STUDY SAYS MARIJUANA GOOD FOR AIDS

Editor, Index-Tribune:

New scientific evidence that Sonoma medical marijuana patients need to know.
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 medical marijuana
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