Little weed

Last week the British Medical Association called for "compassion and
understanding" to be shown towards people who take cannabis to relieve the
symptoms of illness. They also called for a change in the law so that
proper research can be carried out on the drug. You can find their
statement at http://www.bma.org.uk/pressrel/archive/971117.htm.

According to some, a change in attitude about the therapeutic use of
cannabis is long overdue. The UK Cannabis Internet Activists have a page
devoted to medical cannabis use at
http://www.foobar.co.uk/users/ukcia/medical/index.html. They claim it can
alleviate a host of symptoms ranging from those caused by chemotherapy for
cancer and epilepsy to migraine and multiple sclerosis. Queen Victoria was
even prescribed it for menstrual cramps. Each condition has its own page,
complete with patients' testimonies as to the efficacy of the treatment and
references to any relevant scientific papers.

Bob Christopher's history of the use of cannabis as a medicine is posted
at http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/hemp/histomed.html. Queen Victoria crops up
again here, although she's a very recent advocate compared with Chinese
herbalists who Christopher says have been using cannabis for 5000 years.

Whatever the legal position, some people have taken matters into their
own hands and set up cannabis buyers' clubs for people who cannot relieve
their symptoms with other treatments. Some of them have Web sites, such as
Oakland (http://www.rxcbc.org/) and Vancouver Island
http://www.islandnet.com/~acidhead/cbc.html The most famous club of
all, however, is San Francisco. It doesn't have its own page, but you can
get an idea of the controversy it created from the article at
http://www.alpworld.com/HEALTH/Prop_215/buyersclub.html.

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