"The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea,  vomiting and
other symptoms caused by such  illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS  or by the harsh drugs
sometimes used to treat them. And it can do so with remarkable safety. Indeed, marijuana is less toxic than
 many of the drugs that physicians prescribe every day."

 
Lester Grinspoon, MD, Emeritus Professor oPsychiatry at Harvard Medical School, wrote in a Mar.1,
2007 editorial in the Boston Globe titled "Marijuana as Wonder Drug":

"It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine -- and US drug policy -- that we still need
'proof' of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

Marijuana is effective at relieving nausea and vomiting, spasticity, appetite loss, certain types
of pain, and other debilitating symptoms. And it is extraordinarily safe -- safer than most medicines
 prescribed every day. If marijuana were a new discovery rather than a well-known substance carrying
cultural and political baggage, it would be hailed as a wonder drug."

Jerome Kassirer, MD, Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, wrote about marijuana's medical
value in the journal's Jan. 30, 1997 editorial:

"I believe that a federal policy that prohibits physicians from alleviating suffering by prescribing
marijuana for seriously ill patients is misguided, heavy-handed, and inhumane. Marijuana may have
long-term adverse effects and its use may presage serious addictions, but neither long-term side effects
nor addiction is a relevant issue in such patients.  It is also hypocritical to forbid physicians to prescribe
marijuana while permitting them to use morphine and meperidine to relieve extreme dyspnea and pain.
With both these drugs the difference between the dose that relieves symptoms and the dose that hastens
death is very narrow; by contrast, there is no risk of death from smoking marijuana. To demand
evidence of therapeutic efficacy is equally hypocritical. The noxious sensations that patients experience are
extremely difficult to quantify in controlled experiments. What really counts for a therapy with this kind
of safety margin is whether a seriously ill patient feels relief as a result of the intervention, not whether a
controlled trial 'proves' its efficacy."

WebMDSenior Writer Daniel DeNoon, in a Sep. 6 2003 article titled "Medical Marijuana Slowly
Gains Ground," wrote:
  

"In the last week of July 2003, Medscape -- WebMD's web site for medical professionals -- asked its members
what they thought about medical marijuana. It wasn't a scientific poll, although a member's vote is counted
only once. Still, the results were surprising. There was a huge response. Three out of four doctors -- and
nine out of 10 nurses -- said they favored decriminalization of marijuana for medical uses."

The Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center's (LACRC) President Scott Imler, told ProCon.org on
Dec. 3, 2002:

"Our membership of almost 2,000 active and inactive members were recommended marijuana as
medicine by approximately 448 licensed California physicians. Of those recommendations, 80% were
 for patients with HIV/AIDS, 10% were for cancer, and the remaining 10% were for a variety of
other diseases and conditions."
 

The UK's Medicinal Cannabis Research Foundation published on its website in Nov. 2001:

"Research to date suggests that research into the medicinal uses of cannabis and cannabinoids has the
potential to make exciting breakthroughs in the management of severe symptoms such as pain, spasm,
bladder dysfunction and nausea and could therefore bring a dramatic improvement in quality of life for
people with:

National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Regulation, IRP,
noted on the NIMH website, updated Jan. 25, 2002:

"Electrophysiological, neurochemical, and behavioral studies have shown that cannabinoids
marijuana-like drugs) suppress pain neurotransmission.  We think that these results have implications for
how cannabinoids may work in chronic pain states. A differential anatomical basis underlying cannabinoid
and mu opioid modulation of primary afferent  transmission is supported. Whereas mu opioid receptors in
spinal cord are associated predominantly  with thin-diameter primary afferents, cannabinoid receptors are
localized to both thin and coarse diameter fibers. These differences may provide a basis for the possibility
that  cannabinoids may relieve pain when traditional opiate drugs fail."