HOUSE STIRS MEDICINAL POT

There probably is little chance that the state Legislature will
legalize medicinal marijuana any time soon. A bill to do so,
introduced by Rep. Mark Cohen of Philadelphia, has just half a dozen
cosponsors and it's not at the top of the legislative agenda.

Yet a recent Health and Human Services Commitee hearing on the bill
was a remarkable event in this conservative state and a step toward a
rational policy for medicinal marijuana use. Testimony during the
hearing did much to dispel myths about medicinal marijuana and to
establish a framework for legalization.

Mr. Cohen's bill would preclude the arrest of patients who use
medicinal marijuana. Those people would have to have a written
doctor's recommendation to use the drug and would have to obtain an
ID card to obtain it from state-licensed centers. Patients would be
allowed to possess up to an ounce of marijuana at any time.

Marijuana has been used to help cancer patients deal with pain and to
stimulate their appetite. It also has been used to treat glaucoma. It
is far less expensive than many of the federally approved
pharmaceuticals that are marketed for the same purposes.

Several witnesses and some lawmakers objected that legal marijuana
use could lead to addiction to harder drugs. But Edward Pane, an
instructor in addiction studies at the University of Scranton and CEO
of Serento Gardens Alcoholism and Drug Services Inc. in Hazleton,
testified that patients who use small amounts of marijuana face no
threat of craving harder drugs.

"Concerns that the medical use of marijuana will spur individuals
into the world of chemical addiction are baseless," he said.

Howard Swidler, M.D., chief of emergency medicine at Warren Hospital,
went further.

"Marijuana is nonaddicting," he said. "There is no physical
dependence or physical withdrawal associated with its use. It is,
from a practical standpoint, nontoxic. Marijuana is safer by some
measures than any other drug. There is simply no known quantity of
marijuana capable of killing a person."

Pennsylvania should legalize medicinal marijuana as a simple matter
of compassion for patients who could benefit from its use.

The recent hearing was a valuable step in that direction because it
established a tone for debate rooted in science and realistic
analysis of the likely social impact, rather than on emotion and
obsolete myths. Mr. Cohen should continue to press the issue.