BAD COMPARISON

Chicago -- I have two points to make about Salim Muwakkil's article about
the U.S. drug war.

First, the original study produced by the National Academy of Sciences'
Institute of Medicine does not support the extravagant medical claims made
by Muwakkil. I have not read the book he said was an expanded version of
the 1999 study.

The original study does not show that marijuana is "a cornucopia of
pharmaceutical wonders" as Muwakkil calls it. Instead, the study very
cautiously says, "For patients such as those with AIDS or who are
undergoing chemotherapy, and who suffer simultaneously from severe pain,
nausea, and appetite loss, cannabinoid drugs might offer broad- spectrum
relief not found in any other single medication . . . . But it does not
follow from this that smoking marijuana is good medicine."

The study also says, "Although marijuana smoke delivers THC and other
cannabinoids to the body, it also delivers harmful substances, including
most of those found in tobacco smoke . . . . For those reasons there is
little future in smoked marijuana as a medically approved medication."

The study is a moderate and responsible assessment, which is in stark
contrast to Muwakkil's article.

And lastly, I almost can't believe that Muwakkil compares our drug policy
to the Taliban forbidding music and kite flying.

Such a comparison is utterly ludicrous. Deliberately killing thousands of
innocent people in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in no way
compares to anything the U.S. has done in the drug war. A misleading and
hysterical article like this does no one any good.