The plant's therapeutic potential became known in Western countries during the nineteenth century. From 1840 to 1900, more than a hundred articles on cannabis appeared in European and American medical journals, recommending it as an appetite stimulant, muscle relaxant, painkiller, sedative, and anti-convulsions (Bakalar and Grinspoon par.7). In 1986 the Food and Drug Administration approved a THC based synthetic called Marinol, but unfortunately it did not treat symptoms as well as marijuana. Today the 5000-year medical history of marijuana has been almost forgotten. The Government proclaims there is no therapeutic value in the medicinal use of marijuana, but they do not have hard evidence to prove it.

The medical uses of marijuana are numerous. Cancer patients undergoing chem

otherapy found that marijuana relieved their nausea and enabled them to eat. Research showed that marijuana reduced the interlobular pressure that can lead to blindness in glaucoma patients. Migraine sufferers found relief from their headaches, and victims of spinal injuries, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy reported that marijuana seemed to control their spasms. Marijuana has eased the pain of chemotherapy, severe muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis, weight-loss due to the AIDS virus, and other problems. Experts from the National Institute of Health or NIH have confirmed that marijuana is an effective, safe and inexpensive alternative for treating nausea caused by AIDS medications and cancer treatments other such ailments as glaucoma, muscle spasms, intractable pain, epilepsy, anorexia, asthma, insomnia, depression and other disorders (Ad Hoc Group of Experts). The pro-pot advocates in Santa Cruz stress that their goal is not legalization of recreational dope, but permission to distribute "a medicinal herb." Arnold Leff, a physician who works with AIDS patients in Santa Cruz said, "This is not a bunch of patients lighting up and getting high"(Booth par.20).

Medical use of marijuana is only legal in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Many pleas for reconsidering the classification of the drug have been turned down. Francis L. Young, the DEA's administrative law judge in 1988, announced that marijuana fulfilled the legal requirement of medical use in treatment in the United States. He added that it was "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." The DEA actually issued a final rejection of all pleas for reclassification in March 1992 that overruled Francis L. Young's order that the marijuana plant be transferred to Schedule II instead of keeping its current s

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