Cover Headline: THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA WARS - "Pot is the only thing that stops the pain."

PRESCRIPTION POTHEADS

WHAT’S A NICE GIRL LIKE YOU DOING WITH A JOINT LIKE THIS? TAKING HER

MEDICINE - AND RISKING A JAIL TERM. NOW THAT MARIJUANA IS USED TO TREAT EVERYTHING FROM AIDS TO ANOREXIA, MORE AND MORE YOUNG WOMEN ARE BECOMING CASUALTIES OF THE WAR ON DRUGS.

One late night last June, Lee, 22 and two of her friends pulled their car over to a curb in crime-ridden downtown Oakland. They wanted to buy marijuana, which Lee smoked every day. She was completely out, and couldn’t get in touch with her regular contact, a dealer-slash-friend. So there she was, on a dark, desolate corner where she’d heard she could score some weed.

A man rode up on a bicycle. "You want a twenty-dollar bag.?" he asked. Lee, who was in the driver’s seat, sensed danger as she put the bill in his hand. Sure enough, he whipped out a knife. "Give me all your jewelry and money," he ordered. When he leaned into the car, Lee noticed a gun peeking out of his jacket. She pulled three rings off her left hand. On was a cherished friendship band her god-sister had give her seven years ago, when Lee tested positive for the HIV virus.

That late night in June, she couldn’t stop throwing up. "I felt like all my insides had flooded out, and I realized my last dose of ATZ for the day was way past due," she says. At that moment, Lee felt she was living the domino effect: She had to smoke to eat. She had to eat to take her medicine. She had to take her medicine to stay alive.

But as miserable as she was without marijuana, scoring some could have landed her in jail. It’s against federal law to buy the drug - even if you’re a patient using it as medicine. And the law is not above incarcerating the very sick: An estimated 350 terminally or chronically ill patients are serving terms for growing or smoking marijuana. Six thousand or more are arrested each year. Lee could have been one of them.

"The government approach is inhumane," says Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., an advocacy group that wants to legalize medical marijuana. "They bust ill patients’ doors down, drag them downtown, take their mug shot and throw them in jail like common criminals."

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) admits Lee could do time if she were caught with as little as one joint. "We’re not out looking for AIDS patients, but people who use marijuana are breaking the law," says DEA spokesperson Rogene Waite. "And we follow the law on this."

Meanwhile, some members of Congress are trying to make sure the law stays restrictive. The House of Representatives is expected to vote this fall on the first-ever anti-medical marijuana legislation, Resolution 372, introduced by Rep. Bill McCollum (R.-Florida). It would be a major step toward derailing efforts by five states and the District of Columbia to legalize medical marijuana.
(Ed. note: Fortunately, the House resolution is non-binding and will have little impact on the various initiatives. The voters have already demonstrated their contempt for the opinion of the politicians by passing Prop 215 and Prop 200.)

The Criminally Ill?

Marijuana is illegal, but it’s also good medicine. Ninety human studies indicate that cannabis sativa (the species name for marijuana) relieves many of the symptoms that accompany AIDS, multiple sclerosis (MS), epilepsy and chemotherapy treatment for cancer. Unfortunately, most of the studies have not met strict Food and Drug Administration guidelines, and the FDA has not approved further research. So marijuana remains classified with LSD and heroin as a Schedule 1 drug (that means it’s highly addictive, has no therapeutic value and can’t be prescribed by a physician).

There are three main medical uses for marijuana; as an antinauseant and an appetite stimulant (for AIDS and chemo patients); as an antispasmodic, or muscle relaxant (for spasms that accompany MS, epilepsy and paraplegia). Most of the medical establishment - including the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Public Health Association and many state nurses’ organizations - support research into therapeutic use of this versatile drug.

There’s also plenty of anecdotal evidence indicating that marijuana provides relief from migraine, PMS and anorexia nervosa. Centuries ago, woman used cannabis to ease labor: In 1994, a 1,600-year-old tomb was unearthed near Jerusalem, revealing remnants of marijuana in the abdominal cavity of a teenage girl who apparently died in childbirth.

