DERRY, N.H. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley said
Monday he is currently opposed to legalizing marijuana for medical use, but
he did not rule out the possibility after further study.

In an evening town-hall-style forum on New Hampshire's WNDS-TV, an audience
member named Dave beseechingly asked Bradley to tap his "good will" for the
American people and support marijuana use by cancer patients who "just want
to get some sleep and keep a meal down."

Bradley, who has admitted to "a few puffs" of marijuana in the early 1970s,
when he was playing professional basketball, replied: "I don't support
medical marijuana now. I think it's something we have to study more before
we decide to do it."

Later in the hourlong broadcast, Derry resident Larry Epstein pointed
Bradley to research on the World Wide Web favorable to medical marijuana.
"I'd like you to go to any Internet search engine and check this out,"
Epstein said. Bradley promised he would.

The Clinton-Gore administration has vigorously opposed marijuana
initiatives on state ballots, saying they would prejudge clinical research
to determine the safety of marijuana use by AIDS patients.

Earlier this year, the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National
Academy of Sciences, urged further scientific research.

The institute also favored compassionate permits for use of the drug by
patients who were not helped by other medications.

The Justice Department is challenging voter-approved laws in Alaska,
Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington. Maine voters approved a medical
marijuana law earlier this month.