then the study should bear that out.

At that point, if it turns out marijuana actually has medical value,
Congress would have a scientific basis for amending the Controlled
Substances Act of 1970, which categorizes marijuana as a potentially
addictive drug with no medicinal value. Then the DEA and other federal
agencies would have grounds to recognize state laws, like California's
Proposition 215, that ostensibly legalize possession and use of marijuana
for medicinal purposes.