RATIONALLY APPRAISING MARIJUANA

The latest study on the medical uses of marijuana should be used as the
basis for a rational discussion on the volatile subject of legalization.

The study, by a panel of 11 experts at the National Academy of Sciences'
Institute of Medicine, found that "cannabinoids" within marijuana "appear"
to be useful in treating pain, nausea and weight loss that accompanies AIDS,
cancer and chemotherapy. While the experts found no lasting benefit for
sufferers of glaucoma and little potential in treating the movement
disorders of Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease, they held out
some promise for using cannabinoids to fight the muscle spasms related to
multiple sclerosis.

Commissioned by the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy,
the study also found no evidence that giving the drug to sick people would
increase illegal use by others, nor that its use would lead patients to try
harder drugs.

Although these findings are helpful, they should be greeted with caution.
For one, the experts made clear that smoking marijuana should be only a
last-ditch solution when other efforts fail. The risk of cancer and lung
damage from smoking the drug is worse than tobacco, they said.

The government would have to make sure that better methods, such as inhalers
and arm patches, are developed to treat patients.

Then, too, the concerns of critics, including Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the
Clinton administration's drug czar, should be seriously considered. Federal
officials must devise a comprehensive system of producing and distributing
cannabinoid drugs so they don't fall into the wrong hands.

Moreover, legalizing marijuana use even for medical purposes may send a
message to the young that it is OK to try it. Education efforts should
expand in proportion to that threat. Only then should state laws be revised
to allow doctors to easily prescribe the drugs.

The time has come to separate marijuana's legitimate medicinal uses from the
public's proper perception that mind-altering drugs are dangerous. The real
threat is abuse of drugs, be it marijuana, cocaine, heroin or alcohol.

Using properly prescribed drugs, from morphine to codine and cannaboids, to
help those suffering from cancer, AIDS and other diseases would be the
compassionate thing to do.