PROFESSOR ATTACKS 'FALLACY' OF POT HELPING TREAT GLAUCOMA

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- A person with glaucoma would have to smoke a marijuana
cigarette every two hours -- about 4,000 a year -- to experience any medical
benefits from the drug, new research shows.

In a recent study published in the American Medical Association journal
Archives Of Ophthalmology, Keith Green, a Medical College of Georgia
professor of ophthalmology, attacks "the fallacy that marijuana is of any
value at all in the treatment of glaucoma."

Voters in Alaska, Arizona, Oregon, Nevada and Washington have approved
measures allowing use of marijuana for medical reasons. Those reasons
include reducing side effects of cancer chemotherapy and treating glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a degenerative eye disease that affects between 2 and 3 per cent
of people.

It is more likely to occur in those with a family history of the disease.

The normal eye maintains a constant pressure of fluid, but glaucoma causes a
chemical change that blocks the outflow, Green said. That leads to increased
pressure that can lead to blindness.

Chemicals in marijuana called cannabinoids do seem to help improve the
outflow in about 60 per cent of the people who try it. But the pressure
builds back up within four hours, Green said.

In order to keep the pressure down, a person would have to smoke a joint
every two hours, he said.

"Smoking a joint a week is not going to cure glaucoma," said Green.

Advocates for medical marijuana say even temporarily alleviating the
pressure is better than doing nothing.

"Should these patients suffer so?" asked Allen St. Pierre, executive
director of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws Foundation.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst