Wanted: Rationality About 'Pot'
One wise ruling made in medical marijuana dispute, but more is needed

When Californians passed Proposition 215 six months ago,
federal drug officials understandably complained that the
state was legalizing somethingthe medical use of marijuanaover
which only Washington had jurisdiction. Then the government took
a series of overly zealous steps that exacerbated statefederal
tensions.
In January, federal drug czar Barry McCaffrey declared that
doctors who recommend the medical use of marijuana could face
federal prosecution and the revocation of their right to prescribe
federally monitored drugs. That threat smacked of the "gag rules"
against doctors that the government so deplores in managed care
contracts. Three months later, federal Drug Enforcement Agency
agents staged their first raid on one of California's medical marijuana
buyers' clubs since Proposition 215's passage.
U.S. District Judge Fern Smith struck a blow for good sense a
couple of weeks ago, issuing an order that both blocks federal
retaliation against physicians and tightens the circumstances for
recommending marijuana. Rather than sanctioning Proposition 215's
original, sloppy wordingwhich allows physicians and other
medical providers to recommend marijuana for nearly whatever
they pleaseSmith ruled that her court's protection applied only to
four serious medical conditions: AIDS or HIV infection, cancer,
glaucoma and seizures or muscle spasms associated with certain
debilitating conditions.
Smith's ruling is only a temporary solution, for the DEA still
regards marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, in a class with heroin,
meaning it's an illegal substance lacking any medical value. A
permanent solution would be for the federal government to
reclassify marijuana under Schedule 2, a carefully monitored
category of risky and often addictive substances like morphine that
have some medical utility and can be legally prescribed by doctors.
This has recently been urged by arbiters of mainstream medical
opinion like the New England Journal of Medicine and might
forestall other states that are considering their own marijuana
propositions. To put more light and less heat on the subject, the
Clinton administration should also support careful studies of which
chemicals in marijuana ease or exacerbate which disorders and
why.
Guidelines from the National Institutes of Health on promising
directions for such research are expected later this month. Congress
and the administration should ensure that marijuana studies go
briskly forward.

Copyright Los Angeles Times