STUDIES BELIE CLAIMS OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA AS SAFE OPTION TO PAIN

I have been involved in drug prevention, education and enforcement on
the county, state and national levels for about 19 years. I have spent
years reviewing research on so-called "medical marijuana." I can
state, as a result of that research, that "medical marijuana" and
"Compassionate Use" acts are a hoax.

Ken Wolski said in his April 27 commentary that his group, The
Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey, has as a mission "to bring
about safe and legal access to marijuana for New Jersey patients."
While I assume this is in part the truth, the real truth is that his
group's ultimate goal, as is the case with all organizations supported
by George Soros' Drug Policy Alliance, is to legalize marijuana and
eventually all drugs.

The mission itself is flawed. The coalition wants to bring about safe
and legal access to marijuana. There is no safe access. In our
society, we do not approve drugs on mere conjecture or a popular vote.
We have an extensive testing program overseen by the Food and Drug
Administration. Just recently, the FDA concluded that "no sound
scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in
the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or
efficacy of marijuana for general medical use. There are alternative
FDA-approved medications in existence of treatment of many of the
proposed uses of smoked marijuana. Therefore, the FDA has not approved
smoked marijuana for any condition or disease indication."

Also, the U.S. Supreme Court just last year ruled that marijuana is
not "medicine" and the federal government could arrest anyone using
marijuana, even for medical purposes and even in the states that have
legalized its use.

John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
noted, "Smoking illegal drugs may make some people "feel better.'
However, civilized societies and modern-day medical practices
differentiate between inebriation and the safe, supervised delivery of
proven medicine by legitimate doctors."

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the House subcommittee on
criminal justice, drug policy and human resources, aptly noted,
"smoked marijuana has never been approved for medical use by the FDA.
For several years, the FDA allowed a limited number of seriously ill
patients to use smoked marijuana. The program was terminated in 1992
when the Public Health Service stated there was no scientific evidence
that the drug was assisting patients, and issued a warning that using
smoked marijuana as a form of medical therapy may actually be harmful
to some patients."

Perhaps that is because various studies have shown that smoked
marijuana is equivalent to smoking tobacco in that it leads to the
same (or even worse) health conditions, that it can cause premature
cancer, addiction, coordination and perception impairment, a number of
mental disorders including depression, hostility and increased
aggressiveness; general apathy, memory loss, reproductive disabilities
and impairment of the immune system.

In California, Jeff Stone, a Riverside County supervisor (freeholder)
and registered pharmacist, who wants to overturn that state's medical
marijuana law, bases his position on the fact that many of the claims
of marijuana's benefits are already addressed by better and
easier-to-use FDA-approved medications. He has also expressed concerns
about the increased availability of today's much more potent marijuana.

New Jersey's congressmen have addressed this topic.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., recently pointed out his opposition
to "medical marijuana" based on studies published in The New England
Journal of Medicine and Science magazine that question the use of
marijuana for those suffering from cancer, AIDS or other diseases. He
also spoke of the Institute of Medicine report, often misquoted by
marijuana advocates, that actually stated, "in no way do we wish to
suggest that patients should, under any circumstances, medicate
themselves with marijuana . . . there is no future in smoked marijuana
as medicine."

Rep. H. James Saxton, R-N.J., recently noted that "there have been
over 10,000 documented studies that confirm the harmful physical and
psychological effects of the use of marijuana. The federal government
over the past 20 years, through both Republican and Democratic
administrations, has determined that marijuana has no redeeming
medical or recreational value and is in fact harmful to one's health."

Saxton noted that the American Medical Association, National Cancer
Institute, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
American Cancer Society and, most importantly, the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society have all rejected the use of marijuana for positive
medical treatment.