USE IN OREGON INCREASING FOR PILL THAT PACKS POWER OF POT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Despite Oregon's new medical marijuana law, many doctors
treating cancer and AIDS patients still fear they risk prosecution if they
recommend something the federal government considers illegal.

Still others are concerned that they may be doing their patients more harm
than good with a drug that is smoked into the lungs.

In increasing numbers, doctors are turning instead to federally approved
drugs such as Marinol, a synthetic version of THC, the key chemical
component in marijuana.

Even though the drug has been available for years, the manufacturers of the
drug, Columbus, Ohio-based Roxane Laboratories, said Marinol use has risen
since six states including Oregon approved the use of medical marijuana with
a doctor's consent. The company says about 10,000 patients use the
prescription drug nationwide.

In Oregon, statistics are limited. But one indicator is the Oregon Health
Plan, which covered more than twice as many Marinol prescriptions in the
first three months of this year as it covered during the same period in
1998.

"The problem I have with medical marijuana is that as a physician you like
to know what the potency of the agent is. Is it prepared appropriately?"
said Dr. William Pierce, a Salem oncologist. "And then there's the whole
smoking thing and putting a gas into one's lungs. There may be people with
lung conditions who shouldn't consume it."

That was the case with John Derdenger of Salem, who lost his appetite and 40
pounds after two surgeries to remove a cancerous bladder.

Derdenger thought about using medical marijuana to combat nausea and
increase his appetite. But his doctors steered him to Marinol because they
feared smoking marijuana could further irritate his lungs, which are already
scarred by emphysema.

There is a quiet debate among some doctors and proponents of the law about
the capsule versus the medical value of the weed.

Supporters of Oregon's medical marijuana law say Marinol is only the first
step in the right direction. It is the only agent, or cannabinoid, in
marijuana that has undergone research and been developed into a prescription
drug. Patients who use marijuana are able to get the benefits of dozens of
other agents in marijuana, proponents of the law argue.

"I look at Marinol as a prototype," said Dr. Rick Bayer, the chief
petitioner of Oregon's law. "It's just the beginning. It's the first
isolated cannabinoid. I'd like to see the most beneficial ones available in
different forms including pills, inhalers and patches."

Bayer also pointed out that medical marijuana does not necessarily have to
be smoked. A device is available to heat the marijuana to a degree where it
gives off a steam or a vapor. Patients can get the same effects by inhaling
the steam, he said.

Medical marijuana may also be more viable, Bayer said, for patients who
can't digest even a tiny capsule like Marinol.