WHAT'S THE COURT SMOKING?

America has a serious drug addiction. But the federal government will not make a dent in that formidable problem by burying its head in the sand and refusing to acknowledge that in some limited cases, marijuana has legitimate medicinal benefits.

The evidence doesn't come from some fuzzy-headed band of pot smokers in the mountains of California but from no less an authority than the Institute of Medicine. In a 1999 report, the institute, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, reported that scientific research and anecdotal evidence demonstrated that the active ingredient in marijuana appeared useful in treating pain, nausea and other symptoms associated with cancer and AIDS in some patients. What's more, the institute found no evidence that making marijuana available to sick patients by doctor's orders would increase its recreational use.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court recently took a decidedly narrow and rigid view and dealt a serious setback to the continued rational evaluation of marijuana for medical purposes. In a unanimous ruling, the high court determined that federal law bars the distribution of marijuana even to people who say they need it to alleviate symptoms of their illness. Federal law, according to an opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, "reflects a determination that marijuana has no medical benefits worthy of an exception." The ruling doesn't invalidate laws that permit medicinal use of marijuana in nine states, but it could have a chilling effect on other states even exploring such laws.  It could also spell doom for large public distribution centers of medicinal marijuana cigarettes, making it more difficult for the sick to relieve their misery, according to officials of the Marijuana Policy Project, which lobbies for medicinal marijuana laws.

While it's true, as opponents point out, that there are legal alternatives to medical marijuana, including a synthetic form of the active ingredient, evidence strongly suggests marijuana cigarettes are more effective in some cases in relieving nausea, which is associated with chemotherapy and wasting diseases, and neuromuscular pain.

We are not advocating recreational use of marijuana. But the national drug scourge has nothing to do with the medicinal use of this drug. The medicinal use of marijuana has everything to do with relieving suffering. The federal government should stop its political posturing and wake up to that fact.

Pubdate: Tue, 18 Mar 2003
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2003 The Register-Guard
Contact: rgletters@guardnet.com
Website: http://www.registerguard.com/

NETHERLANDS PHARMACIES DISPENSING POT
Just what the doctor ordered?

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Pharmacies may fill prescriptions for marijuana and patients can get the cost covered by insurance, according to a law that went into effect Monday.

Doctors in the famously liberal Netherlands have long recommended marijuana to cancer patients as an appetite enhancer and to combat pain and nausea. But it is usually bought at one of the country's 800 ``coffee shops,'' where the plant is sold openly while police look the other way.

The Dutch government will license several official growers later this year. In the meantime, pharmacies will have to decide for themselves where to get the marijuana.

Many pharmacies use marijuana distributed by Maripharm, a company that advertises its product as "standardized, vacuum-packed and bearing patient information and dose advice.''

Pubdate: Sat, 29 Mar 2003
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2003 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact: letters@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Author: Andrew Osborn, The Guardian

BELGIUM TO LEGALISE CANNABIS

BRUSSELS - The Belgian parliament has voted to legalise the personal use of cannabis, within certain guidelines, for anyone over the age of 18.

The move, which has been the subject of fierce debate in Belgium for the last two years, will allow users to smoke small quantities of the drug in private, provided they do not disturb public order.

Its sale will, however, remain illegal and Belgium will not tolerate Dutch-style coffee shops selling cannabis over the counter. Hard drugs will continue to be outlawed.

The possession of up to 5g of cannabis for personal use will no longer be punishable and police officers who find such quantities in routine searches will take no action.

The country's ruling coalition of Liberals, Socialists and Greens said it had been trying to decriminalise use of the soft drug since 2001.

The new law cleared the final hurdle after the Belgian senate voted by a margin of 30 to 19 to adopt it.

US MI: Editorial: Decriminalize Marijuana, ...
Pubdate: Tue, 30 Oct 2001
Source: Michigan Daily (MI Edu)
Copyright: 2001 The Michigan Daily
Contact: daily.letters@umich.edu
Website: http://www.michigandaily.com/

DECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA, U. S. MUST LOOK TO BRITAIN

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- One week ago, British Home Secretary David Blunkett announced that marijuana possession will no longer be punishable by arrest within the United Kingdom. The plans for reform by the Home Office mark the first significant relaxation in British cannabis law in 30 years. Under the new proposed national policy, marijuana will be reclassified as a "Class C" or "soft" drug, giving it the same status as antidepressants and other prescription drugs.

The United States should look to Britain's example of a more practical drug policy.

Blunkett made the announcement before Members of Parliament on the home affairs select committee and emphasized that the drug will still remain illegal and that distribution of the substance would still potentially carry a five-year penal sentence.

Yet according to the official proposals, arrests will be very unlikely for those smokers who are caught with small amounts of marijuana for personal use. British officials say the reclassification is designed to remove what they call the "policing anomaly," visible in that seven out of 10 drug arrests in the United Kingdom are for soft drug possession. British police, as American police should, want to devote more time to cracking down on the abuse of harder, more dangerous drugs like heroin and cocaine.

As it would in the U.S., the elimination of the arrest of pot smokers in Britain will allow a dedication of criminal justice facilities to violent crime.

Last week's proposal was recommended by the Home Office nearly 18 months ago; its official acceptance is the latest in a series of drug policy reforms occurring throughout Europe. Earlier this year, the governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal completely decriminalized the use and possession of marijuana. However, the prospect of similar drug policy reform in the Unites States looks bleak.

Marijuana solidly and illogically continues to bear Schedule I status -- along with heroin, cocaine, and LSD. The U.S. government continues to retain enormous ideological problems with all drugs, however innocuous they may be. With rapid cannabis reform coming from Europe and Canada -- where cannabis decriminalization is imminent, the United States is finding that it is fast becoming the odd one out in granting rights to responsible marijuana users.

It would seem that American policy makers are ironically far behind most Western nations in their attention to certain basic civil liberties.

The United States should indeed realize the folly of its over-exaggerated malign of recreational cannabis use and concentrate instead on crimes that actually pose a threat to society.

Pubdate: June 1999
Source: Reason Magazine (US)
Copyright: 1999 The Reason Foundation
Contact: letters@reason.com
Address: 3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90034-6064
Website: http://www.reason.com/
Author: Jacob Sullum, Senior Editor jsullum@reason.com
Note: For an easy-to-read copy of the IOM report, go to:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/6376.html