The Science and Truth Hearings could not have been realized without the generous assistance of the three members of the panel who received the testimony of witnesses, the management and staff of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky, the dedicated and learned scientists who assembled from throughout the United States to pursue the dissemination of knowledge and those brave and valorous witnesses suffering from AIDS, paralysis, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and cancer who took the stand to reveal their plights in the hope that Truth will finally prevail.

Health care access and cost is the single most potent domestic issue facing our new President Bill Clinton and the Congress and it has achieved a like-status in many individual states.

Great numbers of citizens throughout the United States are without health coverage of any type and others are underinsured or have insufficient provisions for a lengthy illness or disabling injury. All of the leaders of every political persuasion, national and local, agree that the present system is incapable of providing "Universal" coverage unless significant and far-reaching changes are enacted. Suggested changes thus far include caps on the fees of medical service providers including doctors and hospitals, cost controls on medicines and medical equipment, caps on damages awarded to injured plaintiffs and a law requiring all employers to provide medical insurance for all employees.

It is clear that no single solution is available that will eliminate the need for "shared sacrifice" on the part of all of the vested players in the health care field. Health care is properly now being considered more of a right and temporary or "band-aid" approach will not satisfy the citizenry or their expectations. Therefore every possible solution to providing adequate and affordable health care must be explored and considered by our elected officials and concerned citizens. It is in this spirit that the Science and Truth Hearings came to be.

Marijuana/cannabis has been used as a medicine throughout history by many diverse cultures. A review of medical literature prior to its criminalization in this country in 1937 reveals that medical practitioners utilized the herb as a general analgesic for headaches and menstrual cramps and as an anticonvulsant, appetite enhancer, ataraxia and antibiotic.

Prior to a ban on research of marijuana as a medicine instituted by the Federal government in the 1970's, more recent studies have concluded the medicinal effects of the active ingredients in cannabis have a broad application in the treatment of many "modern" illnesses including glaucoma, nausea resulting from various cancer therapies and multiple sclerosis, among others.

However, it is clear that marijuana as a medicine is viewed today through a prism colored by politics engendered by vested interests such as law enforcement bureaucracies and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Propaganda abounds on the subject from every side, pro and con, and it is difficult for any private citizen or elected official to ascertain the value or impact of cannabis as a modern day medicine.

The Science and Truth Hearings reported herein were so named because it seems inarguable that the principals of problem-solving in the modern world cannot rely on superstition, propaganda or fixed experiments carried out by special or vested interests. The application of Science in seeking the solution to a problem and the truthful reporting of scientific examinations are essential for problem-solving in a free society. Therefore, these Hearings were called to publicly investigate the value of marijuana as a medicine and its potential impact on the cost of health care in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Testimony at the Hearings was presented over a one day period by nine scheduled witnesses including three doctors and six patients currently in treatment, all of whom declared that marijuana as a medicine is indisputably therapeutic, that it enhances the patient's quality of life by significantly reducing their suffering and that they unanimously desire to partake of this medicine in its herbal form, in turn reducing their intake of prescription medicines.

To ensure that a fair examination of the issues would be accomplished at this event, the testimony given by the witnesses was received by a four member panel, consisting of two medical doctors employed, respectively, by the Federal government (Veteran's Administration) and the local Fayette County Health Department, and as a respected Kentucky political journalist plus the author. It was the announced role of these Panel members to receive and cross-examine the testimony of the witnesses, and to impeach their evidence where possible or appropriate.

The Science and Truth Hearings were held on Monday, January 18, 1993 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Lexington Kentucky. Testimony was presented and received by the Panel before a live audience of over one-hundred people. The proceedings were filmed and audiotaped.

A four person panel received and cross-examined testimony of witnesses. Serving by invitation on this panel were:

PHILLIP DESIMONE, M.D.: Dr. DeSimone is Chief of Medical Services at the Veterans Administration Medical Center and Vice-Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine. Dr. DeSimone has written and lectured extensively on cancer and cancer education.

JOHN POUNDSTONE, M.D.: DR. Poundstone has served as Commissioner of the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department since 1980 and is a diplomat of the American Board of Prevention Medicine in General Preventative Medicine.

SUE WILEY, JOURNALIST: Ms. Wiley is Kentucky television's most noted political commentator and news journalists. Her show, YOUR GOVERNMENT, regularly features this nation's most interesting political personalities and the issues they represent.

GATEWOOD GALBRAITH, ATTORNEY: Galbraith founded The Kentucky Marijuana Feasibility Study in 1977, ran for Kentucky's Commissioner of Agriculture post in 1983 and in the Democratic Primary for Governor in 1991 and 1995. He has practiced law in Lexington, Kentucky since 1981 and personally sponsored the hearing.

The witnesses appearing before the Panel and a synopsis of their testimony are presented by their order of appearance. Copies of their complete testimony are available by transcript and audiotape at a cost to be determined. A film of the proceedings is currently being edited and may be available by May 1993.

LESTER GRINSPOON, M.D.: The world's leading authority on marijuana as a medicine, Dr. Grinspoon is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and author or editor of 15 books and hundreds of articles on medicine. He has served on numerous national and international panels and his newest book, MARIJUANA: THE FORBIDDEN MEDICINE, is now available from Yale Press.

Dr. Grinspoon's testimony left no doubt that he believes that marijuana's active ingredients, consumed in its herbal form, are therapeutic in a wide range of ailments including wide-angle glaucoma, nausea associated with chemotherapy and radiation-therapy in cancer patients, anorexia associated with nutrition blocking diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and cancer, migraines, epilepsy, paraplegia and quadriplegia, itching, insomnia, dystonia and chronic pain. He described his own extensive observations of the use of marijuana by patients afflicted with many of the ailments listed above and his research into the medical literature describing the historical use of marijuana by the medical community.

Dr. Grinspoon testified that while synthetic marijuana, marketed under the name Marinol, has certain uses and applications, the accessibility of marijuana in its herbal form is necessary for several reasons including its relatively cheap cost of production (if legalized), its ability to be utilized without oral consumption and its lack of side-effects and potential for overdose.

Dr. Grinspoon stated flatly that the consumption of marijuana is "Orders of magnitude less harmful than either alcohol or tobacco," both of which are responsible for many illnesses and deaths each year. There has never been a death recorded from an overdose of marijuana.

Dr. Grinspoon stated, conservatively, that marijuana can displace some prescription medicines, at a cheaper rate and it would therefore reduce the incidence of accidental overdose. This would cut the cost of health care to some extent but the gist of his testimony was that the biggest reason that marijuana should be legalized for medical purposes is that it would immensely reduce the human suffering of those patients for whom it would be therapeutic.

Dr. Grinspoon's extensive testimony was unimpeached although Dr. Phillip DeSimone, a panelist who agreed that the principal active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol, was therapeutic in several respects, had reservations about the number of applications for marijuana as a medicine. Dr. DeSimone insisted the he would have to see double-blind studies before he could agree on Dr. Grinspoon's assertions. It was pointed out by Dr. Grinspoon that the United States Government had criminalized these studies for marijuana and that such drugs as penicillin, quinine and digitalis had all been marketed to the immense benefit of mankind without the use of such "double-blind" studies.

Accordingly, Dr. Grinspoon asserted that Marijuana should become immediately available as a medicine and that he recommended that patients be allowed to grow their own plants to produce their medicine and that it be available outside governmental regulation or necessity of prescription.

DANNY BURGESS: Mr. Brugess is an accident victim suffering from paralysis and chronic pain. He has had 4 disc fused in his spine, a medical rod in his back with screws, is paralyzed in his right leg and has a bone disease which affects his fingers and joints. Further surgery carries a 50% chance that he would be completely paralyzed from the waist down. Mr. Burgess can only walk with the aid of crutches and suffers from chronic and constant pain.

He testified that he is prescribed 9 different medications for use 3 times a day which cause a multitude of side effects including interference with his kidney functions. Mr. Burgess stated that these massive doses of prescription drugs render him virtually comatose and unable to care for himself in the most basic of daily needs. Further, he feels isolated because he is unable to communicate with other people when he is fully medicated.

Mr. Burgess testified that when marijuana is available to him, he is able to forego four of these prescriptive medicines while experiencing a superior relief in many of his symptoms. He also stated that marijuana as a medicine allowed him to interact verbally with the people around him and to care for himself in his basic daily human needs including feeding and bathing himself, all of which enhances his quality of life by allowing him to contribute to his own welfare. Further, Mr. Burgess testified that marijuana use enhances his ability to ingest those prescription medicines which he still took because it relieved their side-effects of nausea and indigestion. Mr. Burgess's testimony was unimpeached.

The savings to Mr. Burgess and his health carrier by the substitution of herbal marijuana for several of his prescription medicines has not yet been calculated but it presents an interesting direction for research in seeking to reduce the cost of health care by reducing the cost of medicine, increasing the ability of some patients to more effectively ingest other medicines and eliminating the need for support personnel to help care for patients rendered helpless by massive doses of medicine, many of which are replaceable with marijuana.

Mr. Burgess's final testimony revealed another tragic episode wherein he explained that he was currently forced to deal with the Black Market to produce his marijuana and that he was recently arrested and convicted as a criminal marijuana user because his long-time supplier was himself arrested for marijuana and turned in everyone to whom he had sold marijuana. This certainly raises the question of whether the status of health care for the citizens of this country could be seriously improved by diverting money currently expended for law enforcement against marijuana and putting it in the direction of health care.

JOHN MORGAN, M.D.: Professor of Pharmacology at the City University of New York Medical School and Associate Professor of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at the Mt. Sinai Medical School, Dr. Morgan has written dozens of articles on the pharmacology of various drugs and their therapeutic uses.

Dr. Morgan's testimony was wide-ranging and in agreement with Dr. Grinspoons and Danny Burgess. He quickly noted the immense beneficial and therapeutic effects of delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in both its herbal and synthetic forms (Marinol) and immediately criticized the Food and Drug Administration for so stringently limiting those "label indications" for which even Marinol may be prescribed. (The current Federal Register notes that if physicians prescribe Marinol for anything other than nausea and vomiting secondary to cancer chemotherapy, they may be guilty of breaking the law. They may, in fact, bring the DEA down on their own heads. This is unprecedented in America medicine). In all other drugs, once it is on the market, American physicians can prescribe it for any clinical indication which they find appropriate.

Dr. Morgan stated that some very important advancements had been made in the last several years, "advances", he said, "which should have been made 15 years ago." He specifically discussed the discovery of specific cells in the brain that bind to cannabanoids and was excited that this breakthrough will allow us to learn much more about the medical utility of cannabanoids in the near future.

Throughout his testimony Dr. Morgan supported the use of both marijuana and Marinol. "My feeling is that we need Marinol and we need smokable marijuana just like we need vitamin C and orange juice....I have never before sat in a situation in which people say that a version of a medicine should not be available because we already have a previous version...."

Dr. Morgan announced that because of THC's therapeutic benefits, especially its relief of nausea and anorexia caused by AIDS, the "label indications" for which Marinol may be prescribed will soon be expanded at the behest of the pharmaceutical companies, and especially in light of the findings of the Drug Enforcement Agency's top Administrative Judge, Francis Young, who after years of study, examination and cross-examination, found that "marijuana is among the safest therapeutic substances known to man."

Dr. Morgan expressed his own feelings that marijuana should be available as a medicine in both pill and vegetable form due to its "important medical utility." He also advised that marijuana could be substituted, in many instances, for pilocarpine and/or Timolol in the treatment of glaucoma, prochlorperazine and ondansetron in the treatment of nausea and vomiting, and as a substitute for percocet, percodan and other drugs in the treatment of pain.

"My most important interest here is to cut the cost of health care by diminishing suffering and pain. But indeed, there would be a dollar amount saved (by allowing marijuana as a medicine)."

Finally, Dr. Morgan noted that the FDA is quite committed to moving a wider range of "substances over-the-counter along...so that individuals can make decisions about their own health care, regarding ingestions, both to save money and because people should make decisions regarding their own health care."

There were several questions raised at the end of Dr. Morgan's testimony including one about increased marijuana usage if it became available as a medicine and Dr. Morgan cited the Dutch experience to indicate that there would probably be no "explosion of use." Dr. Morgan spoke of the work of Dr. Tashkin of UCLA who runs the longest ongoing study of marijuana's effects on the pulmonary system of long term and heavy smokers (5 or more marijuana cigarettes a day). The study shows that while there is "some" damage to the large airways, it is not associated with the type of pulmonary damage that leads to chronic bronchitis and emphysema and therefore marijuana use should not present the same health problems as cigarette smoking.

As to the question of increased use of marijuana leading to increased worker dysfunction in the workplace, Dr. Morgan pointed out that no studies or statistics exist which show it to be a problem and he criticized urine-sampling as an inefficient and intrusive method of determining worker impairment from any source.

Finally, Dr. Morgan attacked the findings of those scientists who released findings in the 1970s which indicated that marijuana use carried wide-spread hazards saying "The National Institute for Drug Abuse has become really, the ministry of propaganda on the War on Drugs because they have accepted almost all of these undocumented claims...because the political forces (want) it to happen."

