Federal report reignites medical marijuana debate

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Panel finds therapeutic benefits

March 17, 1999
Web posted at: 10:59 a.m. EST (1559 GMT)

In this story: Congress: Marijuana 'dangerous' Push for smoking substitute Patients hail report Not linked to hard drugs RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Greg Scott has AIDS. He says smoking marijuana is not something he does for recreation -- but to survive.

"In fact, I'm certain that, had it not been for marijuana, I would have died," Scott said.

A report released Wednesday by a federal advisory panel backs up claims by some doctors, and patients like Scott, that marijuana can play an important role in medical treatment.

The report, by the Institute of Medicine, said that for many, marijuana does have "therapeutic value" for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting and appetite stimulation. The institute also said that there was no conclusive evidence that marijuana use leads to harder drugs.

In Scott's case, his weight dropped dramatically when he first started taking drugs called protease inhibitors to prolong his life. But he said smoking marijuana helped him alleviate the drugs' side effects -- nausea, loss of appetite and pain.

"Marijuana is the perfect medicine for this because it both suppresses nausea and increases your appetite," he said.

Congress: Marijuana 'dangerous'

Scott says marijuana helped him regain his appetite and alleviated his pain

The report once again brings to the forefront the controversy over whether marijuana is a helpful or harmful drug.

In the past few years, voters in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have approved measures in support of marijuana for medicinal purposes, even though critics say such measures send the wrong message to children.

Congress has taken a hard line on the issue, with the House last fall adopting a resolution that said marijuana was a dangerous and addictive drug and should not be legalized for medical use.

Asked to examine the issue by the White House drug policy office, the institute, which is an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences, said that the chemicals in marijuana can be especially helpful for people undergoing chemotherapy and people with AIDS.

Push for smoking substitute

But the panel warned that smoking marijuana can cause respiratory disease, and called for the development of standardized forms of the drugs, called cannabinoids, that can be taken, for example, by inhaler.

"Marijuana has potential as medicine, but it is undermined by the fact that patients must inhale harmful smoke," said Stanley Watson of the Mental Health Research Institute at the University of Michigan, one of the study's principal investigators.

Even so, the panel said, there may be cases where patients could in the meantime get relief from smoking marijuana, especially since it might take years to develop an inhaler.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said it would carefully study the recommendations.

"We note in the report's conclusion that the future of cannabinoid drugs lies not in smoked marijuana, but in chemically defined drugs" delivered by other means, the office headed by retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey said in a statement.

Patients hail report

Some patients are calling the findings long overdue.

"Marijuana saved my life," Scott said. "I have no doubts about it and you don't need to show me any data."

"It's taken a long time, but I feel like now, people will stand up and listen," said Irvin Rosenfeld, a stockbroker who has smoked marijuana supplied by the federal government for 27 years because of a rare medical condition.

"When you have a devastating disease, all you care about is getting the right medicine ... and not having to worry about being made a criminal," Rosenfeld said.

Rosenfeld suffers from tumors that press into his muscles. The marijuana relaxes those muscles, keeping them from being torn by the tumors and allowing him to move with less pain.

The panel urged clinical trials to determine the usefulness of marijuana in treating muscle spasms.

While it also has been promoted as a treatment for glaucoma, the panel said smoking marijuana only temporarily reduces some of the eye pressure associated with that disease.

Not linked to hard drugs

Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project said the report "shoots down" claims that marijuana has no medical benefits.

Opponents of allowing medical use of marijuana long have claimed that it is a "gateway" drug, giving people a start on the road to more dangerous drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

But the report concludes there is "no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs."

In fact, the report concludes, most drug users did not begin with marijuana but rather started by using tobacco and alcohol while they were underage.

The New England Journal of Medicine has editorialized in favor of marijuana and the American Medical Association has urged the National Institutes of Health to support more research on the subject.

An expert panel formed by NIH found in 1997 that existing research showed some patients could be helped by the drug, principally to relieve nausea after cancer chemotherapy or to increase AIDS patients' appetites. The drug also has helped some patients control glaucoma, that panel found.

Medical Correspondent Eileen O'Connor and The Associated Press contributed to this report.