Source:Orange County Registermetro,page 8
Contact:(letters@link.freedom.com)

Attorney General Dan Lungren has finally,after a good bit of struggle
and horsetrading,adopted the most reasonable position available to
him.He now supports a bill drafted(and redrafted many times,mainly in the
direction of assuring objective and scientific research protocols,which
is in the best interest of all sides)by state Sen. John Vasconcellos,a
Santa Clara Democrat,to set up a Marijuana Research Center at a University
of California Campus.

The idea behind SB 535 is to give those charged with implementing
Proposition 215,which legalized cultivation,possession and use of marijuana
for medicinal purposes,a more reliable and systematic idea of just what
medical uses,if any,the herb might have,and what possible side effects or
complications might ensue from its use. If the research develops
information of sufficient prestige and credibility to make some semblance
of consensus feasible,it just might be worth the $1 million per year it
will cost taxpayers.

You could argue that yet another official study of marijuana is not
absolutely necessary.As long ago as 1972,Edward M. Brecher,in his
magisterial book,Licit and Illicit Drugs,prepared for Consumers Union,could
write:"It is often said that little is known about the psychological and
physical effects of marijuana on the human user.This is a simple error of
fact."

Mr. Brecher cited five major government studiesthe British government's
Indian Hemp Commission Report of 1894,The Panama Canal Zone Military
Investigations of 19161929,the LaGuardia Commission Report of
19391944,the Baroness Wootton Report in the United Kingdom of 1968,and the
LeDain Commission report done in Canada in 1970,all of which are in
substantial agreement on most points of fact.

Since then,the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse,or Shafer
Commission(1772),the Dutch Baan Commission(1972)the Commission of the
Australian Government(1977),a National Academy of Sciences Report(1982)and a
Report by the Dutch Government(1995),among others,have been done.

Conclusions and data from these and other sources are admirably summarized
in a new book,Marijuana Myths,Marijuana Facts,by Lynn Zimmer,a sociology
professor at Queens College, CUNY,and John P. Morgan,M.D.,who teaches
pharmacology at the CUNY Medical School.The book is especially valuable in
that it analyzes the dozens of studies funded by various government
agencies in the last decade or so in an effort to demonstrate substantial
or potential physical or psychological harm from marijuana,sifting valid
and dubious claims with noteworthy scientific impartiality.

If you don't want to wait three years for an "official"report from the
University of California,either of these books would be useful to anybody
considering the risks and benefits of using marijuana for medical
purposes,as the law authorizes.

A center at the University of California is likely to get cooperation from
the federal marijuana plantation in Mississippi(the only legal source of
the herb for clinical trials),to produce reports most people will find
credible and to help patients sort out the sometimes confusing facts and
anecdotes in the field.It would be helpful to thousands of ill people,and
Mr. Lungren is wise to sign on.