Article 7359 of alt.drugs: Path: boulder!agate!apple!uokmax!unmvax!nmt.edu!zia.aoc.nrao.edu!gcondon From: gcondon@zia.aoc.nrao.edu (Gary Condon) Newsgroups: alt.drugs Subject: Medical Marijuana Message-ID: <1991Aug16.062118.2752@zia.aoc.nrao.edu> Date: 16 Aug 91 06:21:18 GMT Distribution: alt.drugs Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro NM Lines: 82 Here you go, folks. I saw this while wasting my time away at work and I thought there might be some interest out there. I've never transcribed an article before and, consequently, never realized how laborious it is. I'd just like to thank everyone who spends the time entering the articles we all find interesting/infuriating. All the typos are mine but I think I got most of the buggers :-) ********************************************************************** This article is from the July 6-12, 1991 issue of the Economist (reproduced entirely without permission) (title) Medical Marijuana: Cross-eyed and Painless (byline: Cambridge, Massachusetts) Drugs can be medicinal or recreational: marijuana is both. For nearly 20 years advocates of its medicinal use- to relieve the nausea of chemotherapy, to treat glaucoma and to help AIDS patients gain weight- have fought in the American courts to have the drug reclassified so that doctors can prescribe it. Currently marijuana is grouped with the most disapproved of drugs, such as LSD and heroin. The government argues it must remain so because it has no "currently accepted medical use in treatment". A new study by researchers at Harvard refutes this. Mainly because of its effectiveness in treating the vomiting common among cancer patients during chemotherapy, tetrahydrocannibinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, was approved for medical use in America in 1985. A synthetic form of THC is sold in pill form under the trade name Marinol; last year almost 100,000 doses were prescribed. Smokable marijuana, however, is available to just 34 people through a "compassionate use" programme. To the confusion of many a police officer, these patients are given a supply of marijuana cigarettes rolled by government hands at a research farm in Mississippi. Proponents claim that smoking marijuana works better than taking oral THC. In 1988 Francis Young, a judge who examines administrative issues for the Drug Enforcement Agency, recommended that marijuana be reclassified on the ground that "current acceptance" of a drug is present if a "respectable minority" of doctors endorse it. The administration disagreed, claiming that the vast majority of doctors believe oral THC is as reliable and effective as smokable marijuana and produces fewer side-effects. Enter Rick Doblin and Mark Kleiman, two drug-policy researchers at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. To test the administrations thesis, they conducted a random survey of members of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Some 1,035 responded, about 10% of America's oncologists. The results, published in the July 1st issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, surprised even Mr. Doblin and Mr. Kleiman; nearly half of the respondents said they would prescribe smokable marijuana if it were legal. Indeed 44% of them said they had, in effect, done so already by recommending it to one or more of their patients, despite the possibility of prosecution. Nearly two-thirds of the oncologists agreed that marijuana was an effective anti-emetic, while 77% of the 157 who expressed a preference said that smokable marijuana is more effective than oral THC. A majority said that marijuana was no worse than Marinol in terms of producing bad side-effects. Predictably, such numbers have the Bush administration's drug-policy office all out of sorts. Not long ago it chided Mr. Young by suggesting that only one in 200 doctors would support medical use of marijuana, and that this was not a "respectable minority". When some of Mr. Doblin and Mr. Kleiman's results were published recently as a letter in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the adverse publicity led Herbert Kleber, number two in the drug-policy office, to declare that anyone who really needed medical marijuana could get it through the compassionate-use programme within 30 days. But last week the administration admitted it was planning to limit that already tiny programme. Now, under strong pressure from AIDS activists-marijuana has proved especially helpful to people taking AZT to fight the AIDS virus- Mr. Kleber has said he will soon call an inter-agency meeting to decide what to do. Meanwhile a federal appeals court judge has rejected the government's response to Mr. Young's recommendation that marijuana be reclassified. The court said the government's interpretation of "current acceptance" was impossible to meet. Despite all this, the administration is unlikely to yield. There are other, non-medical issues at stake. One official agreed that to admit that marijuana might ever be "safe and effective" would make a mockery of the government's strident anti-drugs campaign. In some ways the research by Mr. Doblin and Mr. Kleiman already has. (end of article) the article can be found in The Economist, vol. 320, number 7714, pp.87 Article 7487 of alt.drugs: Path: boulder!csn!ub!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!uunet!midway!quads!den0 From: den0@quads.uchicago.edu (funky chicken) Newsgroups: alt.drugs Subject: Re: Medical Marijuana Message-ID: <1991Aug20.203311.9442@midway.uchicago.edu> Date: 20 Aug 91 20:33:11 GMT References: <1991Aug16.062118.2752@zia.aoc.nrao.edu> Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (NewsMistress) Distribution: alt.drugs Organization: University of Chicago Lines: 54 Anonymous sent me the abstract and asked that I post it. Marijuana as Antiemetic Medicine: A Survey of Oncologists' Experiences and Attitudes by Richard Doblin and Mark A. R. Kleiman Abstract: A random-sample anonymous survey of the members of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) was conducted in the spring of 1990 measuring the attitudes and experiences of American oncologists concerning the antiemetic use of marijuana in cancer chemotherapy patients. The survey was mailed to about one-third (N = 2430) of all U.S.-based ASCO members and yielded a response rate of 43% (1035). More than 44% of the respondents report recommending the (illegal) use of marijuana for the control of emesis to at least one cancer chemotherapy patient. Almost half (48%) would prescribe marijuana to some of their patients if it were legal. As a group, respondents considered (smoked) marijuana to be somewhat more effective than the legally available (oral) synthetic THC (Marinol) and roughly as safe. Of the respondents who expressed an opinion, a majority (54%) thought marijuana should be available by prescription. These results bear on the question of whether mariujana has a "currently accepted medical use," an issue in an ongoing administrative and legal dispute concerning whether marijuana in smoked form should be available by prescription along with synthetic THC in oral form. This survey demonstrates that oncologists' experience with the medical use of marijuana is more extensive, and their opinions of it more favorable, than the regulatory authorities appear to have believed. --------- (End quote.) The above was printed w/o permission, and I don't know where the study will be (has been?) published. It is an important article for legalization activists. Kleiman, BTW, has written a book on Marijuana regulation (title escapes me) and is working on one on drug policy in general. He has some unusual views, but is very well spoken. Believes that cocaine should remain illegal. Believes that everyone should need a license to drink in bars (card everyone) and that there should be a limit to how much a person can purchase at a liquor store. Convicted DUI drivers would have their license to drink in bars taken away, so that they can only drink at home. With the limit on personal purchases of alcohol, people would be unwilling to buy for minors, although several people could still pool their credits together for parties. Believes in loosening restrictions on MJ, although I don't know what that means. Believes in seizing cars of people who caught driving from crack neighborhoods with crack. I may be misrepresenting and I am certainly simplifying his views. As I said, he's a persuasive speaker. When I saw him, he began by explictly arguing against the J. S. Mill type of paternalism arguments which Grinspoon used in _Drug Control in a Free Society_. --Matt F. Article 10854 of alt.drugs: Path: ucsu!boulder!csn!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!amdcad!pyramid!pta!swift!peg!aldis From: aldis@peg.pegasus.oz.au Newsgroups: alt.drugs Subject: SF Votes 4-1 for Medical Hemp Message-ID: <225100089@peg> Date: 8 Nov 91 21:16:46 GMT Lines: 20 Nf-ID: #N:peg:225100089:000:1084 Nf-From: peg.pegasus.oz.au!aldis Nov 8 10:21:00 1991 /* Written 12:31 am Nov 7, 1991 by canorml in peg:norml.hemp */ /* ---------- "SF Votes 4-1 for Medical Hemp" ---------- */ Nov. 6th, 1991: San Francisco voters overwhelmingly endorsed Proposition P, calling for legalized prescription use of medical marijuana. Final returns showed Proposition P with 79.5% yes votes, more than any other ballot proposition including one affirming the city's support for the First Amendment. Proposition P received the endorsement of all of the city's newspapers, as well as the Democratic Central Committee, Mayor Agnos, and other leading mayoral candidates. It was opposed by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Republican Party. Organizers of Prop. P expressed their thanks to the voters of San Francisco for their humanity and compassion, and vowed to work with city officials to guarantee patients' access to medical marijuana. Proposition P puts the city on record as recommending legalized use of hemp medication on prescription, but does not alter current state or federal laws. Article 10855 of alt.drugs: Path: ucsu!boulder!csn!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!amdcad!pyramid!pta!swift!peg!aldis From: aldis@peg.pegasus.oz.au Newsgroups: alt.drugs Subject: Dying Cancer Patient Jailed for MJ Message-ID: <225100090@peg> Date: 8 Nov 91 21:16:46 GMT Lines: 28 Nf-ID: #N:peg:225100090:000:1433 Nf-From: peg.pegasus.oz.au!aldis Nov 8 10:22:00 1991 /* Written 12:32 am Nov 7, 1991 by canorml in peg:norml.hemp */ /* ---------- "Dying Cancer Patient Jailed for MJ" ---------- */ Coquille, Oregon: Gordon Farrell, a terminal cancer patient, is in the second week of solitary confinement in the Coos County jail serving a sentence for cultivation of marijuana. Farrell was sentenced to 60 days in jail by Judge Wallberg of the Coos County Circuit Court despite letters from three doctors warning that the sentence could prove fatal. Farrell, called a "living miracle of survival" by one doctor, was given three months to live, but has survived for two years since thanks to a rigorous regimen of diet, vitamins and exercise, aided by marijuana for pain control. Farrell pled guilty to cultivating marijuana for his medical use, while insisting that he was innocent of criminal intent. Friends are seriously concerned that Gordon's imprisonment is destroying his ability to sustain his health. Gordon reports that he has lost nearly 15 pounds since being jailed, and recently suffered his first grand mal seizure in months. His diet forbids chlorinated water, but he was refused distilled water until he began drinking his own urine instead. Friends are urged to voice their support for Gordon, whose sentence is on appeal, by contacting Judge Wallberg, Coos County Circuit Court, Coquille OR 97423: (503) 396-3121; FAX: (503) 396-3456. - Nov. 3, 1991 From ACTIV-L@UMCVMB.BITNET Sun Dec 1 00:03:16 1991 Received: from vaxf.Colorado.EDU by tramp.Colorado.EDU with SMTP id AA10156 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4/CNS-2.1 for ); Sun, 1 Dec 1991 00:03:12 -0700 Received: from cmsa.Berkeley.EDU (MAILER@UCBCMSA) by VAXF.COLORADO.EDU with PMDF#10034; Sun, 1 Dec 1991 00:02 MST Received: from UCBCMSA.BITNET by cmsa.Berkeley.EDU (Mailer R2.08 R208004) with BSMTP id 1768; Sat, 30 Nov 91 23:01:08 PST Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1991 01:56:27 EST From: Harel Barzilai Subject: ALERT: Dying Cancer Patient Jailed for MJ Sender: Activists Mailing List To: Multiple recipients of list ACTIV-L Reply-To: Activists Mailing List Message-Id: X-Envelope-To: andersom@TRAMP.COLORADO.EDU Status: R - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Topic 134 Dying Cancer Patient Jailed for MJ canorml Industrial Uses Of The Hemp Plant 12:32 am Nov 7, 1991 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Coquille, Oregon: Gordon Farrell, a terminal cancer patient, is in the second week of solitary confinement in the Coos County jail serving a sentence for cultivation of marijuana. Farrell was sentenced to 60 days in jail by Judge Wallberg of the Coos County Circuit Court despite letters from three doctors warning that the sentence could prove fatal. Farrell, called a "living miracle of survival" by one doctor, was given three months to live, but has survived for two years since thanks to a rigorous regimen of diet, vitamins and exercise, aided by marijuana for pain control. Farrell pled guilty to cultivating marijuana for his medical use, while insisting that he was innocent of criminal intent. Friends are seriously concerned that Gordon's imprisonment is destroying his ability to sustain his health. Gordon reports that he has lost nearly 15 pounds since being jailed, and recently suffered his first grand mal seizure in months. His diet forbids chlorinated water, but he was refused distilled water until he began drinking his own urine instead. Friends are urged to voice their support for Gordon, whose sentence is on appeal, by contacting Judge Wallberg, Coos County Circuit Court, Coquille OR 97423: (503) 396-3121; FAX: (503) 396-3456. - Nov. 3, 1991 ################################################################## Background: ################################################################## ============================================= U.S. war on drugs claims medical victims, too ============================================= People suffering from AIDS, cancer and some other painful diseases are being victimized by the Bush administration's war on drugs, according to organizers seeking reform of the nation's marijuana laws. Late last month, the National Organization to Reform the Marijuana