THOM HART, AIDS PATIENT: Thom Hart was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1989 and he is afflicted with the virus in the ventricles of his heart. Mr. Hart's current symptoms include constant congestion, nausea, weakness and chronic pain. He testified that he was currently being prescribed 15 to 20 pills a day including digoxim, desipramine, Lasox, and AZT. These medicine leave him weak, nauseous and unable to generate an appetite. When marijuana is available, Mr. Hart can smoke a little upon awakening, and he then experiences an attraction to food which allows him to ingest nutrition early in his day. This, in turn, allows him to have the strength to arise from his bed and tend to his own basic needs, including the preparation of additional food.

Mr. Hart also testified that the toxicity of the medicines themselves make his body hurt and that he refuses to take another pill for chronic pain. "So I have found out that marijuana makes me sleep...you learn to be sick...you learn to throw up without hurting yourself. But the marijuana stops that. It takes the achiness away or the toxicity away."

Mr. Hart testified that when he is able to take his medicines early in the morning with the help of marijuana, then he is able to bathe himself and fix his own meals thereby avoiding the necessity of support medical personnel and services such as Meals on Wheels.

"I feel that marijuana use in my life right now allows me to function." Mr. Hart explained that marijuana was a mood elevator also and kept him from having to take other medications to combat his bouts of depression. "It takes the edge off...I just want to feel normal, you know. I want to feel like I don't have the flu, that I'm not being eaten up, and marijuana does that."

TOD MIKURIYA, M.D.: A practicing psychiatrist from Berkeley, California, Dr. Mikuriya is editor of the MARIJUANA MEDICAL PAPERS and has studied marijuana as a medicine since the early 1970's. He was consultant to Shafer Commission, a Federal panel which investigated marijuana use in 1972 and has served on many local, national and international agencies addressing the question of drugs and controlled substances. Dr. Mikuriya practices in-patient general psychiatry with sub-specialties in chemical dependence and gero-psychiatry.

Dr. Mikuriya testified that, in his work with cannabinoids over the past 20 years, he has discovered that a great deal of information as to the many possibilities for medical-marijuana has been suppressed or regarded as classified including the discovery that relatively high doses of cannabinoids "could cause reductions in body temperature of 1 to 3 centigrade." This could "be administered to people who suffered brain injury or nerve damage, that could lower the metabolic rate of the body and create better potentiality for function survival after the operation"

Dr. Mikuriya stated that at least one major researcher who had performed much of this secret research said that cannabis was, "perhaps the most effective anti-convulsant they had ever encountered."

A great deal of Dr. Mikuriya's testimony covered the medical history of marijuana and the studies used to discover its medical utility. He defended these studies as state of the art at the time and surmised that their findings could be upheld under modern inquiry. Dr. Mikuriya then examined other therapeutic properties he found in marijuana which had not been discussed by the previous medical witnesses and in this list he included its use as an antitussive (cough medicine), topical anesthetic, detoxicant, antidepressant and tranquilizer, childbirth analgesic and a uterus stimulator and to help in post partum bleeding in addition to helping in senile nighttime wanderings by promoting sleep.

As a practicing psychiatrist, Dr. Mikuriya stated that he would use it, in some cases, as a substitute for benzodiazepines such as Valium and Ativan (minor tranquilizers) and has prescribed tetrahydrocannabinol, in pill form, with very successful results. Dr. Mikuriya believes that marijuana should be restored to its prior status as a medicine of accessible choice for the community. He also noted the survey of oncologists in the Harvard area which showed 44% of them would prescribe marijuana to their patients if it was available. At this point, panelist Dr. Phillip DeSimone noted that Marinol and marijuana were "all alike" (as to their effects) and stated his view that, given marijuana's present cost, he preferred to use "what we have available."

As to the use of marijuana as a medicine, Dr. Mikuriya noted that "We're dealing with two competing pharmacologies here: the moralistic pharmacology and the medical pharmacology. Moralistic pharmacology doesn't have room for cost benefit analysis--they're good or they're bad--if it's bad, it's illegal, it's not available. And so, with that black and white way of looking at things then there isn't any further analysis of comparative risks for the drugs...and the ones (who have blocked marijuana as a medicine)...have committed malpractice and they have hurt a lot of people. They have committed withholding of needed medication form deserving people and persecuting them and if that isn't unethical and evil, I don't know what is."

Finally, Dr. Mikuryia noted that propositions to allow marijuana's use as a medicine had passed overwhelmingly in San Francisco, Moren County and Santa Cruz, California and that no contrary evidence to marijuana's medical properties had surfaced.

