AUSTRALIAN STATE TO ALLOW MARIJUANA FOR PAIN RELIEF

Australia's most populous state plans to allow seriously ill people to use
marijuana as a medicine, following trials of the drug as a pain reliever in
several US states, Canada and Europe.

However, a proposal for a four-year trial period by New South Wales state
premier Bob Carr provoked outrage among anti-drug campaigners even though
he vowed to maintain the state's tough stance on recreational use.

"When it comes to marijuana this is not a social revolution," Carr, of the
centre-left Labor party, said on Wednesday.

"This is a method of us doing something compassionate for someone living
with multiple sclerosis or receiving massive chemotherapy treatment."

Under the scheme, expected to be approved and begin by year's end, those
suffering cancer, Aids, multiple sclerosis and other serious illnesses can
register to use marijuana for pain relief. In what form it will be
distributed has to be decided.

Minors and people convicted of drug crimes in New South Wales, where
roughly a third of Australia's 19 million people live, would not get access
to the programme.

Groups pushing for the decriminalisation of pot, who have fiercely
criticised the Carr government's zero-tolerance approach to casual
marijuana use and laws allowing police to use sniffer dogs in streets and
pubs, welcomed the plan.

But anti-drug campaigners condemned it.

Jill Pearman, chairwoman of the Quit Marijuana Programme at Sydney's
Westmead Hospital, said it was "absolutely scandalous". "I run a programme
whereby we see people who are psychotic because of cannabis use," she told
ABC radio.