Still, physicians are forbidden by federal law to prescribe it, and even in states where they can (Arizona, Connecticut, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin), doctors are warned by the federal government that they risk prosecution, and patients can’t legally obtain it. "Marijuana has never been recorded to have caused a single death in thousands of years," says Lester Grinspoon, M.D., a Harvard psychiatric professor and author of Marihuana, the Forbidden Medicine (Yale University Press, 1997). "Nor has THC" - the active chemical in marijuana - "been demonstrated to harm any organ system or tissue, even after millions spent by the government to find toxicity."

Recently, the White House spent a million more: In February 1996, it commissioned the Institute of Medicine, a D.C.-based arm of the National Institutes of Health, to study the research on smoked marijuana’s medicinal properties. Results should be announced before the end of 1998.

At the moment, the White House argues that legalizing marijuana - even for patients - would send the wrong message to children. "Marijuana is dangerous," says Brian Morton, spokesman for the Office of National Drug Policy, which reports directly to the President. "Walk into any drug-abuse treatment center and a teenager will tell you that marijuana is addictive and has ruined her life."

Opponents of legalization believe that advocates are using the medical issue as a Trojan horse. "Many people out there are wishing as hard as they can for a back door to open so that they can smoke pot and say, Oh, cool, this is medicine," says Morton.

Advocates who believe that marijuana should be used strictly as medicine are lobbying the FDA to test and approve therapeutic cannabis. Considering the FDA’s labyrinthine process, approval is millions of dollars and many years away. What will Lee - and the tens of thousand of other patients smoking marijuana - do in the meantime?

A Different Kind Of Health Club

Ever since Lee was robbed, she has been replenishing her supply at the club. There are nearly two dozen cannabis clubs in California. During the ‘80s, they operated underground. Then in November 1996,California became the first state to pass an initiative - Proposition 215 - allowing doctors to recommend marijuana, and patients to possess and grow it for their own use. But because Proposition 215 does not mention clubs specifically, the question of their legality is still up in the air, causing members constant anxiety over the possibility of raids (three clubs have been raided in recent years), jail time and being forced to by marijuana on the streets.

Although state officials have accused clubs of promoting a let’s-party atmosphere (and, truth be told, some of San Francisco’s clubs have a reputation for being lax in their controls, casting suspicion on all the rest), Oakland’s Cooperative has a distinctly unfestive atmosphere. With its sparse rooms and fluorescent overhead lights, the club resembles a rundown office. Members must show photo Ids to two security guards posted at the entrance to every room, and again when they purchase the cannabis. They’re restricted to buying a quarter-ounce a day; if they buy more they get a verbal warning.

If they ignore it, they can be banned from the club for life. The club sells a variety of strains, from "Sativa," which quiets nausea, to the ironically named "Government’s Choice," which relieves pain. Also sold on the premises; pipes and rolling papers; tinctures to drink in tea; and marijuana-laced brownies and banana nut muffins prepared by the club’s baker.

But none of these goodies tempt Lee. "I used to love food," she says. "I loved anything fattening. My favorite foods used to be french fries, cashews and pistachios." Her appetite vanished after she contracted HIV. During the summer following her high school graduation, Lee went from 130 pounds to 105 pounds. By February, her weight dropped to 90 pounds. She couldn’t eat or sleep; had sever pains from neuropathy, an ATZ-related disorder; and was, understandably, depressed.

At that time, the FDA had approved only two medications for AIDS wasting syndrome: Megace, a hormone that promotes weight gain, but which nauseated Lee; and Marinol, synthetic THC. But researchers haven’t yet figured out how to separate the therapeutic elements in THC from the narcotic ones. And since THC’s rate of absorption is highly variable - even for the same patient at different times of the day - and Marinol’s effects take an hour to be felt, patients are unable to regulate the amount of the drug they take in. "Marinol made me so high, all I could do was sit and stare at the wall," says Lee. And at $300 a month, it was prohibitively expensive: Lee receives $475 monthly from Social Security (because of her unpredictable health, she hasn’t been able to hold down a job) and her rent is $425.

Frustrated, her doctor finally told her, "Your biggest problems are that you can’t eat or sleep. Since he Marinol didn’t work, you should smoke a joint." So Lee did - and gained 30 pounds in three months. Smoking pot is the only way to keep weight on," Lee says. It also lets her sleep and soothes her anxiety: I hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep since I was raped," she says, "Now, I don’t wake up screaming."

For the next two years, Lee smoked marijuana and maintained a weight of about 120. But then she began to feel guilty: "I started to think I was a drug addict. And I didn’t like getting high because I felt like I was out of control." The way social-service workers treated her reinforced those fears: "I told them what I was using medically: AZT, Delaverdine - a protease inhibitor - and marijuana. They said, ‘No, marijuana is a drug,’ and marked me down as a substance abuser."

Lee began to hate the smell of pot. The taste stuck in her throat like cough medicine. So she stopped smoking. "I dropped down to 95 pounds and landed in the hospital. I told myself, Whether you feel like a drug abuser or not, you have to smoke. It’s not an option, just as my AIDS medications aren’t an option," she says. "I would love to throw marijuana out the window, along with AZT. But until the FDA approves something that works, it’s the only choice I have."

(Ed. note: The preceding two paragraphs indicate how brainwashed the medical profession and even patients have become. If a person is dependent on a prescription drug, that is okay. But if a person gets real benefit from marijuana, this "dependence" is "drug abuse" and the patient is treated with contempt and encouraged to feel guilty.)

The Fight For Tokers’ Rights

Traci, 25, is another member of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative. She suffers from an eating disorder, which began when she was 11, shortly after her parents divorced. "Not eating makes you sick, makes you feel weak," says Traci. "I had to take a nap the second I got home from school." Last November, she caught pneumonia because her immune system was weak. She was throwing up uncontrollably, and lost 20 pounds. "I had to go to the emergency room, where they put me on fluids for 11 days."

When she got out, a friend who’s heard that marijuana can help eating disorders offered her a joint. "After we smoked, I was like, Gee, I’m hungry. I wanted to eat for the first time in my life," Traci says, still marveling at the effect marijuana has had on her. Her doctor, relieved, recommended it so she could buy it at the Oakland club. Soon, Traci was growing her own cannabis in her bedroom closet, and she gained 22 pounds in five months. "I buy clones, which are small plants, at the club," says Traci. "It takes nine weeks to yield a half-ounce, enough to last for two weeks." That’s a massive savings - each plant costs $8, while the street value for a half-ounce is $150-$200. "If marijuana were legal, the street price would drop, and more patients could afford to buy it," she points out.

When her plants aren’t mature enough for use, Traci buys from the club. She pulls a bag out of her purse, marked "not for resale." See this? This is dirt weed, called Bammer. It was only $16. I mix it with this" - she whips out another bag, containing the Bomb, which costs $55 - "which averages out to a cost of about $30 a week. It lasts longer and still helps me eat." What if the club were shut down? "I have some seeds put away," she says.

"Worst case" I’d go to the streets."

The dangers of street purchases aside, Traci doesn’t relish certain aspects of marijuana. "It messes with my equilibrium. I bump into stuff more," she says. "Ill knock into the side of a table, and my dad will look at me like, ‘Hello - you’re stoned.’" Lee describes her side effects in terms of mental incapacity: "My short-term memory is shot," she says flatly. "I recommend that anyone who smokes medicinally keep a daily record of their medications. Sometimes when I’m high, I don’t remember if I’m on my first or second AZT dosage."

Many doctors believe cannabis is too untested to justify use by anyone not suffering from a terminal illness. This reasoning leaves Traci out in the cold. Three weeks after meeting her, I call to ask for her response to those who believe that her disorder isn’t serious enough to merit marijuana use. She has just eaten dinner and seems slightly fuzzy, but when her answer comes, it’s sharp and focused. "I would tell these people hat they’re wrong," she says. "I don’t use marijuana lightly. A healthy person shouldn’t smoke it just because they are stressed out. But look at me - I just ate dinner. This medicine has changed my life."

"I Don’t Use Marijuana Lightly"

On her honeymoon in November Nita noticed that her pants didn’t fit quite right. One month later, she felt a mass in her abdomen. "The doctors did a sonogram and, at first thought it was a cyst," says Nita, 32, a nurse in Washington, D.C. "They did surgery two months later and discovered it was ovarian cancer." Her doctors decided to ill any vestiges of the cancer with chemotherapy.

