AID FOR SERIOUSLY ILL

Medical-marijuana research should be allowed to proceed

The Clinton administration is still stalling a full year after the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) expert group recommended policy changes that
would have expedited medicinal-marijuana research. It is vital that this
research be allowed to proceed in order for marijuana to be approved by the
FDA as a prescription medicine as soon as possible:

Tens of thousands of seriously ill people nationwide are already using
marijuana for medicinal purposes - illegally.

The federal penalties are up to one year in prison for possession of one
joint and up to five years in prison for cultivation of one marijuana
plant.

People with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis who are
benefiting from medicinal marijuana must live in constant fear of being
arrested and sent to prison. On Aug. 8, 1997, the NIH Ad Hoc Group of
Experts released a report on its "Workshop on the Medical Utility of
Marijuana," conducted on Feb. 19 and 20, 1997. The report urged the
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to make it easier for researchers
to obtain NIDA's supply of marijuana.

NIDA has a monopoly on the legal supply of marijuana for research in the
United States. It is now one year since the release of the NIH report, and
NIDA still has not changed its unnecessarily restrictive policy.

The Clinton administration will be hard-pressed to oppose the
medicinal-marijuana voter initiatives in six states this November. When the
drug czar and others say that there should first be more research, the
voters will say, "Sorry, you had your chance."

Aaron Palmer, Kent

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson