REPORT: MARIJUANA HAS SOME BENEFITS

Science: The Advisory Group's Recommendations About Medicinal Usage Won't
Change The Drug's Illegal Status.

The chemicals in marijuana ease pain and nausea,should be tested
rigorously and have a bright future in American medicine, a
prestigious medical panel said Wednesday in a report to the White House.

In the meantime, people with chronic pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea
and AIDS should be allowed to smoke marijuana until a better "drug
delivery system" is developed, the report says.

Scientists envision a day when smoking is obsolete, and marijuana's
active ingredients are delivered via an inhaler.

The widely anticipated report was ordered by drug czar Barry McCaffrey
and conducted by the Institute of Medicine, a private, nonprofit
organization that advises the federal government on health policy. It
could spark a reassessment of the decades-long drive to ban almost all
marijuana use in the United States, observers said.

The report also found that:

While marijuana use often precedes the use of harder drugs, there's no
conclusive evidence that marijuana acts as a "gateway" for the use of
harder drugs.

While chronic users can develop a dependence on marijuana, withdrawal
symptoms are relatively mild and short-lived.

McCaffrey welcomed the report's findings and said the government will
support more research. But smokeable marijuana is not the answer, and
the government will continue to classify the drug as illegal, he said.

"Everyone is looking for a cure these days and pain is seen as a sort
of blurry background," said McCaffrey, who has long opposed relaxing
marijuana laws.

Mission Viejo nurse Anna Boyce, who helped write California's medical
marijuana initiative, was disappointed that the report didn't
recommend reclassifying marijuana. But she was thrilled that it
recognized marijuana's medical potential.

"I have hope," she said.