SOME DOCTORS SLOW TO RECOMMEND POT

Thursday, June 28, 2001 - Earl Thomas thinks smoking marijuana might help
him regain some of the weight he's lost to AIDS. His doctor thinks it might
help, too, Thomas said. And state law says it's OK.

But Thomas' doctor won't sign the recommendation Thomas needs to get a
state-issued card entitling him to use medical marijuana until his doctor's
employer, Kaiser Permanente, gives the go-ahead.

"It is a very difficult position as a doctor," said Dr. Miguel Mogyoros. He
said he is waiting for word from Kaiser on its policy.

Kaiser hasn't told its doctors not to sign the recommendation, said Jacque
Montgomery, Kaiser spokeswoman.

Rather, the HMO's attorneys have said don't sign yet, she said.

"We support this physician's discretion while our legal advisers assess
statements made by Colorado's attorney general," Montgomery said.

The day before Colorado's new law allowing medicinal marijuana use was to
take effect, Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar warned doctors they
could face federal prosecution for recommending marijuana to patients.

Salazar issued the statement after a May 14 Supreme Court ruling that there
is no exception in federal anti-drug laws that would allow marijuana to be
used for medical purposes. The ruling upheld federal prosecutors' right to
shut down an Oakland, Calif., cannabis buyers club, and it cast doubt on
whether Colorado's law would stand.

Nevertheless, so far in Colorado, 28 patients have found doctors willing to
sign the recommendations and have turned in completed applications, said
Carol Garrett of the state health department. Of those, 24 have been
approved so far, Garrett said Wednesday.

Acting U.S. Attorney Richard Spriggs has said Salazar should not "engage in
unfounded speculation" about federal prosecutions arising from doctors
recommending marijuana use. And in California and Oregon, the threat of
federal prosecution has not been a problem for those using the drugs to
ease medical conditions, officials in those states said.

In Oregon, where the law has similar wording to Colorado's, no one with a
medicinal marijuana registration has faced federal prosecution charges, nor
have any doctors been in trouble, said Jim Kromenberg, associate executive
director of the Oregon Medical Association.

California's law is much different than Colorado's. California has no
licensing program to determine who is legitimately sick enough to take
medical marijuana, and various cannabis-provider clubs have been set up
statewide for patient-users. Nothing of the sort is legal in this state.

Federal prosecutors in California don't bother with small amounts or
"nickel bags on the corner," said Thom Marzek, spokesman for the Los
Angeles district of the U.S. attorney's office.

Kromenberg said his advice to doctors is to treat the matter as strictly a
medical decision. "I can understand in Colorado the doctors there are more
antsy because the law is so new. But we don't think the big, bad feds would
come to Oregon to make a test case."

Meanwhile, Thomas is angry and impatient for his application to land on
that pile at the health department.

"I don't understand this. The voters approved this," Thomas said. "I'm
trying to do anything I can to put on weight. But I can only drink so many
protein drinks. I want food," he said.