Pubdate: Fri, 30 Mar 2001
Source: Red Bluff Daily News (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Red Bluff Daily News
Contact:  http://redbluffdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1079

FACT VS. FICTION

The unsubstantiated claims that marijuana has medicinal value are 
finally going to receive a scientific hearing - long after California 
voters approved the use of pot for medical purposes. Researchers at 
the University of California San Diego are about to conduct studies 
to determine whether marijuana can relieve pain and other symptoms 
associated with AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

It's about time for some scientific facts on this issue.

No fewer than eight states have approved measures legalizing the use 
of marijuana to treat health ailments. Under federal law, however, 
marijuana remains a controlled substance. State and federal law 
enforcement officers have shut down several cannabis buyers clubs 
that are in violation of the law. California's medicinal marijuana 
initiative did not legalize the sale, but rather only the possession, 
of the drug. The U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear a case on the 
issue.

UCSD's state-financed center on cannabis research is ideally suited 
to learn whether the drug has any therapeutic value and, if so, 
whether the potentially harmful health effects of smoking it outweigh 
the potential benefits. This will be the first time that pot-smoking 
patients will be subjected to a strict scientific evaluation.

The irony, of course, is the timing.

This study should have been conducted long before 1996, when 
California voters approved Proposition 215. That would have enabled 
voters to make a rational decision based on scientific evidence.

Instead, the ballot initiative was approved, then state lawmakers 
finally got around to earmarking the funds to establish a medicinal 
marijuana research center at the University of California. Five years 
later, researchers at UCSD are gearing up to study whether smoking 
the drug can help relieve nerve pain experienced by AIDS patients. 
Another study will assess whether pot smokers afflicted with multiple 
sclerosis can benefit from the drug. Another study will look at how 
pot smoking affects one's driving ability.

The UCSD studies should help resolve much of the confusion about the 
drug's alleged therapeutic effects. If nothing else, this scientific 
examination should give policy-makers in California and elsewhere a 
clearer path from which to proceed.
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe