MARIJUANA ISN'T MEDICINE

The bill that Maryland Del. Ulysses Currie discussed [Close to Home, March
12] was defeated in the state legislature by a group of parents,
grandparents and law enforcement personnel. Still, misinformation in his
piece should be cleared up.

First, a National Institutes of Health publication says, "Patients with HIV
and other diseases of the immune system should avoid marijuana." Second,
state legislatures, city councils and Congress should not vote on the use
of anything for medicine. Approval of medicines is the responsibility of
the Food and Drug Administration.

Third, marijuana was disproved as a medication for glaucoma during the
early 1980s, when research proved that it was not a good treatment for this
delicate and difficult eye disease. Marijuana produces unstable eye
pressure changes in glaucoma patients.

Fourth, marijuana has been shown to worsen coordination in multiple
sclerosis patients.

Fifth, no national medical group has approved marijuana as medicine.

JOYCE NALEPKA
Silver Spring