Pubdate: Tue, 04 Mar 2014
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2014 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/625HdBMl
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Kris Hermes

HOW SAFE IS MARIJUANA?

It's disingenuous for the head of the National Institutes of Health, 
Francis Collins, to say that the trend of marijuana legalization has 
made research into it more "feasible." The National Institute on Drug 
Abuse, under NIH, has always been the gatekeeper on marijuana 
research, which it has stifled over the years.

Collins is also disingenuous on whether marijuana smoke causes 
cancer, saying "nobody's done that study." As recently as 2012, 
NIH-funded research was published, and reported in USA TODAY, showing 
that marijuana smoke did not cause long-term lung damage.

The ultimate irony is Collins saying we need to "mount studies that 
were impossible before." Not only were studies possible, they've been 
undertaken.

Kris Hermes Americans for Safe Access Oakland, Calif.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom