Medical Marijuana: National Press Coverage, No News

A national news story on January 4 and 5 reported that
Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services Dr. Philip
Lee said that the ban on medical use of marijuana, imposed by
the Bush administration, was being reviewed. In fact, the
review has been ongoing for weeks, but no decision has been
made; Dr. Lee was not saying anything new. We do not have the
text of his statement, but have heard that he told a meeting
on healthcare reform that the review had been delayed by the
controversy over Attorney General Elders' statement that
legalization of drugs should be considered. A reporter may
have taken Dr. Lee's remark out of context, resulting in a
national media frenzy when actually there was no news.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has
received many letters on medical marijuana, almost all
supporting access to the drug. They also received many phone
calls on the drug-legalization controversy, almost all from
conservatives opposing legalization. The two issues are very
different.

What would help most on the medical-marijuana issue would be
letters from persons with late-stage illness (cancer, AIDS,
or others) to their representatives in Congress, with a copy
to HHS, on their personal experience with medical marijuana,
for problems such as weight loss, nausea, chronic pain, or
muscle spasms. Congress needs to hear from people who,
working with their physician, first exhausted the legal,
prescription medications for these conditions -- who found
that none of those worked for them, and that smoking
marijuana did. A letter from their doctor would be helpful,
too.

The problem is that people are understandably afraid to write
about marijuana use, especially while they are still using
it; physicians are also reluctant to write these letters. We
do not know how much real risk is involved, although it is
probably minimal since the government has lost medical
marijuana cases in court and does not want more losses and
more controversy; but the fear is real in any case, so
Congress does not hear what is happening. We do not know any
solution to this problem. Possible ways of addressing it are
(1) Finding people who are willing to take the risk; (2) Not
actually saying that one has taken marijuana, but only
describing the failure of the conventional treatments, as a
kind of national code; (3) Finding an organization to tear
the names out of letters before submitting them; (4)
Relatives and friends describing the value of marijuana for
patients who are deceased; or (5) Probably most important,
press coverage of individual patients, who can remain
unidentified if they want.

For those who are willing to write, here are "generic"
addresses for any member of Congress. For your representative
in the House, write to: The Honorable ____, U.S. House of
Representatives, Washington, DC 20515. For each of your
Senators, write to: The Honorable ____, U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC 20510. Or you could write to them at their
local offices.

Also send a copy to: Dr. Philip Lee, Assistant Secretary for
Health, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 200
Independence Ave. SW, 7th floor, Washington, DC 20201.