MARIJUANA WOES

Groups Debate Legal Classification Of Drug

The controversy of using marijuana medicinally continues to swell as
rallies take place across the nation and a national advocacy group
has called for a federal reclassification of the drug that would
likely make it available on a prescription basis.

Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug under U.S.
law, and has been for over 30 years. This rating identifies marijuana
among the most dangerous drugs, and according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration, this classification is reserved for drugs that have
no recognized medical use and a high potential for addiction or
abuse. Marijuana shares placement in this category with heroin.

The federal scale, enacted by Congress under the Controlled
Substances Act of 1970, has five levels, with Schedule V being the
least dangerous.

According to Hilary McQuie, spokesperson for Americans for Safe
Access, an Oakland-based advocacy group for medical marijuana, a
placement into Schedule II would allow for marijuana to be available
via pharmaceutical companies to the public for medical use as well as
open the door for expanded scientific research.

Casey McEnry, spokesperson for the San Francisco Division of the Drug
Enforcement Administration, said that marijuana is considered a drug
and not a medical tool and will be opposed as long as it holds a
Schedule I classification.

"Whether it should be used as a medicine should be determined by
scientific fields, not by a drug legalization lobbyist," McEnry said.

McQuie also agreed that a classification of the drug should be based
upon science, citing the 1970 decision as flawed.

"Scientists didn't come up with these categories; politicians did," she said.

Both entities concurred that scientific evidence should be the
backbone of a reclassification or change in the standpoint on the
effectiveness of the drug. There appears to be no definitive
consensus from the greater medical community on the issue.

The Food and Drug Administration acknowledged the uses of medical
marijuana in a testimony dated Apr. 1, 2004 but remained neutral as
to a position on the drug.

"FDA has not approved marijuana for medical use in the United
States," said the testimony. "Despite its status as an unapproved new
drug, there has been considerable interest in its use for the
treatment of a number of conditions."

Currently, California holds the legal standpoint that the seriously
ill can have access to medical marijuana with the recommendation of
their physician. This action was the result of Proposition 215, the
1996 state initiative that passed with a 56 percent approval rate.

California is among less than a dozen other states that allow some
form of medical marijuana use, including Oregon, Washington, Hawaii,
Montana and Vermont. McQuie said a reconsideration of this rating
will significantly aid the states that lack such medicinal marijuana
laws, but are pursuing them, such as Pennsylvania and Texas.

"The rescheduling is on behalf of the people who are in states that
don't have medicinal marijuana laws," she said.

Citizens of California experience a greater protection under
Proposition 215, so a new classification, according to McQuie, would
not affect California as heavily. Here, the vast majority of medical
marijuana arrests are the result of state and local authorities.

Several rallies are planned for November across the state.