FORUM: SCIENCE SAYS MARIJUANA HAS BENEFITS

Tune in to science. Turn away from propaganda. Drop the nonsense about
marijuana being medically useless.

When Californians legalized medicinal marijuana in 1996, national drug
policy director Barry McCaffrey sneered at the notion that smoking a joint
could help people suffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other
diseases. He told the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine:
Show me the evidence.

Last Wednesday, the institute released its report, "Marijuana and Medicine:
Assessing the Science Base." (Go to www.nap.edu or call 1-800-624-6242.) It
concludes that medicinal marijuana advocates aren't just blowing smoke.

- - Scientific data shows that the active ingredients in marijuana, known as
cannabinoids, may relieve pain, control nausea and vomiting and stimulate
appetite.

- - "The psychological effects of cannabinoids may contribute to their
potential therapeutic value." (Getting high can make the patient feel better.)

- - "Except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of
marijuana use are within the range of effects tolerated for other
medications."

- - There is "no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are
causally linked to subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs." The first
"gateway" to drug abuse is underage use of tobacco and alcohol. In
addition, "there is no evidence that approving the medical use of marijuana
would increase its use among the general population, particularly if
marijuana were regulated as closely as other medications with the potential
to be abused."

McCaffrey is stressing the report's anti-herb message: "The future of
cannabinoid drugs lies not in smoked marijuana but in chemically defined
(cannabinoid) drugs."

Compounds produced in the lab "are preferable to plant products because
they deliver a consistent dose and are made under controlled conditions,"
the report concludes.

The ideal would be smokeless "cannabinoid delivery systems" that offer
smoking's rapid effect without long-term risks. "Something like an inhaler
would deliver precise doses without the health problems associated with
smoking," said University of Michigan researcher Stanley Watson,
co-principal investigator of the Institute of Medicine study.

But patients shouldn't have to wait years for an inhaler. In addition to
clinical trials, the report recommends allowing short-term use of smoked
marijuana for patients who are terminally ill or have debilitating symptoms
that don't respond to other medications.

"We are delighted that science is the basis of the discussion of this
issue, as it must be," said the press release from the drug czar's office.

The delighted czar should now recommend moving marijuana in the federal
regulatory scheme from Schedule I (high risk of abuse, no known medical
benefits) to Schedule II (high risk of abuse, some medical use), which
would let doctors prescribe marijuana under strict controls, as they do
cocaine and morphine. Schedule III, for less dangerous controlled drugs,
would be the best fit but that's too much delight for one czar.

Politics has trumped science up till now.

Last fall, the House voted 310-93 for a resolution declaring marijuana a
dangerous, medically useless drug.

The Clinton administration opposes reclassification. As the president who
smoked marijuana, but never inhaled, Clinton would rather be stupid than
soft on drugs.

The safe stand is to call for more studies, and then ignore the results. So
far, federal agencies are authorizing clinical trials on the risks of
marijuana, but denying approval for studies on the potential benefits. That
means researchers can't get legal marijuana grown on the government's
research farm. If they try to proceed with private financing and
grow-your-own marijuana, they risk arrest.

If marijuana were a Schedule II drug, doctors could recommend it under
California's medicinal marijuana law without fear of reprisals, says Nathan
Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.Lockyer voted for
Proposition 215, saying that he'd seen his mother and sister die of leukemia.

He's named a task force that is looking for ways to solve critical problems
with the law: How can marijuana be grown, transported and distributed to
genuinely sick patients? Who verifies patients' legitimacy?

Joanne Jacobs is a member of the San Jose Mercury News editorial board.
Readers may write to her at: 750 Ridder Park Dr., San Jose, Calif. 95190,
or by e-mail to Jjacobs@sjmercury.com