Pubdate: Mon, 21 May 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Authors: Ken Mccallum, Eli Merritt, M.D., Christopher E. Cantino, 
Christopher E. Cantino, Joyce Nalepka

MARIJUANA AS A SCOURGE AND A SALVE

To the Editor:

Re "Setback on Medical Marijuana" (editorial, May 17):

In less than a year I will be old enough to smoke tobacco, a legal 
substance known to cause many health problems. However, if I developed 
cancer from cigarettes, I would not be allowed to smoke marijuana in order 
to treat side effects from chemotherapy, even with a doctor's 
recommendation. The legal substance could kill me; the substance with 
possible healing qualities is illegal.

It cannot reasonably be asserted that these drug policies are actually 
intended to help or protect people. While I do not know enough about 
federal drug laws to criticize the Supreme Court for its ruling against 
medicinal marijuana, I do think Congress should consider changing 
marijuana's status as a "drug with no currently accepted medical use."

KEN MCCALLUM

Wheaton, Ill., May 17, 2001

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To the Editor:

Re "Setback on Medical Marijuana" (editorial, May 17):

As a physician with training in end-of-life care as well as psychiatry, I 
know that medical marijuana is a double-edged sword. Undoubtedly, marijuana 
is an effective treatment for the weight loss accompanying AIDS, cancer and 
other chronic debilitating illnesses.

Yet medical marijuana is also a substance of abuse. Increasingly, patients 
with severe emotional disorders have been obtaining marijuana from their 
doctors for problems ranging from headaches and asthma to schizophrenia and 
psychogenic arm paralysis. Where once there was a headache compounded by 
depression, patients may now suffer from addiction to marijuana.

Given the availability of other medications, the damages of medical 
marijuana outweigh the benefits. If it remains accessible, however, the 
drug should be far more difficult to obtain. It should be prescribed for 
well-defined, limited purposes and require a continuing medical-psychiatric 
process of review.

ELI MERRITT, M.D.

Stanford, Calif., May 17, 2001

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To the Editor:

The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 0 that the use of medical 
marijuana is illegal (front page, May 15). How can anyone deny a remedy to 
people suffering with AIDS, cancer or glaucoma? The authority of the 
all-knowing federal government just keeps growing.

CHRISTOPHER E. CANTINO

Austin, Tex., May 15, 2001

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To the Editor:

Re "Justices Set Back Use of Marijuana to Treat Sickness" (front page, May 15):

Marijuana has no therapeutic value. Studies have found that the THC in 
marijuana actually destroys the immune-system cells, called lymphocytes, 
that are also impaired by the AIDS virus -- putting AIDS patients who smoke 
pot in double jeopardy.

The National Institutes of Health found that "both animal and human studies 
have shown that marijuana impairs the ability of T-cells in the lungs' 
immune defense system to fight off some infections" and that "people with 
H.I.V. and other diseases of the immune system should avoid marijuana use."

The Food and Drug Administration is the agency with the jurisdiction to 
approve anything as medicine. Certainly, approval of medicines is not the 
job of voters.

JOYCE NALEPKA

President, Drug Free Kids: America's Challenge

Silver Spring, Md., May 15, 2001
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom