DON'T TREAT AS CRIMINALS VERY ILL PEOPLE USING POT

Patrick O'Neill's article on the Oregon Medical Association meeting at
Salishan (April 26) reports that I said that "the most abused drugs are
prescription medications." I did not say that.

Prescription drugs can be abused, and some of them have a much greater
abuse potential than marijuana. Because of this, I believe that the
discussion of medical use of marijuana should not be based solely on the
issue of "someone somewhere might abuse this drug." We don't use that
factor in deciding whether other drugs can be tested and marketed; we use a
risk-benefit analysis.

There may well be appropriate medical uses of marijuana. The studies are
still in the works that will establish how and when to use this drug in the
treatment of medical illness. Until this is made clear, however, my stand
is that those who are desperately, severely ill and who may benefit from
using marijuana to decrease their suffering should not be prosecuted as
criminals.

There is enough evidence for medicinal uses of marijuana to justify a
patient trying it when traditional anti-nausea drugs are ineffective or
when drugs that decrease the painful and crippling muscle spasms of
neurological disorders don't work. On the other hand, I cannot support
prescribing medicine until the studies are in and the medicinal use is not
just decriminalized but made legal.

Esther Gwinnell, M.D. Southwest Portland