QUESTIONS ABOUT POT

Has the Justice Department Taken a First Step Toward
Decriminalization of Marijuana?

THE JUSTICE Department announced last week that it would not
prosecute patients who legally obtain marijuana from licensed
dispensaries in the 13 states that allow medicinal use. The decision
is both sensible and potentially problematic.

People suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other
serious ailments should not be harassed or live in fear if they abide
by the laws of their state to obtain a drug that may provide relief
from such symptoms as pain and nausea. Neither should those who
strictly follow legal standards in dispensing marijuana from
state-licensed shops. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is right to
focus federal resources primarily on large-scale illegal traffickers.

Yet this policy shift leaves significant questions unaddressed,
including whether the Justice Department's decision essentially
constitutes a first step toward legalizing marijuana. Such an immense
policy decision should not be ushered in surreptitiously, but should
be tackled head-on, with a full-throated public debate about the
possible benefits and consequences.

More information -- good old-fashioned scientific information -- is
needed before the federal government or more states formally endorse
marijuana smoking for medicinal use. The Institute of Medicine, an
arm of the National Academy of Sciences, in 1999 published what is
widely considered to be the most comprehensive study; it was
decidedly mixed, listing the many possible drawbacks of smoking
marijuana, including respiratory problems, while noting that such use
seemed to provide some patients with relief not obtained from pills
containing marijuana's active ingredients.

More recently, Dr. Peter J. Cohen, an adjunct professor at the
Georgetown University Law Center, noted in a 2009 law review article
that reputable studies released in the past few years showed that
patients with AIDS and hepatitis C experienced reduced pain and
nausea and were better able to tolerate traditional treatment as a
result of smoking marijuana. Yet these preliminary results -- as Dr.
Cohen points out -- have not been subjected to rigorous testing by
the Food and Drug Administration. The reason: A manufacturer must
submit the drug for review before the FDA will tackle the assignment.
So far, no such "manufacturer" has come forward.

The medical marijuana controversy may be moot in the near future
because of a drug known as Sativex, a spray mist approved for
conditional use in Canada and the United Kingdom that delivers the
active ingredients found in marijuana. If cleared by the FDA,
patients will have some confidence that it is safe and effective.
Patients have the right to know if the same can be said about smoked marijuana.