>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <260d01bf3b75$2e6fbb30$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Boston Globe on medical marijuana >Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 12:55:02 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Pubdate: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 >Source: Boston Globe (MA) >Copyright: 1999 Globe Newspaper Company. >Contact: letter@globe.com >Address: P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378 >Feedback: http://extranet1.globe.com/LettersEditor/ >Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/ >Author: Delores Kong, Globe Staff > >MARIJUANA POLICY FOR ILL DRAWS CRITICS > >In an indication of growing public support for legalizing marijuana for >medical use, scores of celebrities, health officials, and members of >Congress joined yesterday in protesting a new US medical marijuana research >policy for lacking compassion and being "too cumbersome." > >The policy spells out the conditions under which studies involving marijuana >can be conducted: conditions that critics say are so stringent as to make >the research virtually impossible. Critics also argue that current policy >fails to allow a sufficient number of medically approved patients to receive >marijuana through "compassionate use" programs. > >Signing on to letters of protest yesterday were actors Susan Sarandon and >Woody Harrelson; comedians Richard Pryor and Bill Maher; Harvard scientist >Stephen Jay Gould; rock band Hootie & The Blowfish; former US surgeon >general Joycelyn Elders; and former Reagan administration official Lyn >Nofziger. > >Massachusetts Democratic Representatives Barney Frank, James P. McGovern, >and John W. Olver also joined the effort, along with US representatives from >around the country, including three Republicans. > >The letters, addressed to Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna >Shalala, come just weeks after Maine became the sixth state to legalize >medical marijuana through a ballot question. The other states are >California, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, which allow certain >patients to both grow and smoke their own, or allow them to possess it >legally. Marijuana is used medically to control nausea and other effects of >cancer treatment and ease symptoms of AIDS and other conditions. > >While an attempt in Massachusetts to bring the issue to the voters in next >year's elections fell short of getting the necessary signatures by this >month's deadline, organizers of the effort vow to try again. > >"We know the people of Massachusetts really support doctors' ability to >prescribe marijuana," said Bill Downing, president and chairman of MASS >CANN/NORML, the state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of >Marijuana Laws that helped get more than 20,000 signatures in support of a >ballot question to legalize medical marijuana and change other aspects of >the law but fell short of the nearly 60,000 signatures required. > >Since the early 1990s, Massachusetts has had a research program on the books >that would allow medically approved patients to get marijuana under >controlled conditions, but the state Department of Public Health has never >been able to get legal access to the drug from the US government. > >Even the new US research guidelines that go into effect tomorrow will not >give patients access to the Massachusetts program, said Paul Jacobsen, >deputy public health commissioner. "It basically doesn't provide us with an >approvable source" for the drug, said Jacobsen. "We have our program. It's >up, it can run, but without a source, it's a moot point." > >A US Department of Health and Human Services spokesman could not be reached >for comment yesterday. > >In the meantime, patients like Jim Harden, 49, of Virginia, are in pain and >angry at the government policy. Harden was one of the patients cited in a >recent federally commissioned Institute of Medicine report as someone who >should have legal access to medical marijuana, as only eight other patients >nationwide do right now under a US program that stopped admitting people >years ago. The report urged the federal government to expand compassionate >use programs. > >At a news conference in Washington yesterday, Harden got up from his >wheelchair, holding a copy of that institute's report, to tell his story. > >In a telephone interview later, Harden described his health problems over >the last three years, from end-stage liver disease as a result of hepatitis >contracted from a blood transfusion to chronic pain as a result of being >crushed by a drill while working as a geologist to the nausea caused by the >medications he uses. > >"I used to have 17-inch biceps and a 46-inch chest. Now I have a 34-inch >chest and my biceps are around 10 inches," he said. "Marijuana allows me to >eat," said Harden, who has only been able to get the drug illegally. "The >marijuana was really instrumental in saving my life, in allowing me to live >so long." > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: