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. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe