POT CAN EASE PAIN OF CHRONIC PATIENTS

WOULD you want your teen-age daughter to smoke marijuana? No. There is
far too much evidence that indicates marijuana can lead to serious,
dangerous addictions.

But if your daughter had cancer or AIDS, would you want her to have
legal access to marijuana if it helped ease the pain and weight loss?
Most parents wouldn't hesitate before answering yes.

The debate over the medicinal use of marijuana geared up last week
with the release of a report commissioned by the federal government
indicating that the active components in marijuana, cannabinoids, can
ease the nausea and pain experienced by some AIDS and cancer patients.

Whether pot should be prescribed to seriously ill people is not a new
topic. Six states have passed initiatives legalizing the medicinal use
of marijuana. Late last year in response to those initiatives,
Congress passed a resolution condemning pot's medicinal use.

Because of the federal prohibitions against marijuana, doctors are
reluctant to prescribe it, even in the six states where such
treatment is legal.

But the problem with this particular topic is that it is too often
painted in extreme terms. Some of the groups pushing for "pot by
prescription" also support legalized marijuana. Some anti-drug groups
fear that allowing marijuana even under controlled medical
supervision would send the message that pot is beneficial.

This study cuts through the hyperbole. It didn't recommend that
marijuana be sold over the counter like aspirin or dispensed freely
at doctors' offices.

Instead, the study recommends that marijuana be available for short
periods of time under strict doctors' supervision for chronic
patients who can find no other relief from nausea and extreme pain.

But the study also warns that marijuana smoke is more toxic than
tobacco smoke, and can damage the lungs and cause pregnant women to
give birth to low birth-weight babies. The report therefore recommends
the development of smokeless products such as capsules and inhalers
that can deliver the beneficial components without the smoke.

There is now just one cannabinoid-based drug on the market. Patients
complain that it is more expensive than marijuana and its relief is
slower than smoke.

Most politicians, including President Clinton, don't want to support
the use of marijuana by prescription out of fear that they will be
labeled soft on drugs. Their best bet is to support the speedy
development of alternative medicines that deliver the benefits without
the smoke or the stigma of marijuana.

But until those alternative drugs are developed, the federal
government shouldn't hamper states that want to allow pot by
prescription for chronically ill patients. Any other course is cruel.