MEDICAL MARIJUANA

I am so tired of seeing this statement:

"There's no research that shows marijuana to be medically beneficial,"
from "Michigan voters roll in medical marijuana, causing discomfort
for cops, doctors," The Bay City Times, Nov 16.

Quoted from a statement by Dr. Michael Parmer but heard over and over
from the anti-cannabis (marijuana) voices, it is an absolutely absurd
thing for any educated person to say, especially a medical
professional.

The U.S. government is the nation's sole legal provider of medical
cannabis. Grown at the University of Mississippi, this cannabis is
provided to those few patients remaining in the 1976 Compassionate
Investigational New Drug (CIND) program. The followup study of those
patients has been the work of Dr. Ethan Russo in what is known as the
Missoula Study (http://www.cannabismd.org/reports/russo2.php).

In 1974 in Virginia, cannabis was shown to have cancer-killing
potential in a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health.
That study was reinforced in 2000 by Dr. Manual Guzman of Complutense
University in Madrid, Spain. Further cancer-fighting potential has
been uncovered by students at Hebrew University, Israel, working under
Dr. Raphael Mechoulam of the university's School of Pharmacy.

Cannabis has been a medicine in the human pharmacopeia for thousands
of years. Dr. Parmer's educational void is part and parcel of policies
determined to keep the evidence buried. His ignorance is excusable
only in that light. There is a reason prohibitionists do not engage in
public debate these days.

Allan Erickson

Eugene, Ore.