Pubdate: Tuesday, August 18,1998 Source: Fresno Bee, The Contact: http://www.fresnobee.com/ Author: Woodrow E. Nichols, Jr. MEDICAL MARIJUANA Thank you for Doug Hoagland's insightful article on the compassionate use of medical marijuana. Unfortunately, the article perpetuates a couple of long-refuted myths, namely, that marijuana use destroys brain cells, and that there is insufficient scientific medical information available at this time to form any conclusions about the efficacy of marijuana. According to the recently published "Marijuana Myths Marijuana Facts: a Review of the Scientific Evidence," by Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D., and John P. Morgan, M.D., there is no scientific or medical evidence that marijuana destroys any brain cells at all. In fact, in a rhesus monkey study conducted by the National Center for Toxicological Research in Arkansas, the "researchers found no marijuana-related differences in neurochem-ical concentrations, receptor-site configurations, hippocampal architecture, cell size, cell number or synaptic structure." Moreover, as the book demonstrates, and as law enforcement well knows, there is a plethora of scientific and medical evidence available to refute the demonization of the hemp plant. Every officially sanctioned government study conducted has concluded that marijuana poses little social threat and should be removed from the list of hazardous controlled substances. Woodrow E. Nichols Jr. Fresno - --- Checked-by: Rolf Ernst