TIME IS NOW FOR MEDICAL
MARIJUANA USE, GROUP SAYS

SEATTLE POSTINTELLIGENCER : The Citizens for
Drug Policy Reform, a coalition of doctors, patients, educators and
public health
specialists, said yesterday that the ``war on drugs'' is failing and
that marijuana, as well
as other illegal drugs, should be made legal for medicinal uses.

The group is backing Initiative 685, known as the Drug
Medicalization and Prevention Act of 1997, a measure that not only
would legalize the medical use of marijuana and other drugs but would
prescribe treatment and education programs instead of incarceration
for people convicted of simple drugpossession charges. Similar
initiatives have passed in California and Arizona, and another
halfdozen states plan initiative drives next year.

The initiative, which is controversial in the medical community, is
opposed by Lt. Gov. Brad Owen. Critics argue that allowing medical
use of drugs legitimizes use of illegal drugs.

``Advocates of this initiative are portraying it as a compassionate
plea for help for seriously and terminally ill people,'' Owen said.
``But the goal is not medical marijuana, the goal is drug
legalization.''

The initiative would allow physicians to recommend other illegal drugs,
such as heroin
and LSD, to patients for any illness.

The medical community is divided on the issue.

``Our official position right now is no position,'' said Tom Curry,
executive director of the Washington State Medical Association, which
represents about 8,000 physicians. The group plans to debate the
issue at its September meeting.

Physician concerns center on the lack of peerreview research on the
efficacy of marijuana and other illegal drugs for treating medical
conditions, and on the fact that the initiative includes other
reforms besides the medical use of marijuana.

Also, the initiative doesn't specify how patients would be able to
obtain the drugs if they were allowed for medical use, Curry said.

The American Medical Association does not condone the ``production, sale
or use of
marijuana,'' an AMA spokesman said.

However, many patients say smoking marijuana relieves symptoms of severe
nausea.

Patients undergoing chemotherapy don't get an ``upset tummy,'' said
Ralph Seeley, a Tacoma lawyer who has terminal bone cancer and has
been fighting for the right to use marijuana.

``It's violent nausea,'' he said. ``You heave and heave and you gasp
and can't breathe and it keeps going until you're exhausted.''

Smoking marijuana relieves the symptoms in a few minutes and enables
a patient to resume a more normal life, said Seeley, adding that
smoking the drug is more effective than taking marinol, a
prescription pill containing the active ingredient in marijuana.

Rob Killian, a Tacoma physician who is spearheading the initiative,
said marijuana is also useful for boosting appetites in patients with
severe weight loss from diseases such as cancer and AIDS, for
relieving muscle spasms in patients with multiple sclerosis, and for
aiding patients with glaucoma.

About 50 physicians in Washington state are informally monitoring
patients who are using marijuana for therapeutic purposes, said
Francis Podrebarac, a psychiatrist who backs the initiative.

The initiative also has some support from clergy members.

``First and foremost, this entire issue is a moral issue,'' said the
Rev. Andrew J.W. Mullins, vice dean of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral
in Seattle. ``Is it morally correct to deny relief'' to patients who
need it?

Among other provisions, the initiative would create and pay for a
parent's commission on drugabuse prevention programs for youths.

[Copyright 1997, Dialog]