Source: Waco TribuneHerald
Contact: letters@mail.iamerica.net
Pub ] Date: August 11, 1997

Pot as medicine

It's not what some people want to hear, but an advisory
panel for the National Institutes of Health has made a virtual
endorsement of marijuana's role in easing medical suffering.

The panel is correct to urge clinical study of marijuana's
uses in treating such things as glaucoma symptoms and
chemotherapy's side effects.

Marijuana's illegal status should have no bearing on its
medical use. Many barbituates and stimulants are illegal in
the wrong hands, yet they're invaluable in treating illness.

A refined form of pot's active ingrededient, THC, is produced
in pill form for medicinal uses. This would seem to contradict
critics' claims that marijuana has no therapeutic use. Could these
pills suffice for people in need? Those who use marijuana under
a doctor's recommendation, as is legal in California, say that
other compounds in the plant accentuate the effectiveness of
THC, and that in some cases the pill is a poor substitute.

Whether smoked or taken orally, all that should matter on
this issue is what doctors and patients say about marijuana
as medicine. Availing a substance medically shown to ease
people's suffering should be second nature, not a crime.