STUDY: MARIJUANA CAN BE MEDICINAL

Panel of experts urges clinical trials

Marijuana has medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS
and should undergo scientific trials to see how it works best, a panel of
medical experts concluded Wednesday in a report to the federal government.

The drug remains illegal under federal law, despite ballot measures
approving its use in Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington.

The Institute of Medicine, an affiliate of the National Academy of
Sciences, said marijuana's active ingredients can ease pain, nausea and
vomiting. It urged the development of a standard way to use the drug, such
as an inhaler.

"Let us waste no more time in providing this medication through legal,
medical channels to all the patients whose lives may be saved," said Daniel
Zingale of AIDS Action.

But Dr. Rebecca G. Bech-hold, a Cincinnati oncologist, said many
anti-nausea medicines for chemotherapy patients are as good as or better
than marijuana.

"Most of my patients don't even want to eat and I can't imagine that they
want to sit there and suck on reefer," she said. "If they can just take a
pill, that's a whole lot easier than having to light up."

Dr. Bechhold said marijuana seems to be more successful with AIDS patients,
as an appetite stimulant.

White House drug adviser Barry McCaffrey said the findings are unlikely to
send pharmaceutical companies scrambling to do research on marijuana.

"Our experience is there is little market interest," he said.

The analysis was requested and paid for by Mr. McCaffrey's White House
Office of National Drug Control Policy, after an expert panel formed by the
National Institutes of Health concluded in 1997 that some patients could be
helped by marijuana, mainly cancer and AIDS victims.

The NIH is running three studies of smoked marijuana and expects to approve
a fourth this year. Meanwhile, the National Cancer Institute is looking
into the comparative value of a pill form of marijuana vs. a hormone in
reducing nausea.