Pubdate: Thu, 21 Feb 2002
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA EXHIBIT ON DISPLAY

A shy seventh-grader's hotly disputed medical marijuana science project, 
dubbed "Mary Jane for Pain," was exhibited at a science fair, but without 
the pot-laced products that officials refused to allow.

Something else was conspicuously absent at the science fair - the student. 
Relatives said she was so embarrassed by the media attention about the pot 
project that she stayed home.

The project originally featured literature about medical marijuana 
alongside fake pot-laced muffins and real marijuana-infused rubbing 
alcohol. The student had spent three months researching the benefits of 
marijuana for AIDS and cancer patients.

School officials decided that the entry met science fair guidelines if the 
pot products weren't included.

The watered-down version of the project - newspaper clippings of pot club 
busts fixed to black cardboard - failed to place among the finalists at the 
science fair.

"Even though she didn't win and she didn't place, she learned more out of 
this project than all the kids at that science fair combined," said the 
girl's aunt, Jackie Fitzhenry.

Fitzhenry works at a nonprofit organization that dispenses marijuana 
muffins and other cannabis-laced products to people suffering from terminal 
illnesses.

When the girl brought her display to Mission Hill Junior High School for 
approval last week, school administrators sent the pot props back to the 
girl's home. The officials later said her project could be shown if the 
marijuana products were left out.

"She had some good questions," said Mission Hill Principal Cathy 
Stefanki-Iglesias. "The value is in what the student learned from the 
scientific process."

The girl has refused to be interviewed about her project and asked that her 
name not be released. Her father, Joe Morris, agreed that the experience 
had been a valuable one for his family.

"She came up with a hypothesis and a conclusion and, you know what? We 
learned something," Morris said. "Medical marijuana isn't a bunch of people 
sitting around taking payments from the government to smoke marijuana."

At the fair, the girl's schoolmates and their parents talked less about the 
blue ribbon entries and more about medicinal marijuana.

One mother, Stephanie Raugust, said she didn't have a problem with medical 
marijuana as a subject matter. But she said she didn't think "glorifying 
drug use was the best thing to do."

Eighth-grader Amelia Telt, 13, said she wouldn't be allowed to tackle the 
thorny issue for a science project.

"My mom would freak out," she said. "She'd probably send me to boot camp."
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MAP posted-by: Alex