SOME DOCTORS AND PATIENTS SWEAR BY MARIJUANA

WASHINGTON -- Possession of marijuana is illegal in Maryland, punishable by
up to a year in jail and a fine of $1,000. But for doctors who recommend it
and patients in the state who use it, the benefits of medicinal marijuana
far outweigh the fear of arrest.

St. Mary's County resident Kerri Andrews said she took marijuana on the
advice of her doctor to treat her epilepsy. She said she the drug changed
her life. ``I was on barbiturates before that and they were completely
messing me up - I couldn't remember my daughter's name," she said. But
while on marijuana, she went without an epileptic seizure for as long as
eight months, she said.

Andrews is taking another drug for her epilepsy now but said that, if she
has to, she will go back to marijuana as a treatment.

That response is not unusual for medicinal marijuana users, said Chuck
Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project.

``Patients who're already using marijuana will keep using it because it
helps them more than any medication," said Thomas.

His Washington-based group estimates there are 2,000 medicinal marijuana
users in Maryland. Help for those users could be just across the border, if
a recently approved initiative on the issue in Washington, D.C., is allowed
to go into effect.

Studies have shown that marijuana can alleviate pain in diseases like AIDS
and some types of cancer, and clear vision in cases of glaucoma. Under
Washington's Initiative 59, patients in the city could grow, possess and
use marijuana for their ailments, if they had a written recommendation for
it from their doctors.

``Until 1937, when marijuana was declared an illegal drug in the country,
it was used as a medicine, like any other herb," Thomas said.

A 1998 opinion poll by the Center for Substance Abuse Research showed that
71 percent of Maryland residents think physicians should be allowed to
prescribe marijuana for medical uses. The same poll also found 24 percent
felt adults over 21 should be able to possess small amounts of marijuana
for personal use without legal penalty.

But whatever the arguments, possession of marijuana is still illegal in
Maryland, and people found with any amount on them will be arrested, said
Pete Piringer, a Maryland State Police spokesman.

In 1998, police made 28,694 arrests in the state for possession of
marijuana. Piringer said nearly 1,000 of those arrests were made as a
result of traffic stops.

He added that any change in D.C. laws on medicinal marijuana would not make
a difference in Maryland; people buying marijuana in Washington and using
it in Maryland would still face arrest.

Dr. Deborah Goldberg said she believes marijuana should be legalized for
medicinal use. Goldberg, a physician who once practiced in Silver Spring,
said she recommended marijuana use to patients and friends in the past and
testified on the medicinal benefits of the drug during a federal marijuana
trial in the 1980s.

``Marijuana is definitely useful in some diseases," she said. ``I find that
it helps people with gastrointestinal diseases."

Legalization would allow more research on marijuana's medicinal uses, said
Goldberg. There are a few studies on the usefulness of marijuana now, but
more needs to be done, she added.

Legal or not, medicinal marijuana users say the drug is easy to get in
Maryland. Piringer confirmed its popularity, noting that police make more
arrests for marijuana than for any other drug.