MARIJUANA DESERVES STUDY

It's time people stopped thinking of marijuana to get high and
consider it the medical aid it just might be.

If pot use can ease the pain and discomfort of those suffering serious
illness, then it is worthy of the clinical tests the federal
government has announced it wants to conduct.

This study makes sense because of the growing need and increasing
acceptance of marijuana as something other than a street drug. It is
estimated 20,000 Canadians would apply to smoke it, to help offset the
effects of illnesses such as glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, cancer,
epilepsy, AIDS and arthritis.

Many doctors wants to use the drug, to help offset the nausea common
to AIDS sufferers. In Canada, many medical groups and the Canadian
Foundation for Drug Policy, a think tank that studies drug laws, have
long lobbied for the study.

Seven American states and the District of Columbia have approved the
medical use of marijuana. Clinical tests are also underway in
California and Britain.

But a study for medicinal purposes should not be a step toward
decriminalization. Marijuana should remain an illegal drug. Just as a
pain-numbing drug like morphine is dispensed in hospital, neither
should marijuana be seen on street corners.

Foundation lawyer Eugene Oscapella summed it up best when he said, "It
has become just plain cruel to deny this drug to dying people who
could use this to alleviate pain and suffering."