Harvard doctor
praises marijuana
as miracle drug

Dr. Lester Grinspoon says
pakalolo is safer and cheaper
than conventional drugs

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By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

Despite conflicting state and federal laws, medical marijuana is here to stay, says Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard University.

Not only that, "it will be seen as a kind of miracle drug during the next decade," the psychiatry professor predicts.

A nationally recognized authority on marijuana, Grinspoon is among key speakers at a two-day conference, "Marijuana in 2001: Medical and Social Issues," that opened yesterday at the Ala Moana Hotel.

The third annual Hawaii Conference on Addictions, sponsored by the John A. Burns School of Medicine, is aimed at giving medical professionals and others the latest information about the science of marijuana, benefits, risks, and national and international perspectives.

Hawaii and other states have authorized use of marijuana for certain illnesses, but the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a federal law classifying marijuana as illegal makes no exception for seriously ill people.

"It is a great disillusional system, in my view," said Grinspoon, author of "Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine." In an interview yesterday, he said medical marijuana "simply can't be denied, once people discover for themselves how useful it is and how nontoxic it is compared to conventional drugs."

They will "become believers" when they find that marijuana "is a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to take" for cancer than a series of pills costing $35 each, he said.

When his book was first published in 1993, Grinspoon said, the associate dean of Harvard's medical school read it but said nothing.

A few years later, he called Grinspoon to ask if taking Marinol, a synthetic form of marijuana, would help his 67-year-old mother-in-law, who had pancreatic cancer.

Grinspoon said the man was horrified when he told him it would not help as much as if she smoked marijuana. "He said she'd never use marijuana. So I gave him instructions on Marinol and said if she has difficulties, call me."

The next call to Grinspoon was from the ailing woman, asking for help. Grinspoon asked if she had a grandchild who could teach her to roll a joint and smoke one with her. She said her grandchildren had been urging her to smoke marijuana.

Grinspoon advised her to take one puff and wait a few minutes to see how she felt. He told her to call him if she had any problems.

About a month later, the associate dean told him at a meeting, "My whole family is indebted to you."

At a Christmas party at the associate dean's home after the woman died, his wife greeted Grinspoon, again saying how indebted the family was to him because the quality of her mother's life had improved so much.

She said she was angry at herself for carrying on "like a banshee" when her three sons smoked marijuana in college, Grinspoon said. "What's all the fuss?" she concluded.

Grinspoon said the public is misled by the government, that there is nothing toxic in marijuana. Yet more than 700,000 people, mostly young, are arrested annually on marijuana charges -- 88 percent just for mere possession, he said.

Grinspoon referred to a talk yesterday by Dr. David H. Friar, University of Hawaii assistant professor in psychiatry, discussing why marijuana is important to brain science.

"If we are to get at the truth about medical marijuana, about recreational marijuana use, about marijuana abuse and dependence," Friar said, "we must go beyond the emotional polarity of the lionizers and the demonizers and commit ourselves to fearless and objective investigation."

Grinspoon said he was a "demonizer" until he started to see how marijuana helped patients. It is not harmless, he said, but it will be seen as one of the safest drugs when added to the thick book of pharmaceuticals.

Marijuana has never caused a death, while more than 7,000 people die annually in the United States from aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, he said.

"It is a myth imposed upon this country that this is a terrible, dangerous drug. What's happening, as people see it as medicine, they ask, 'What's all the fuss?'"

When asked about who is pushing to keep marijuana classed as illegal under federal law, Grinspoon said he could not answer that. But if it is legalized, he pointed out, "conventional drug companies are going to lose."

He said he was surprised that drug companies were supporting the medical school's marijuana conference.

Friar described the chemical structure of marijuana and some of the latest studies. He said research is important to learn how marijuana causes its effects in the brain, but "science has been stifled for decades" because most research money is controlled by the federal government, which is "in the ranks of the demonizers."

Dr. Donald Abrams, assistant director of the AIDS Program at San Francisco General Hospital and professor of clinical medicine at the University of California-San Francisco, said it is a "Catch-22" situation: Marijuana cannot be used legally as a medicine because adequate research has not been done, and adequate research cannot be done because marijuana is illegal.

William Haning III, University of Hawaii associate professor of psychiatry, said one of the most controversial issues is what constitutes dependence, and dosage and frequency do not matter in determining that.