Marijuana legalization scares politicians

Star Wars may be returning new and improved after years off the big screen, but the drug war has lingered on, casting its force against attempts to provide marijuana for medicinal uses.

The losers in this battle may actually be the ill.

"Certainly in Washington, it seems to be anything but a health issue," said Paul Armentano, publications director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Proposition 215, the California law passed in November, and Proposition 200, a similar law in Arizona, allow the use of marijuana with a medical recommendation from a physician.

However, while politicians, lawyers and medical establishments bicker over these policies, people with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other diseases who are thought to benefit from the illegal drug may not be getting information and treatment that could otherwise be available.

"People are saying, 'If there's something that can help me, I want it'," said Jim McClelland, chief financial officer of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Club, a medical marijuana provider in San Francisco that became a corporation this week.

Although people are taking more seriously the claims that marijuana acts as an appetite stimulant for AIDS wasting syndrome and an anti-nauseant for cancer chemotherapy, opponents argue more research needs to be conducted.

But Sylvia Thyssen, spokesperson for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, who is working with AIDS researcher Dr. Donald Abrams, said the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) is getting in the way of more research.

NIDA is currently the only organization that can legally provide marijuana, Thyssen said, but even after the Food and Drug Administration approved Abrams' study, the NIDA declared it unscientific and refused to supply the drug.

"Any adolescent can get marijuana, but why can't an FDA-approved researcher get marijuana? It's beyond ridiculous," Thyssen said.

People on all sides of the argument are calling for more research, however.

"I think it's inevitable that there's going to be more research," said Chris Dubbs, research specialist with the Pennsylvania Substance Abuse Information Center, a branch of the state Department of Health.

Because marijuana has more than 300 chemicals in it, said Natalie Croll, assistant director of the Office of Health Promotion and Education at the University, more research could lead to a better understanding of which chemicals produce certain effects.

"People who are using it now with the research we have in this country are guinea pigs," Croll said.

But Chuck Thomas, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, said there are more than 70 published studies verifying the beneficial effects.

Despite heated debate over research, the New England Journal of Research said in its editorial that research is difficult, as the noxious sensations, for example, are hard to measure in an experiment. It also stated what really counts is the ill patient's feelings.

Unfortunately for patients, it is politics as usual.

"A lot of people have a vested interest in the existing drug laws," said Theodore Vallance, professor emeritus of human development at the University, who has written a book on the drug problem.

"Everyone is trapped by lies and misinformation," said Sam Richards, instructor of sociology at the University. "People in the middle levels of power are obligated politically to say no."