REEFER MADNESS REMAINS

If Americans were to look closely at the federal government's policy
on medical marijuana, they'd have to wonder what their government is
smoking.

In every way possible, the federal government has tried to stymie the
use of marijuana for highly limited medicinal purposes, even in the
light of substantial anecdotal evidence that the drug offers
significant relief for some symptoms of glaucoma, multiple sclerosis,
AIDS and the side effects of cancer treatment. Worse, the government
doesn't appear to want medical science to discern whether those claims
are real or hype. It has enacted unreasonably high hurdles for
researchers hoping to study marijuana's medicinal effects.

While the federal government is busy obstructing research, voters in
seven states and the District of Columbia have decided that science
and compassion matter. They have tried to bypass official resistance
by approving marijuana's limited medical use through voter
referendums.

Voters have approved medical marijuana in every state where the stand-
alone question has been on the ballot, and politicians have taken
notice. Earlier this month, Hawaii became the first state to authorize
medical marijuana through legislative enactment. The law is narrowly
drawn so that only those with certain qualifying illnesses may legally
possess and use marijuana and only after obtaining a doctor's
recommendation and registering with the state.

As he was signing the bill into law, Gov. Benjamin Cayetano said how
pleased he was to be adding this option for doctors and their
patients. "My own feeling is, more states are going to come on,"
Cayetano said.

Not if the federal government can help it.

Since states have liberalized medical marijuana, the Office of
National Drug Control Policy has threatened the prescription-writing
privileges of those doctors willing to recommend the drug under state
guidelines, and Congress has taken steps to ensure that the District
of Columbia's medical marijuana initiative would not take effect.

The many claims of marijuana's medicinal benefits aren't necessarily
true, but until the government allows significant medical research, we
will never know. One recent analysis was conducted by the National
Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine. The study, released in
1999 and funded by the White House drug policy office, concluded that
"there are some limited circumstances in which we recommend smoking
marijuana for medical uses."

In accordance with the report's recommendations, the Department of
Health and Human Services was supposed to ease restrictions on
marijuana research. But the guidelines that went into effect in
December were far from relaxed. Rather than put marijuana on a par
with other synthesized pharmaceuticals under study, the guidelines
impose procedural hurdles, including getting special approval by a
Public Health Service ad hoc panel even after the Food and Drug
Administration has approved the research protocols.

There are plenty of examples of otherwise controlled substances, from
codeine to morphine, that may be prescribed under strict medical
supervision. If marijuana truly has medical benefits, then it should
be available by prescription. But until the federal government stops
its reefer madness, we'll never learn for certain what those benefits
are, if any.