LEAVE MEDICAL POT ISSUE TO SCIENCE

The overwhelming defeat of Initiative 685 last November should have settled
the question of whether Washington State ought to circumvent the U.S.
goverment's drug-review process by legalizing "medicinal" marijuana.

But some cannabis proponents are still trying to fight this battle in the
political arena rather than deferring to the scientific deliberations of
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the National Institutes of Health.
State Sens. Jeanne Kohl and Pat Thibaudeau, both Seattle Democrats, have
introduced a bill that would let "seriously ill patients" smoke marijuana
with permission of a doctor. Backers of the failed I-685 are talking about
putting yet another initiative on the ballot if the Legislature rejects the
Kohl-Thibaudeau bill, as it would be wise to do.

The push for summary approval of therapeutic marijuana serves as a good
reminder of why this country long ago opted to let hard research and
cautious reviews - not anecdotes and emotional testimonials - govern the
legalization of potent drugs.

Marijuana activists are quite accurate in asserting that pot can ease the
nausea of chemotherapy, stimulate the appetites of AIDS patients and relive
the symptoms of several other conditions. But they tend to minimize the
hazards of smoking marijuana - which include addiction, lung damage,
accelerated heart rates and potential impairment of the immune system. And
they rarely acknowledge that the same symptoms that marijuana treats can
also be treated - usually more effectively - by other medications,
including a new generation of anti-nausea drugs and a synthetic form of
THC, the chief active ingredient of marijuana itself.

The use of crude marijuana as a medicine thus raises complex scientific and
clinical questions that are best answered by such reputable research
organizations as the National Cancer Institute, the National Neurological
Disorders and the FDA. Cannabis ought to be compared to state-of-the-art
alternative treatments in well-designed studies, as the National Institute
of Health concluded last August, marijuana shows some therapeutic potential
- - but it should be subject to the same risk-to-benefit tests that other
drugs must pass before they are widely prescribed.

Initiative campaigns and legislative votes are no substitute for sober
scientific review that ought to take place before dope-smoking is dignified
with the status of legitimate therapy. Such a review appears to be on its
way; in December, the Drug Enforcement Administration asked the Department
of Health and Human Services to conduct a "scientific and medical
evaluation" of marijuana as a potential medicine. There will be a
scientific verdict on medicinal marijuana. Those who want to rush
legalization through the political process give the distinct impression
they are afraid of what that verdict will be.