Subject: NIH Medical Marijuana "workshop" disrupted
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 15:09:38 -0500 (EST)

HIV+ activist disrupts bogus NIH medical marijuana workshop
Defines event as "Political Science"

Washington, DC  -- A member of the AIDS advocacy and protest group ACT UP,
the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power in Washington DC was forcibly ejected
from a press conference today at the National Institutes of Health.  Activist
Steve Michael, who is HIV positive, charged Alan Leshner, the director of the
National Institute of Drug Abuse with 'political science' in an overview on
the medical efficacy of marijuana.
  
 People with AIDS and cancer patients undergoing chemo and radiation therapy
commonly use marijuana to alleviate extreme nausea and weight loss, including
deadly AIDS wasting syndrome.  Activists point to a large body of scientific
evidence supporting the use of marijuana for medical purposes.  However, at
the NIDA sponsored review held this week, Leshner banned the participation of
patients and ignored scientific papers and data supportive of medical
marijuana.

 "This is political science, pure and simple." States ACT UP Washington
spokesperson Steve Michael.  "Health policy and research are being driven by
Clinton drug Czar General McCaffery.  The President who didn't inhale is
trying to look tough on drugs by going after sick and dying people and
corrupting the integrity of science conducted at the National Institutes of
Health."

 In an article published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine,
editor Dr. Jerome Kassirer states, "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."

 ACT UP Washington is sponsoring a ballot initiative in the District of
Columbia which will protect physicians and their patients from criminal
prosecution (called "Protecting Patients and Providers from Marijuana
Prosecution Act"). 
 
 "Bill Clinton promised us a war on AIDS.  Instead, he's attacking people
with AIDS." adds Michael.
=================================
The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
ACT UP Washington DC
825 5th Street NE Suite A
Washington, DC 20002

                                                                          for
immediate release 

                                                                     February
20, 1997
                                                      contact Steve Michael
at 202.547.6780