Saturday, September 13, 1997; Page A15

The Washington Post

In his latest rant against medical marijuana users, Gen. Barry McCaffrey
asks, rhetorically, "If medical marijuana is so great, why not use
Marinol instead?" [oped, Sept. 9].

I don't claim to be an expert in medical treatment, but I can think of
at least two commonsense reasons why:

(1) Marinol is an expensive drug, and not every patient can afford it. The
natural form of the drug is as cheap and easy to grow as corn.

(2) Marinol is taken in oral form, which some patients cannot tolerate
because of their symptoms. This should be obvious to anyone who has the
misfortune of enduring the painful nausea induced by cancer chemotherapy.

It didn't take me too long to think of those two, and I'm sure your
readers can think of others.

In fact, why don't we turn the question around: If Marinol is really the
same thing as the natural thing, does it make any sense at all to deny
patients the benefit of both?

Kelly T. Conlon