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1996-05-06
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From: Jim Rosenfield <jnr@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Grinspoon in NYT 12/4/94
Message-ID: <APC&1'0'58740e3c'690@igc.apc.org>
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 1994 00:26:16 -0800 (PST)
THE NEW YORK TfMES, MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1994
EDITORIALS/LETTERS
Marijuana for AIDS: A Drug-War Victim
To the Editor:
For many years, patients and their doctors have been unsuccessfully
petitioning the Government to allow the medical availability of marijuana.
Thousands of people suffering from AIDS, glaucoma, cancer, muscle spasms
and pain, among other conditions, have found marijuana useful, and it is
generally acknowledged to be less toxic than msny prescription drugs used
for the same purposes.
Unfortunately, it seems that we have decided to give the war on drugs
precedence over medical needs. Medical marijuana users have a justified
fear that their medicine will be taken away and they will be jailed. Many
users have already been charged and convicted despite both their serious
illnesses and the testimony of physicians that their patients were taking
marijuana for medical purposes. The Government takes the official position
that the scientific evidence is insufficient to prove marijuana's medical
usefulness, while apparently doing its best to prevent the research that
could provide such evidence.
Dr, Donald Abrams of the University of California at San Francisco is
seeking approval to study marijuana-smoking as a way of stimulating
appetite in patients suffering from the AIDS wasting syndrome. Thousands
of AIDS patients already use marijuana Illegally for this condition and
report good results. For two and a half years the Government has been
putting bureaucratic obstacles in Dr. Abrams's way.
On Friday, Dec. 9, Dr. Philip Lee, Assistant Secretary of Health, will
convene yet another meeting to diseuss the issue of smoking marijuana to
stimulate appetite in AIDS patients. Let's hope that concern for the health
of suffering people will finally prevail over drug-war ideology.
LESTER GRINSPOON, M.D.
JAMES B. BAKALAR
RICK DOBLIN
Boston, Nov. 30, 1994
Dr. Grinspoon und Mr Bakalar are on the faculty of Harvard Medical School;
Mr. Dublin is a graduate student at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of
Government.