-Caveat Lector-
Sunday March 14 12:33 PM ET
U.S. Medical-Marijuana Movement Awaits Key Report
By Andrew Quinn
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The battle over medical marijuana has been
waged on the streets, in the courts and at the ballot box.
This week the fight focuses on science with the release Wednesday of a
government-ordered report assessing claims that marijuana can
alleviate suffering associated with everything from AIDS and cancer to
glaucoma and chronic pain.
At stake, both sides in the debate say, could well be the future of marijuana
-- hailed by some as a miracle medicine, condemned by others as
a dangerous substance and the first step to hard drugs, addiction and
despair.
The report was commissioned from the National Academy of Sciences'
Institute of Medicine by Clinton administration anti-drug chief Barry
McCaffrey as a review of all the available research on marijuana. He has
said he will carefully weigh the evidence it presents.
Many observers expect that evidence to be positive, and while few believe
the report will offer specific policy recommendations, pro-marijuana
activists say even a suggestion that further research be conducted would
be powerful new ammunition in the struggle to make marijuana
medically available to people who say they need it.
``This gives a scientific basis to the argument,'' said Bill Zimmerman,
director of Americans for Medical Rights, a group that has coordinated
campaigns to pass medical marijuana initiatives in a number of U.S. states.
``We're hopeful that the government will change its policy in response to
this report,'' Zimmerman said.
That hope would have seemed far-fetched just a few years ago. As recently
as last October, McCaffrey himself dismissed medical-marijuana
advocates as undercover operatives working to weaken America's anti-
drug resolve.
``Let's have none of this malarkey on marijuana-smoking by cunning groups
working to legalize drugs,'' he told a news conference. ``American
medicine is the best in the world for pain management.''
That position has been echoed by a range of conservative, religious and
family groups, who scoff at the notion that the rolled marijuana joint
should be allowed into America's medicine cabinets.
``Morphine is a pure derivative of heroin, and from the poppy. But no doctor
tells you to go out and smoke opium for pain relief,'' said Terry
Hensley of the Drug Free America Foundation of St. Petersburg, Florida.
``This movement ... is using medical marijuana as a red herring or a Trojan
horse to legalize dope because they know they can get it through on
the compassion issue,'' Hensley said.
But compassion and the concerted efforts of well-organized AIDS activist
groups have carried the day in most of the recent tests of the
medical-marijuana issue.
California and Arizona in 1996 became the first states in the country to
pass voter initiatives legalizing certain medical uses of marijuana, and
six other states adopted similar measures in last November's election.
Efforts to implement the state laws have been messy and ineffectual,
however, stymied in large part by federal anti-narcotics laws, which ban
marijuana as a Schedule I drug: dangerous, addictive and without medical
benefit.
Supporters of medical marijuana say this creates a dangerous situation for
the sick and infirm who believe they benefit from the drug, forcing
them to turn to potentially dangerous street dealers and leaving them in fear
of arrest.
``The tens of thousands of patients who are right now using marijuana are
criminals,'' said Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project, a
Washington-based group that has lobbied to bring the testimony of
medical-marijuana users before the review committee.
``This may be a war, but we have got to remove the sick and wounded from
the battlefield,'' Thomas said.
Anti-drug groups believe that is easily done, pointing to the fact that the
main active ingredient in marijuana, THC, is available in synthetic form
in the drug Marinol -- a pill that, like any other, delivers a precise dose of a
substance and can be monitored by a doctor.
But many marijuana-using patients say Marinol simply does not work as
well as a few puffs of a marijuana cigarette.
``The fact of smoking a medicine makes it highly unusual, but one has to
focus on the bottom line,'' said Ethan Nadelmann, director of the
Lindesmith Center, a New York-based drug policy think tank funded by
financier George Soros, who has backed a number of
medical-marijuana initiatives.
``There is overwhelming evidence, right in front of our eyes, that this stuff
works,'' Nadelmann said.
Whether that evidence will prove equally convincing to the Institute of
Medicine panel or McCaffrey is an open question. Officials in his
McCaffrey's office said the former general would have no comment on the
matter until after the report was released.
Copyright � 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights
reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly
prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content,
or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
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