Wednesday March 17 4:42 PM ET

U.S. Report Backs Some Medical Uses Of Marijuana

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S.-commissioned report released Wednesday strongly backed certain medical uses of marijuana, declaring that for some people with serious diseases such as AIDS and cancer, it may be one of the most effective treatments available.

The widely anticipated report by the independent Institute of Medicine (IOM) was commissioned by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and could spark a reassessment of the decades-long U.S. drive to ban almost all marijuana use.

But U.S. officials said the drug would continue to be classified as illegal and that there were ``complicated scientific issues'' that had to be assessed.

Dr. John Benson, one of the principal investigators for the report, told a news conference, ``We uncovered an explosion of new scientific knowledge about how the active components in marijuana effect the body and in how they might be used in a medical context.''

The IOM study, the product of more than 18 months of research, highlighted continued concerns over marijuana, noting that the common practice of smoking the drug was medically dangerous.

But it also said marijuana clearly controlled some forms of pain, was not particularly addictive and did not appear to be a ''gateway'' to harder drugs such as heroin.

For some patients with severe AIDS or cancer symptoms such as nausea, severe weight loss and lack of appetite, marijuana -- even in its smoked form -- appears to have benefits that outweigh its risks, the investigators said.

``Smoked marijuana should not generally be recommended for long-term medical use,'' the report said.

``Nonetheless, for certain patients such as the terminally ill or those with debilitating symptoms, the long-term risks are not of great concern.''

Authors of the report sought to sidestep the political issue of medical marijuana, noting repeatedly that their brief was simply to assess the effectiveness of ``cannabinoid'' drugs such as THC, marijuana's main active element.

White House anti-drugs ``czar'' Barry McCaffrey, who commissioned the report in 1997, welcomed its scientific findings but added that smokable marijuana was not the answer and the government will continue to classify it as illegal.

``Everyone is looking for a cure these days and pain is seen as a sort of blurry background,'' McCaffrey, who has long opposed relaxing marijuana laws, told a news conference in Los Angeles, adding that the government would support more research in this area.

The IOM report stressed that the new research should aim to design a ``non-smoked, rapid onset'' delivery system that could mimic the speedy action of a smoked marijuana cigarette.

``I think the main take-home message from this report is that we prefer to move away from the plant,'' said another principal investigator, Dr. Stanley Watson. ``From the point of view of safety we are quite concerned about it.''

But the report's authors also noted that some desperately ill patients may not want to wait the years it would take to develop a safe alternative such as a cannabinoid ``inhaler.''

To help these patients, the report suggested that doctors be allowed to launch clinical studies of marijuana, telling each test subject the risks and rewards of smoking the drug.

The IOM report landed amid an increasingly bitter U.S. debate over medical marijuana, sparked in 1996 when California became the first state to pass a local initiative aimed at allowing patients with AIDS, cancer, and other serious diseases to use the drug.

While federal authorities have used their power to block implementation of the California measure, voters in six more states passed similar bills in 1998 -- boosting pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to consider removing marijuana from the ``Schedule I'' list of the most dangerous narcotics.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told a news conference the report's main message was the need for further scientific study, and there should be no rush to subject important issues like drug approvals to popular votes.

``I think this is a scientific issue and I'd hate to see there be a referendum on the latest technology in air traffic control and I'd hate to see there be a referendum on FDA review process,'' Lockhart said.

``These are complicated scientific issues and they ought to be debated on a scientific basis.''

Supporters of the medical marijuana movement declared the IOM report a victory, however, and urged the government to couple its research efforts with a new push to get marijuana to sick people who need it.

Bill Zimmerman, director of Americans for Medical Rights, the sponsor of six 1998 state marijuana initiatives, said the IOM's findings would radically rework the public image of what has long been one of the United States' most demonized drugs.

``They are in effect saying that most of what the government has told us about marijuana is false ... it's not addictive, it's not a gateway to heroin and cocaine, it has legitimate medical use, and it's not as dangerous as common drugs like Prozac and Viagra,'' he said. ``This is about as positive as you can get.''