MCCAFFREY OPPOSES USE OF MARIJUANA FOR EVEN MEDICAL REASONS

Apparently White House drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey is in search of
a yes man--or at least a group of scientists who see things his way.
Two years ago, McCaffrey ordered a study by a federal advisory panel
after the National Institutes of Health concluded some AIDS and cancer
sufferers could be helped by marijuana.

McCaffrey opposes use of marijuana for even medical reasons because he
sees it as legitimizing drug use to American youth.

The new report from the federal panel of scientists is even less to
McCaffrey's liking.

The Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Science found
there is no evidence marijuana use leads to use of other drugs, or
that legalizing marijuana for medical use would result in increased
drug use in the general population. But McCaffrey is not quite ready
to give up his own conclusion that marijuana use under any
circumstance is detrimental to society. "The study concludes there's
little future in smoked marijuana as medically approved medication,"
he said. In other words, here is another group of experts who do not
know what they are talking about.

Why bother ordering studies if they are to be disregarded?

This latest study supports use of marijuana as a way to help relieve
pain and suffering accompanying devastating diseases, which is not
quite the same as backing legalization. It also suggests, probably in
an effort to make the report more palatable to McCaffrey, that the
drug be administered in an institutional setting, and raises the
safety concerns of delivering a drug through smoking.

This report should remove politics from what is a medical
issue.

The medical community should be the one to determine what are
appropriate medications to grant relief for patients suffering
terrible diseases.