Source: The Detroit News
Contact: letters@detnews.com

Smoking marijuana can fight illnesses, study says

By David Storey / Reuter

WASHINGTON Evidence shows that smoking marijuana can have healthy
effects and further studies should be made into its medical value,
according to a report to the National Institutes of Health released Friday.

The report was cautiously written, stressing the largely anecdotal nature
of the evidence, but it provided some encouragement for groups campaigning
for the plant, which is banned as a drug, to be legalized for medical
purposes.

The NIH said in an accompanying statement that it was prepared to fund
research into the subject.

The study said there were "varying degrees of enthusiasm" among the eight
experts on whether to pursue marijuana for use in a number of cases,
including glaucoma, nausea during cancer treatment, pain, poor appetite and
neurological disorders.

But it quoted the conclusion of Professor William Beaver of Georgetown
University that: "For at least some potential indications, marijuana looks
promising enough to recommend that there be new controlled studies done."

Beaver chaired an NIH workshop last February on which the study was based.
Under U.S. law, marijuana is illegal and has no approved clinical use.

Copyright 1997, The Detroit News