By David Storey

WASHINGTON, Aug 8 (Reuter) 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 U.S. National Institutes of Health released on
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 legalised for medical purposes.

The NIH said in an accompanying statement 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 a workshop at the NIH last February on which the study was
based.

Under U.S. law, marijuana is illegal and has no approved clinical use. But a
debate about its potential medicinal use has grown since November when voters
in Arizona and California approved initiatives making it available to
patients.

The Clinton administration says it will penalise doctors who incorporate
marijuana in their practices.

The report said a key issue was whether smoked marijuana ``offers therapeutic
advantages over the currently available oral form of its most active
ingredient, delta9tetrahydrocannabinol (known as THC), for a wide variety
of conditions.''

It noted that the effects of receiving THC from smoking marijuana differed
from those when it is taken orally and that ``there may anyway be other
compounds in the leaf that have useful therapeutic properties.''

The group said adverse effects of smoking marijuana, not just those on the
lungs but also on the immune system, must be taken into account. It said this
was especially true in studies involving patients with compromised immune
systems.

Smoking marijuana has sometimes been advocated as therapeutic for people with
AIDS.

The report said studies up to now indicated that doses sufficient to reduce
pain also effected on the central nervous system.

Commenting on the report, the NIH said: ``We want to make clear what has
always been the case NIH is open to receiving research grant applications
for studies of the medical efficacy of marijuana.''

It added: ``We are prepared to fund applications that meet the accepted
standards of scientific design and that ... are competitive with other
applications that qualify for funding.''

The experts report drew immediate fire from critics who consider the campaign
for authorising marijuana use for health purposes a trick to legalise it as a
drug.

Georgia Republican Representative Bob Barr issued a statement saying: ``These
studies are nothing more than the first step in a campaign to legalise
mindaltering drugs.'' REUTER

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