Laws (NORML) held a three-day lobbying session in Washington to convince legislators of the values of the illicit plant. [Aside from Cockburn's columns, the Nation, ITT, etc, usually don't think to include group's addresses/tels -HB] Robert Randall, founder of the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics (ACT), has argued for a decade that marijuana is of great medicinal value and should be made available in appropriate cases. An estimated 30 million Americans consume the drug on at least on occasional basis, even though its possession is treated as a crime in most of the 50 states. At present, only five persons [!] in the U.S. are legally permitted to smoke marijuana. One of them, a bone cancer patient, uses it as a muscle relaxant, while another find it helpful in reducing the severity of his spasmodic seizures. The three remaining individuals, all afflicted with glaucoma, are able to take advantage of marijuana's documented ability to alleviate pain associated with this eye disease. Randall, who is among the three glaucoma patients, was the first American to win the right to use marijuana as a therapeutic agent. Through ACT, he now assists others engaged in the arduous and protracted effort to gain legal access to the drug. Randall's Washington-based organization came close two years ago to achieving a major breakthrough. Ruling on a suit brought by the alliance, an administrative judge with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agreed that marijuana's legal status should be changed. Judge Francis Young concluded that marijuana ought to be removed from the DEA's "Schedule One," which includes drugs regarded as addicting and entirely lacking in medicinal properties. LSD and heroin are also proscribed under the same category. Young ruled in favor of ACT's contention that marijuana should be place on Schedule Two, which lists addicting drugs that do have therapeutic uses. Cocaine is included on that roster. [Note: I remember my 10th grade social studies teacher telling us of cocaine having been used as a pain killer for her following eye surgery -HB] Such action would allow physicians to prescribe marijuana while retaining the current prohibition against its general use. In announcing his decision, Young described the drug as "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." In December 1989, however, the DEA's overseers decreed that marijuana would remain on Schedule One despite Young's ruling. ACT is appealing that order, but many observers believe that the federal government will strongly resist any attempt to ease restriction on marijuana use. "It would be a big public-relations loss for DEA to admit that marijuana has any therapeutic value," says John Dunlap, a spokesman for NORML. "They're going to keep fighting very hard." The publicity barrage accompanying the war on drugs is part of what makes it difficult to gains official approval for use of marijuana as a medicinal agent. "Doctors are very leery about openly recommending marijuana use because of the whole atmosphere created by the war on drugs," says Mary Lynn Mathre, head of NORML's council on marijuana and health. "They're afraid they'll be suspected of being lenient about illegal drugs." Still, pressure continues to mount for liberalization of the government's attitude toward therapeutic marijuana use. Recently, for example, a researcher at a university in Florida reported that the active ingredient in Cannabis destroyed the herpes virus in test-tube experiments. Because millions of Americans are afflicted with some form of herpes, that finding may potentially be of great political significance. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [Article by Kevin Kelley in In These Times, Sept. 19-25, 1990] Call or write your representatives and let them know how you feel about this! Email me if you'd like the address to write to to get a free issue of In These Times (ITT). Please email me the address/tel of NORML (or other "serious") related groups, to be added to the Activist Mailing List's (AML) resource file "groups" ****************************************************************** Below are excerpts from AML resource file "govt.tels" ****************************************************************** Toll-free number for U.S. Congress switchboard (800) 852-3446 Local number of U.S. Congress switchboard (202) 224-3121 [When you reach the Capitol Hill switchboard, simply ask to be connected to the office of the Member, Senator or committee you want to reach. Please call during normal business hours on the East Coast.] White House: (202)-456-7639 ================================================================== Senator ____ ____ Representarive ____ ____ United States Senate U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20515 ******************************************************************