STUDY: MARIJUANA NOT A 'GATEWAY' DRUG

REPORT URGES CLOSER LOOK AT PAIN, NAUSEA TREATMENT

A scientific study commissioned by the U.S. drug czar Wednesday found
marijuana can be useful in treating people with AIDS, cancer and other
diseases, adding fire to the politically charged issue of whether to
legalize the drug for medicinal purposes.

At the same time, the Institute of Medicine report found no evidence to
support the theory that marijuana is a "gateway" to harder drugs of abuse,
and urged further study of marijuana's active ingredients in treating pain,
nausea and other symptoms.

The $896,000 study was commissioned in 1997 by retired Army Gen. Barry
McCaffrey, Clinton's anti-drug policy adviser, after he and other federal
officials criticized state ballot measures legalizing medical marijuana as
"hoax initiatives," and dismissed claims for the drug's benefits as a
"Cheech & Chong show," referring to comedians who have glamorized drug use.

The Institute of Medicine is a private non-profit organization that provides
health policy advice under a congressional charter.

Its report concludes that the future of the drug's medicinal use lies not in
lighting up joints, since smoking can lead to lung damage and
low-birthweight babies, but in the development of pharmaceuticals or other
drug delivery systems, like a vaporizer, that would be based on marijuana's
active ingredients.

In the meantime, the report did support interim solutions for some sick and
dying patients who do not benefit from approved painkillers and anti-nausea
drugs.

"There are limited circumstances in which we see recommending smoked
marijuana for medical uses," said Dr. John Benson Jr., former dean of Oregon
Health Sciences Unversity and one of the two principal investigators for the
report. But he said this would be only in the context of a carefully
controlled study in which patients are told of the potential harmful
effects.

Thousands of patients with nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, for
example, could be among those who could benefit from smoked marijuana in
carefully controlled trials, Benson said during a news conference.

In a statement, McCaffrey highlighted the report's conclusion that, "the
future of cannabinoid drugs lies not in smoked marijuana, but in chemically
defined drugs that act on . . . human physiology."

He doubted the findings are likely to send pharmaceutical companies
scrambling to do research on marijuana. "Our experience is there is little
market interest."