MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Editor -- Where's your reporting about major scientific results?

Smokable marijuana is a safe and effective medicine for people with AIDS!
The story was released July 13 from the International AIDS Conference in
Durban, South Africa. ``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.''

Dr. Donald Abrams, world-renowned AIDS researcher at the University of
California at San Francisco, finally completed his study after six years of
navigating federal obstacles. This study shows that patients are not harming
themselves or imagining their weight gain, and certainly they should not
continue to be subject to arrest and imprisonment. The results revealed
greater weight gain among the marijuana smoking patients than the
placebo-using control group. 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. The
Clinton administration would prefer to have pharmaceutical companies make
their millions of dollars in profits with synthetic products.

DAVID R. FORD, Sonoma