MARIJUANA CAMPAIGNERS ROLL UP FOR LONDON CONFERENCE

By Claudia Parsons

LONDON (Reuters) Politicians, doctors and dope smokers joined forces
Thursday to call for research into the health benefits of marijuana.

They were speaking at a conference in London organized by the Independent
Sunday newspaper, which is leading a campaign to decriminalize the weed in
Britain.

An Italian member of the European Parliament, Gianfranco Dell'Alba of the
Radical Party, was warmly received when he pulled out a marijuana packet.
He said it was empty. "It is the prohibition and not the drug itself that
is the main problem," Dell'Alba said. He argued that legalization would
help tackle the Mafia by cutting down on drugtrafficking. "Legalization
would radically help to cope with the drugs problem, solving the issue of
micro and macrocriminality," he said.

Several multiple sclerosis sufferers also spoke up for marijuana,
explaining how effective it had been in alleviating their symptoms. British
doctors were allowed to prescribe marijuana until 1971 when it was declared
illegal.

"Queen Victoria's doctor said it was one of the most valuable medicines we
possess," said Anita Roddick of the Body Shop, a Britishbased retailer of
personal products. She helped sponsor the conference, which ironically had
"No Smoking" signs conspicuously placed around the hall, along with Virgin
Group boss Richard Branson.

American billionaire speculator and philanthropist George Soros lent his
endorsement by sending a speaker from a New Yorkbased drug policy research
institute which he finances.

Not everyone was convinced, however.

David Evans, a Conservative member of Britain's parliament, agreed that
research should be done on marijuana. But he argued against general
decriminalization. "Just like any other medical drug that is available,
it's got to go through stringent controls," Evans said. "Only then can it
be made available."

Evans insisted marijuana should not be legalized for recreational use
because it could act as a gateway leading young users on to more dangerous
drugs. "I maintain that keeping the drug as a controlled substance is the
only way that we can keep the number of young users down," Evans said. He
was roundly heckled from the floor.

Toxicologist John Ramsey, a research fellow at St. George's Hospital
Medical School in London, said that, although marijuana was not a highly
toxic substance, its effects were still not sufficiently well understood to
justify making it freely available. "We don't really know what the risks
are, and they're probably quite subtle risks," he told Reuters. He said
marijuana could effect motivation, learning abilities and performance.
Pilots had been found to perform much worse in flight simulator tests 24
hours after smoking marijuana than they did before. While welcoming calls
for more research, he said pharmaceutical companies were unlikely to spend
money on this unless it was profitable. "Government has never subsidized
the development of drugs, and if it did now it would be a radical change,"
Ramsey added. "And multiple sclerosis sufferers probably aren't a large
enough group to make it profitable for pharmaceutical companies," he said.