Pubdate: Sat, 08 Jun 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Section: Editorial/Op-Ed
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Rick Doblin, Mark A.R. Kleiman
Note: The writers are, respectively, president of the Multidisciplinary 
Association for Psychedelic Studies and director of the drug policy 
analysis program, University of California at Los Angeles
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1029/a05.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n983/a03.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MARIJUANA STUDIES

To the Editor:

A June 1 letter said that our 1991 Harvard survey of oncologists and 
medical marijuana found that a majority of respondents favored prescribing 
THC pills over smoking marijuana. Actually, only 13 percent of the doctors 
favored the pills, while 44 percent favored smoking and 43 percent found 
them equally effective.

We appreciate that your May 25 editorial cited our work, but want to 
reinforce that our survey did not establish the drug's medical value. We 
asked for doctors' opinions, and even expert opinion is no substitute for 
experimental data. Unfortunately, definitive experiments required by the 
Food and Drug Administration have not been done, in part because the 
National Institute on Drug Abuse has been using its monopoly over research 
marijuana to hinder studies.

Such tests could not only resolve the question of efficacy, but also 
explore means of administration other than smoking, like vaporizers.

RICK DOBLIN MARK, A. R. KLEIMAN

Belmont, Mass., June 4, 2002
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager