STOP THE FEDERAL WAR ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

TODAY, in dozens of cities and towns across the United States,
something remarkable happened: Thousands of people battling cancer,
AIDS and other terrible illnesses, their families, friends and
supporters delivered cease-and-desist orders to the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration to stop it from blocking their access to a
needed medication.

Their request was so simple, so obviously correct that it is
heartbreaking that people -- many very seriously ill -- were forced
to deliver their message in this way, with many risking arrest. But
as individuals who have found that medical marijuana relieves their
symptoms when conventional medicines fail, they felt they had no
choice: The federal government continues to fight an irrational war
against medical marijuana, and the sick and struggling are its
principal victims.

Make no mistake: The government's demonization of marijuana is
irrational. When I first published a study in the journal, Science,
on marijuana's physical and psychological effects back in 1968, I was
certain that medical use of the plant would be legal within five
years. This is, after all, a medicinal plant for which no fatal dose
has ever been established and that has been used in folk medicine for
millennia.

Like all medicines, marijuana has its drawbacks, particularly in
smoked form. It is not a panacea. I support research into safer
delivery systems such as low-temperature vaporizers or inhalers,
which offer the fast action of inhaled medicine without the irritants
found in smoke. Still, I have seen in my own studies that marijuana
is less toxic than most pharmaceutical drugs in current use, and is
certainly helpful for some patients, including those with wasting
syndromes, chronic muscle spasticity and intractable nausea.

Unfortunately, the only legal substitute available now -- a
prescription pill containing a synthetic THC, marijuana's main
psychoactive component -- is not EFFECTIVE enough for many patients.
I hear regularly from patients that the pill does not work as well as
the natural herb, and causes much greater intoxication.

I am far from alone in this view. The Institute of Medicine, in a
report commissioned by the White House "drug czar," concluded in 1999
that there is convincing evidence of marijuana's value in relieving
nausea, weight loss, and other symptoms caused by diseases such as
AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis, as well as by the harsh drugs
often used to treat these conditions. The institute concluded that
for some patients the potential benefits clearly outweigh the risks,
and that ways should be found to make marijuana available to them.

As a physician, I am frustrated that I cannot prescribe marijuana for
patients who might benefit from it. At the very least I would like to
be able to refer them to a safe, reliable, quality-controlled source.

But both the Clinton and Bush administrations have pursued a policy
that the New England Journal of Medicine has called "misguided,
heavy-handed and inhumane." They have declined to act on the
Institute of Medicine's recommendation, and have conducted a series
of raids on medical marijuana cooperatives operating legally under
California law. Sick people are forced to turn to street sources, or
simply suffer without relief.

So it comes to this: Desperately ill people, their friends, families
and loved ones, standing outside DEA offices, pleading with their
government not to deprive them of medicine that relieves their
suffering.

It should never have been necessary, and one can only hope that the
administration and Congress will listen.

Dr. Andrew Weil, director of the Program in Integrative Medicine of
the College of Medicine, University of Arizona, is the author of
"Eight Weeks to Optimum Health" (Ballantine, 1997).