Pubdate: Sat, 01 Jun 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Reed Irvine

Medical Marijuana

To the Editor:

A May 25 editorial says the effort to block the use of marijuana as 
medicine "flies in the face of mainstream medical opinion." It says, "One 
Harvard study of 2,000 oncologists found that 44 percent had recommended 
marijuana to patients undergoing chemotherapy."

This was a 1991 project by a Harvard professor and a student. Their 
questionnaire was sent to 2,430 oncologists. Most had never recommended 
marijuana and favored prescribing THC pills over smoking pot. Wouldn't that 
be the mainstream?

A lead author of a 1999 Institute of Medicine report warned that marijuana 
is so toxic that it should be limited to carefully controlled situations 
involving terminally ill patients or those whose suffering is not relieved 
by other treatment.

This is not what the movement to legalize medical marijuana is seeking.

REED IRVINE Chairman, Accuracy in Media Washington, May 30, 2002
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens