LET SCIENCE RUN MARIJUANA DEBATE

THIS week's Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana should send a
message to the feds that it's time to start letting science - not politics -
steer this debate.

The report concluded that marijuana may ease pain and nausea while
stimulating appetite. It also found no evidence that smoking pot leads to
other drug abuse. Commissioned by the White House Office of National Drug
Policy, the study included analysis of previous research as well as
interviews with patients, doctors and prescribers.

To the voters, patients, doctors and others who have long advocated the
medical use of marijuana, the study's conclusions don't come as a surprise,
but simply confirm what many have already learned through experience and
anecdotal evidence.

The report is important because it is so comprehensive and because the
Institute of Medicine is an independent and respected organization, an
affiliate of the National Academy of Science. The office that paid for it,
ironically, is run by Mr. War on Drugs himself, Barry McCaffery.

We can only hope that those factors lend the study some weight and
credibility, because it's at the federal level where California faces its
toughest battles in making the compassionate use of marijuana legal.

With new Attorney General Bill Lockyer in charge, we finally seem to have
some rational leadership on this issue at the state level. Rejecting the
obstructionist stance of his predecessor, Dan Lungren, Lockyer has ordered
medical marijuana advocates and law enforcement officials to come together
and find a way to make Proposition 215 work.

Proposition 215 allowed the used of marijuana for medical purposes, but
Lungren and zealous federal authorities shut down any organized attempts to
provide marijuana to the ill.

Now, the two sides are finding areas of agreement despite their adversarial
relationship in the past. But whatever recommendations they come up with
could be useless if the federal law doesn't change.

Lockyer has said he'll lobby Washington to reclassify the drug, a job that
could be made easier if he's armed with scientific data.

Unfortunately, there are probably those who won't be able to see past the
"Reefer Madness" hysteria that surrounds marijuana and scores easy political
points. Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., who led the fight to get the House to
condemn medical marijuana last fall, has already expressed fears that the
Institute of Medicine report could encourage marijuana smoking.

The report, however, suggests studying ways of delivering the active
ingredients of pot without smoking, which can lead to respiratory and other
problems. It also points out that such studies could take several years, and
that clinical studies should be designed to last six months or less for
patients who could get some relief from smoking marijuana.

The federal government is finding itself defending a less and less
defensible position. It's time for policy makers to get smart - and
compassionate - and allow clinical studies to move forward.