MEDICAL POT DENIAL MUST END

As a result of a report released in March of 1999 by the U.S. Institute of
Medicine (IOM) that confirmed marijuana's medical utility, the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it was changing its rules
in order to make marijuana more readily available for medical research on
May 21 of 1999.

This change in policy seemed to indicate that the federal government was
finally acknowledging what scientists and physicians have long been saying
about marijuana's medicinal properties.

But the fact that now, one year later, no studies have been approved, shows
that this was just another cruel stall engineered to create the illusion
that the federal government really cares about the health of Americans.

While continuing to suppress research, federal authorities also failed to
act on an IOM recommendation to create "an experimental access program to
provide smokable marijuana to seriously ill patients who have not benefited
from standard medications."

The ongoing federal campaign that denies this therapeutic option to
Americans who could benefit must end if governmental credibility is to be
preserved. Even children can tell the difference between use and abuse. The
fact that the federal government has known of marijuana's medical utility
for many years, and rather than sharing it, has instead suppressed it,
should be a source of concern to all. Illness can strike anyone at any time,
and every therapeutic option should be available to patients and their
physicians.

Gary Storck, Madison