MARIJUANA USE

To The Editor:

More proof that the Federal Government is giving the American people
misinformation on the medical ( and recreational ) use of marijuana!!!

Smokable Marijuana Is a Safe and Effective Medicine for People With AIDS

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA -- Smoking marijuana helps people with AIDS gain
weight, without causing adverse virologic effects, according to the results
of a study released Thursday at the XIII International AIDS Conference.

Dr. Donald Abrams, a world-renowned AIDS researcher at the University of
California at San Francisco, has finally completed his study after *six
years* of navigating federal obstacles.

The study was originally designed as an "efficacy" study to focus on
marijuana's medical benefits to people wasting away from AIDS. “Because the
National Institute on Drug Abuse has a stranglehold on the legal supply of
marijuana for research purposes”, the federal agency was able to force Dr.
Abrams to change his research proposal into a "safety" study, focusing
instead on the potential *negative* health effects of marijuana in people
with AIDS.

"The federal government manipulated the study design to increase the
likelihood that the results would reveal that marijuana harms the immune
system and doesn't boost the appetite," said Chuck Thomas, director of
communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project. "But
the government's plan backfired -- smoking marijuana did not cause any
immunological problems, while it increased caloric intake and weight gain."

THE RESULTS REVEALED GREATER WEIGHT GAIN AMONG THE MARIJUANA-SMOKING
PATIENTS THAN THE PLACEBO-USING CONTROL GROUP.

"If the federal government would finally allow researchers to focus on
marijuana's medical *benefits*, we could get natural marijuana approved by
the FDA within a couple of years," said Thomas. "That's what the Clinton
administration fears, and that's why they continue to make it more difficult
for researchers to study medical ( and recreational ) marijuana than it is
for pharmaceutical companies to study their synthetic compounds."

For more details on the federal government's excessive restrictions on
medical marijuana research and the growing coalition of medical groups,
members of Congress, researchers, and celebrities who are calling for
change, go to http://www.mpp.org/guidelines

Larry Seguin, Lisbon, New York