LOCAL MEDICAL MARIJUANA DEBATE CENTERS ON RESEARCH AND SAFETY ISSUES

The real "Catch-22" in legalizing marijuana to be used for medical
purposes is a lack of scientific research proving its medicinal
benefits and safety, those on both sides of the issue said Monday.

Arkansas voters are expected to consider a constitutional amendment in
November which would allow marijuana to be used as medicine. Under the
provisions of the amendment, local physicians would be allowed to
prescribe the currently controlled drug to those with debilitating
illnesses.

Monday's debate, however, did not focus on the state initiative.
Instead, discussion focused on the lack of research data available
regarding the substance.

"Marijuana is not classified as a medicine," said Dr. Richard Nugent
of the Arkansas Health Department. "To talk about marijuana as a
medicine without all the scientific data being known, is a little
early in the (approval) process for the government.

"We do not have the safety factor settled by research," Nugent said of
the state Health Department.

Kyle Russell, a Fayetteville alderman and third-year University of
Arkansas law student, who opposed Nugent during the debate, countered,
"We need more information, I couldn't agree more. But part of the
reason there is not much research is that the federal government -- who
controls the federal government supply of legal marijuana -- won't give
permission for studies and release the marijuana for the studies."

The debate, sponsored by the Federalist Society at the University of
Arkansas School of Law was held in the courtroom of Leflar Law Center
and drew between 40-50 people to the 75-minute discussion.

The debate was between Russell and Nugent and some pre-debate
commentary was led by A.J. Gokeck, the president of the Arkansas
Federalist Society.

Nugent, a physician and seven-year veteran of the Health Department,
whose primary responsibility has been in maternal child health, read a
statement from the Health Department.

"The ADH agrees with the written recommendations of the Institute of
Medicine, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and an expert panel
convened by the National Institutes of Health, that smoking marijuana
should not be legalized."

In the statement Nugent said "the Arkansas Health Department
recognizes that thoughtful scientists who have studied this question
have expressed a wide range of opinions."

Russell said the American Medical Association currently does not have
a position on medical marijuana. He said what is needed, "is to change
a national drug policy of enforcement into a national health policy
for those who need the substance for relief of pain, nausea and the
affects of chemotherapy."

Nugent noted that even if scientific research is under way the results
of that research might be years before the substance was classified as
a medicine.

Tom Brown, a local resident who went to federal prison for his support
for marijuana, posed several questions to the panel during the evening
about the federal government's decision to block medicinal marijuana
research and other decisions which Russell called "stonewalling" on
the part of the federal government.

Russell summed up the federal government's apparent position as on one
hand holding back the research by not releasing the substance for
testing and with the other hand encouraging research by those wanting
to test the affects of the drug.