Even with Nita’s nursing experience, chemo was more than she was prepared for: "I didn’t know my bones could ache. I felt like I was eighty years old, and disintegrating from the inside out." The treatment was more than her new husband could handle, too. "I was getting sicker and sicker," Nita explains. They divorced a year later.

During her first round with chemotherapy, she took Compazine for the nausea. "It caused restlessness - I could not sit or lie still, and had to walk constantly to get any relief, she says. Then her doctor prescribed Tigan, another antinauseant, which had the same side effect. After that came Ativan, which helped her eat, but "I was becoming addicted, and it was distressing to have to take five Ativans to not be nauseous. So finally, I gave up."

That’s when Nita started using marijuana. She had smoked it recreationally after college and found that it worked on her insomnia. "This time, it helped me with my eating, nausea and depression." She continued smoking it for a year after chemo to counter the deep funk she had sunk into. "I found that marijuana made me face the things in my life that kept me depressed," she says.

She liked the therapeutic effect so much, she kept right on smoking even after she fully recovered - and discovered a disquieting effect. "When I became well, marijuana gave me auditory hallucinations," Nita says. "I heard voices, people talking to me who weren’t around." She hasn’t smoked since. Nita still thinks the benefits of cannabis outweigh its risks: "It seems cruel to withhold such a powerful medicine."

Besides, there are ways to take cannabis without smoking it. Nita talks enthusiastically about scientists who are developing other THC-delivery systems like inhalants and liquids that offer patients the therapeutic benefits of medicinal marijuana at the precise dosage needed without the most devastating side effect - lung damage. Researchers are also working to isolate the ingredient or mechanism that causes the high, which will make marijuana less threatening, both politically and physically.

I call Lee to tell her about these new developments. She’s not herself, speaking in a monotone rather than her usual ebullient way. She says that she’d like take a trip next week, but sounds unconvinced that she’ll be able to. Her legs are sore, she can’t stand for very long, and she doesn’t want to risk traveling with pot. She’s too nauseated to eat, and her weight is dropping rapidly.

We discuss the possibility that marijuana may be eligible for FDA submission under a new drug exemption, which would speed up the process. Medicinal marijuana could theoretically be approved within five years. "Five years?" Lee asks. "I could be dead by then."

HOW DOES WEED WORK?

THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, acts primarily in two parts of the brain: the hippocampus - the seat of feelings, memory, action - and the cerebellum, which controls movement. No surprise, then, that smoking pot results in a temporary impairment of short-term memory and motor coordination and a distorted sense of time, according to Dennis Petro, M.D., a neurologist and drug researcher in Arlington, Virginia.

Cannabis also mimics a neurotransmitter called anadamide (anada means bliss in Sanskrit), which researchers theorize is the brain’s natural defense against stress, pain and nausea. The euphoria that marijuana users experience - and the increased appetite, a.k.a. "munchies" - may be a result of "marijuana over-doing it: People may already have just the right amount of anandamide," explains Billy Martin, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Apparently, pot has another, surprisingly protective effect on the brain. In July, researchers at the National Institutes of Health announced the discovery that cannabidiol - a non-high-inducing substance in the marijuana plant - is a potent antioxidant that, in lab tests on fetal rats, prevents death of brain cells. Eventually, cannabidiol might be used to stem brain damage from stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Pot has one major pitfall: Its smoke exposes the longs to three times more tars and five times more carbon monoxide than tobacco.
(Ed. note: Actually, not. There is no reason – all else being equal -- that burning marijuana would create any more carbon monoxide than tobacco. The same would apply to the tar content. Of course, all of this points to the fact that stronger marijuana is safer, because less is necessary to achieve the desired results. Also, it is unfortunate that the author seems not to have heard of vaporization.

This error illustrates how even very friendly reporters get taken in by prohibitionist propaganda.)
"If marijuana were legalized," says Mary Lynn Mathre, R.N., president of Patients Out of Time, a nonprofit group that educates doctors about medical marijuana, "we could regulate what’s in it, diminishing these effects."