Oped: FACTS ULTIMATELY FAVOR ALLOWING COMPASSIONATE USE

When to allow marijuana The newly released study on the medical use of
marijuana will not settle the question of whether it should be permitted.
If anything, the report will merely permit both sides in the controversy to
sharpen their knives. But in the long run, it will lift the quality of the
debate by providing some badly needed facts. And the facts ultimately favor
allowing compassionate use.

The report, by a panel of independent experts at the Institute of Medicine,
was commissioned by the government, and is the most comprehensive review so
far of the medical literature on marijuana. The panel found that marijuana
helps relieve the pain, nausea and weight loss associated with AIDS. It
also helps subdue the muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis.

However, despite anecdotal reports to the contrary, it is only minimally
useful in relieving symptoms of glaucoma. Perhaps the most startling
finding: Marijuana is not a ``gateway drug,'' encouraging users to move on
to more harmful substances.

Aside from the disappointing news on glaucoma, all of the above supports
those who favor legalizing marijuana for medical use. But the panel also
found drawbacks to the drug. In terms of causing cancer, lung damage and
problems in pregnancy, smoking marijuana is worse than smoking tobacco.
Thus, the panel said, marijuana's benefits have to be weighed against its
substantial liabilities: The drug could not be wholeheartedly recommended
until other ways of delivering its active ingredients are found.

Backers of legalization will correctly argue that often, particularly in
cases of terminal illness, the benefits outweigh the harms; the same
reasoning today permits medical use of morphine. But this argument will
fall on deaf ears. The Clinton administration is continuing to oppose the
medical use of marijuana; the Department of Health and Human Services will
keep funding research on the issue.

Nevertheless, the latest report chips away at the wall; a new
administration could decide differently. It is past time to permit limited
use of marijuana by doctors for people whose suffering it could ease. But
sadly, such people still appear to be in for a long wait. And time
generally is not on their side.