Source: New York Times (NY) Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Copyright: 1998 The New York Times Company Pubdate: 17 Nov 1998 Section: Science Times, Vital Signs, Pro & Con, Page F9 Author: Jim McDonough & Sam Vagenas MARIJUANA VOTES: BANE OR BENEFIT? Vital Signs / Pro & Con Voters in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have approved initiatives to legalize marijuana for medcal use. Does this application encourage marijuana abuse? YES To answer that, you have to assume that there is medical marijuana. There is no scientific proof of that yet. It has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and there have been no reputable studies that propose to demonstrate marijuana's medicinal qualities.. It has not gone forward because Dr. Donald Abrams at the University of California at San Francisco, who is conducting the only accepted study, has to recruit subjects for a double blind study. But the only thing participants can take while battling AIDS or cancer is marijuana. Naturally, participants' willingness is limited. In one study that compared marijuana to Marinol -- the active ingredient in the marijuana plant -- patients preferred Marinol. It is premature to refer to medicinal marijuana. The seduction of medical marijuana makes it seem that marijuana is both harmless and beneficial. That sends a bad message and encourages abuse. In the 1970's, Alaska allowed home use of marijuana. There was a marked increase of use by young people and a rise in child crime. JIM McDONOUGH Director of Strategy for the White House Drug Control Office NO Voters recognized a difference between the medical use of marijuana and abuse. As with other medicine, the distinction between abuse and legitimate use is clear. In addition, legitimate medical use of marijuana has been supported by The New England Journal of Medicine. Medical marijuana controls nausea for cancer and AIDS patients, reduces spasms for paraplegia and neurological diseases like multiple sclerosis and controls eye pressure for glaucoma patients. Among test patients in the Federal Investigational New Drug program, which dispenses medical marijuana, there have been no cases of abuse, and some patients have been receiving marijuana for two decades. In terms of the broader social ramifications, California is our best case study. Recent figures from the Department of Health and Human Services show that teen-agers in California are actually less likely to abuse marijuana: 6.9 percent of California teen-agers 12 to 17 used marijuana often, while 9.9 percent of teen-agers nationally used it frequently. Sam Vagenas Executive Director National Council for Drug Control - --- Checked-by: Pat Dolan