Pubdate: 24 Feb 1999 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 1999 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/ Author: Christopher Wren U.N. DRUG BOARD URGES RESEARCH ON MARIJUANA AS MEDICINE UNITED NATIONS -- The board that oversees international drug control treaties for the United Nations has recommended that governments sponsor impartial research into the medicinal benefits of marijuana, which some users say alleviates the pain and nausea associated with AIDS, cancer and other diseases. But the International Narcotics Control Board stressed that such research must not become a pretext for legalizing cannabis, as marijuana is called in many parts of the world. If the drug is determined to have medicinal value, the board said, its use should be subjected to the same stringent controls applied to cocaine and morphine, the opiate from which heroin is derived. "Any decision on the medical use of cannabis should be based on clear scientific evidence," the board said in its latest annual report, which was made public on Tuesday through the United Nations. "Political initiatives and public votes can easily be misused by groups promoting the legalization of all use of cannabis and/or the prescription or cannabis for recreational use under the guise of medical dispensation," the board said. Its report appeared in advance of an American study of medicinal properties of marijuana that the National Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is expected to release next month. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy commissioned that study, prompting groups that favor marijuana to complain that it would be biased. The president of the international board, Dr. Hamid Ghodse, alluded in a statement to the debate in the United States, where voters in eight states have approved referendums expressing varying degrees of support for medicinal uses of marijuana. "The increasingly politicized battle over cannabis must end, since it has had a negative effect on attitudes toward drug abuse, particularly from young people," said Ghodse, an Iranian-born psychiatrist working in Britain. "Should the medical usefulness of cannabis be established, it will be a drug no different from most narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Cannabis, prescribed for medical purposes, would also be subject to licensing and other control measures under the international drug control treaties." The International Narcotics Control Board reported that marijuana abuse had become widespread in virtually all countries and that it was the most commonly abused drug in North America. The agency noted a trend toward higher potency in marijuana cultivated in greenhouses in Canada and the United States. While reserving its opinion on the benefits, the board, whose mandate includes ensuring an adequate world supply of drugs for medical purposes, said many poor countries had a severe shortage of morphine-based painkillers needed by patients suffering from terminal diseases. "You're dealing with terrible physical pain, and the situation in the poorest countries is a tragic situation that continues to go unnoticed," said Herbert S. Okun, the sole American on the 13-member board. Its report simultaneously described a mounting dependence on prescription stimulants by Americans and on tranquilizers by Europeans. The study said the United States consumed 85 percent of the methylphenidate, a stimulant marketed under the trade name of Ritalin. It is prescribed for children, adolescents and adults who have been given diagnoses of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders. The board further expressed concern about the computer-assisted engineering of more powerful designer drugs and about drug recipes that circulate on the Internet. The treaties supervised by the board include the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, ratified by 166 countries; the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, ratified by 158 countries; and the Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, ratified by 148 countries. - --- MAP posted-by: Mike Gogulski