MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL INTRODUCED

WASHINGTON (AP) A Democratic congressman wants to lift the federal ban on
the medical use of marijuana in states where voters have approved it as a
treatment for pain, nausea or other problems.

"What we need to do to get marijuana into the hands of people suffering is
to set aside the federal controls on marijuana, so the states can determine
this issue for themselves," Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts said Wednesday.

Frank has proposed legislation that would reclassify marijuana as a
Schedule II drug, meaning that it could be prescribed by doctors under
certain conditions, just as cocaine and other controlled substances are.
Prescriptions for such drugs are subject to federal and state review.

The bill would set aside the federal ban on marijuana in those states
Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Nevada where voters
have permitted medical use of the drug. The bill would not affect states
that have not permitted such use.

Although marijuana users with a demonstrated medical need don't face state
prosecution in those six states, they still face possible federal
prosecution, Frank said. Doctors, too, may shy away from prescribing the
drug for fear of losing their right to prescribe other federally controlled
substances, he said.

The bill would also require the federal government to supply marijuana for
research.

Frank has pressed the issue twice before, and he is not hopeful that his
latest proposal will pass the Republican-controlled 106th Congress.

Last fall, the House adopted by 310-93 vote a resolution by Rep. Bill
McCollum, R-Fla., that said marijuana is a dangerous and addictive drug and
should not be legalized for medical use. Supporters said efforts to
legalize the drug for medical use send the wrong message to teen-agers, and
that scientific testing has not proved a medical use for marijuana.

But the New England Journal of Medicine has editorialized in favor of
medical marijuana, and the American Medical Association has urged the
National Institutes of Health to support more research on the subject.

On Wednesday, Canada's health minister authorized clinical trials to
determine if marijuana is a useful medicine for people suffering from
terminal illnesses and other painful conditions.

And a report from the International Drug Control Board concluded last month
that in-depth and impartial scientific studies should be conducted into
marijuana's possible medical benefits.

In addition to the six states that allow medical uses of marijuana, 11
states have reduced the possession of small amounts of the drug to a minor
civil offense, similar to a traffic violation. They are Alaska, Oregon,
California, Minnesota, Colorado, Nebraska, Mississippi, Ohio, North
Carolina, New York and Maine.