LOBBY GROWS FOR 'MEDICINAL MARIJUANA'

THE Movement for Controlled Legalisation (MLC), which advocates the sale of
narcotics under state control, has just asked the French health minister,
Bernard Kouchner, to authorise the import of 10kg of cannabis for
therapeutic use.

The jurists of the MLC base their arguments on articles of the public
health code that give the health authorities the right to authorise the
import and use of narcotics for medical or scientific research. The Swiss
company Valchanvre has offered to supply, free, 10kg of its Walliser Queen
variety of cannabis for the MLC's experiment.

The use of cannabis as a medicine was recently legalised in California.
Germany is considering prescribing drugs containing the active ingredient
of cannabis for Aids sufferers, and the Netherlands is looking into the
possibility of "medical marijuana" being paid for by social security.

Ten patients who are MLC members and have medical certificates showing that
they suffer from such ailments as epilepsy, glaucoma, tinnitus, headaches
or HIV infection, have written to Kouchner describing the relief they
derive from cannabis. Some of them have been in trouble with the law
because of their practice.

Eugène Gaudet, a doctor in the southern town of Millau, has certified that
when one of his patients, a 20-year-old epileptic, smoked cannabis he was
able to relax: "The fact that he has smoked such products has created no
incident likely to jeopardise the harmonious family environment or his
ability to work normally."

Janine Cervoni, who has been treating a young HIV-positive patient at the
Lariboisière Hospital in Paris, stresses the role that cannabis plays as a
"psychological support" for her patient. Pierre Lembeye, a Paris
psychiatrist, has noted a genuine therapeutic affect on one of his
patients, who suffers from hearing disorders. "The patient has tried
cannabis since 1977. He has an immediate feeling of relaxation and an
appreciable reduction in his hearing disorders.

"These isolated medical observations do not constitute scientific proof,
and the virtues of cannabis have yet to be confirmed. In a recent
editorial, however, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine came
out in favour of the "compassionate" use of such products by terminal
patients. Kouchner himself is in favour of such an approach. But it
remains to be seen what action he will take in response to the MLC's request.

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