CONGRESS SHOULD HEED POT REPORT

A sure sign that the Institute of Medicine's report on the therapeutic
value of marijuana should be taken seriously is the fact that it provides
neither encouragement to those who consider pot a miricale drug on the
order of aspirin and penicillin, nor to those who think smoking a single
joint is enough to turn the average, law-abiding American into a deranged
junkie snatching purses and mugging schoolchildren to buy his next fix.

To be sure, the report, released last week, notes that " marijuana smoke,
like tobacco smoke, is associated with increased risk of cancer, lung
damage, and poor pregnancy outcomes." However, it also points to an absence
of conclusive evidence that pot is a " gateway " drug casually linked to
the use of other, harder drugs.

Marijuana, the report states, is uasally the first illicit drug people try
merely because it is the easiest to get.

If the report pooh-poohs the more extreme claim's of pot's perils, it falls
short of recommending that people turn their living rooms into hydroponic
nurseries. In fact, the authors were less than overwhelmed by the plants
healing qualities. Though evidence indicates that the active ingredients in
marijuana-- cannabinoids--can help alleviate pain, control nausea, and
stimulate appetite, the report notes that the " effects of cannabinoids on
the symptoms studied are generally modest, and in most cases there were
more effective medications." Marijuana, the report continues, is most
likely to be of use to " a subpopulation of patients who do not respond
well to other medicines." Miricale drug, indeed.

Meanwhile, the institute of Medicine's chosen delivery system for
cannabinoids is not a bong, but an inhaler.

Thus can the dose be closely monitored and the unhealthy effects of
marijuana smoke be eliminated. Until such a device is created, the report
favors distributing smokable marijuana on a short-term basis less than six
months to people who cannot be helped by other medications.

Congress should take these recommendations seriously for two reasons.
First, it is wrong to allow politics to stand between sick people and
whatever drugs might alleviate their suffering.

The medically significant substances in marijuana should be studied,
isolated and prescribed to those who need them. Second, lifting the federal
classification of marijuana as a therapeutically useless drug will preclude
awful ballot initiatives like Oregon's which makes pot available to just
about anybody who feels he needs it for medical reasons.