AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) Amid billowing clouds of fragrant smoke,
marijuana lovers pressed their case Tuesday for international recognition
of the drug as a prescribed medical treatment.

``What we need to do is get the mainstream to understand...I hope we're
going to approach a critical mass in not too long a time,'' said Peter
Gorman, executive editor of U.S. magazine High Times, which was sponsoring
a weeklong cannabis festival in Amsterdam.

Five members of a panel said ballot measures approved in the United States
had helped publicize the issue.

Eight U.S. states have laws allowing medical use of marijuana.

The panel discussion, marked by occasional pauses as speakers regained
their train of thought, was part of the 10th annual Cannabis Cup.

The festival includes a Hemp Expo where products included cannabis
massage oil a fashion show and an awards ceremony, for best marijuana
which is based on a popular vote and extensive sampling.

Members of the panel said research showed marijuana was useful in 14
different medical conditions.

They said the drug relieved nausea in cancer victims undergoing
chemotherapy, helped AIDS sufferers with weightloss syndrome, was
beneficial for patients with multiple scelrosis and could even be used by
woman giving birth.

All of the speakers were also in favor of legalizing marijuana, but said
this was a separate issue.

Sitting on a stage lit by bright green and orange lights in the
counterculture nightclub Milky Way, they insisted marijuana had only
limited side effects.

``Even the grandmothers and the grandfathers who go to church and
everything will get cancer and will have to have pot,'' said a speaker from
the state of Arizona who identified himself only as Glaucoma Jim.

He said 10 years ago medical experts had predicted he would go blind from
glaucoma, but constant use of marijuana had kept the disease at bay.

Glaucoma Jim said local doctors refused to prescribe marijuana so he had
come to Holland, where laws on soft drugs are liberal and medical use of
cannabis is recognized.

Since then, Arizona had become one of the states allowing medicinal use of
the drug.

``I eat it, I drink it, I smoke it, I vapourize it and I lead a regular
life. When I work I don't smoke. I eat my cookies or drink my tincture,''
he said.

One Frenchwoman acknowledged, however, that using the drug to relieve pain
at birth was slow in being accepted.

``I don't know many people who smoke marijuana at birth. It sounds too much
like an old hippie dream,'' she added.