The argument that marijuana smoking could damage lungs is also prominent. Marijuana smoke could be dirtier than tobacco smoke and could have negative effects on health. However, in medical use the amount smoked is less than conventional smokers inhale. Moreover, different solutions may be found. The use of water pipes could potentially be one such solution. Besides, the medically useful ingredients in marijuana could be extracted and inhaled as vapors by patients (Grinspoon 29).

The other argument which opponents of medical use of marijuana bring forth is that there is no reliable scientific proof that marijuana has better therapeutic effect than other approved and available medications and that the medical usefulness of the drug has not been demonstrated by controlled clinical studies (Annas 438). It is true that there have been no studies controlled according to standards required by FDA; however, several experiments involving large numbers of patients suggest an advantage for marijuana over oral THC and other medicines. For example, a state research program in New Mexico from 1978 to 1986 provided marijuana and synthetic THC to about 250 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy after conventional medications failed to control their nausea. This study showed that marijuana was clearly superior to both chlopromazine and THC (Grinspoon 1876). Because the federal government is the only legal source of the drug for research purposes in America, controlled trials without federal government permission and NIH approval are impossible.

Only in the 1970s, when marijuana smoking exploded throughout the world, did researchers begin to re?examine the drug's possible therapeutic uses. Clinical studies and informal findings of patients themselves revealed marijuana's effect in the treatment of symptoms of several serious illnesses. Federal regulations, however, made research with marijuana very difficult, and physicians still were not allowed to prescribe it to their patients ("Cannabis and Medicine"). Polls and voter referenda have shown that the majority of Americans think marijuana should be medically available (Grinspoon 1875). Last fall California voters approved a measure that permit

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