BILL BARRETT, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS PATIENT: Mr. Barrett was diagnosed with Polio at the age of 12. He was later informed that diagnosis was incorrect and that he was afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis and Glaucoma. Mr. Barrett is a coordinator with the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Michigan. His multiple sclerosis came out of remission 6 years ago. "Upon finding out what it was, it was very devastating. I had to retire. At that time I wasn't walking, I wasn't even using a wheelchair. I was completely paralyzed." When asked what the use of marijuana did for him, Mr. Barrett replied, "It relieves a lot of the symptoms that multiple sclerosis puts on a person such as spasticity, the griddle effect such as tightening; being able to control my hands; keeping things from bouncing around my body, the quivers and so forth. It helps me walk, too. It helps me so I don't need my wheelchair.

Mr. Barrett testified the he also uses marijuana to control his glaucoma, and that since he started treating himself in this manner, his symptoms have been under control. He also testified that he preferred marijuana for both MS and glaucoma instead of the medicines prescribed for him. "Out of the four medications I would take, one for my eyes, (Timoptic), three for my MS (Lioresal, Xanex and Cylert), there are a total of 387 side effects...sometimes the side effects can be worse than the disease itself. (Therefore)...I do not take any medications at all, aside from marijuana."

Mr. Barrett testified further that he would prefer to grow his own medical marijuana rather than to be forced to produce it on the Black Market. Finally Mr. Barrett said that he knew many people in his multiple sclerosis group that use marijuana "and the reason they use it is because they can't find anything better, no matter what their doctors give them."

At the conclusion of the last witness's testimony, the Panel was given the opportunity to remark on their observations:

DR. PHILLIP DESIMONE: "I didn't learn very much more than I knew about the medicinal properties of marijuana. I think I would have liked to have had more information to look at where the money could be saved and in what areas. We don't spend a lot of money on drugs in the United States. Most money is spent on hospitalization for people who are very, very old or for terminal illness...you need to show where you would do it." (Save money)

Dr. DeSimone then addressed the need for double blind studies to discover the credibility of marijuana as a medicine. He advised that Marinol should be studied for additional label indications and said that marijuana, if controlled studies are allowed, should be studied in comparison to Marinol to scientifically establish whether smokable marijuana was, in some way, superior to ingesting Marinol.

DR. JOHN POUNDSTONE: "I agree that there are probably medicinal uses for marijuana but I think it has to go through the drug review process that's been set up by regulation and ... some of these studies may be carried out whereas in the past it has been very difficult. In terms of cutting the cost of medical care, I think that remains to be proved. I don't think we heard much testimony today, one way or the other on that, so right now I'm not too optimistic that medicinal use of marijuana is going to save a lot of money."

SUE WYLIE: I think these hearings...are representative of a wave that's sweeping our country; a wave of interest in holistic medicine, in wellness, in alternative medical treatments and programs; I think we are going to be seeing more of these kinds of hearings and seminars and meetings. It's very encouraging and this has been very enlightening."

GATEWOOD GALBRAITH: Chairman's concluding remarks and observations - Each and every patient who testified stated a preference for the medicine in marijuana in its herbal form as opposed to its synthetic derivative (Marinol) and they stated that they would continue to produce illegal marijuana from the Black Market to satisfy their medical needs as they, themselves, perceived it.

Each patient also testified that they were able to forego various prescription medicines when marijuana was available, leading this author to conclude that if herbal marijuana was allowed to compete as a medicine with its synthetic counterparts, the cost of medicine could be favorably impacted. One of the reasons for the high cost of medicine today might be that synthetic pharmaceutical manufacturers enjoy a monopoly in the production of medicine and therefore their prices are not subject to the vicissitudes of a competitive marketplace or to the laws of supply and demand, each of which is meant to keep the price of products within a reasonable framework. It is therefore imperative that competition must be allowed across a broad scope of health care and a common-sense beginning would be to allow our citizens to produce their own medicinal marijuana. Not only would this cut their expenditures for the purchase of certain medicines, it would allow them to tolerate their other medications, thereby reducing the time of treatment and office and hospital visits.

Similarly, ancillary health costs such as support personnel and services to the ill could be reduced because patients who care for themselves through the day in such pursuits as bathing and feeding themselves are less a burden on the whole system. Further savings could be realized because the number of incidence of overdose will decrease with the decrease in use of synthetic medicines as will the number of incidence of depression associated with illness and their required treatment.

Finally, most therapies are better suited when the patients feel that they can take steps to help themselves either through cooperation or rehabilitation. What better way to serve the needs of the people and to enlist their cooperation in maintaining positive health care than to allow them to produce their own medicine as they prescribe for themselves. If this has been a heretofore unenunciated inalienable right, it should be immediately pronounced so that the healing may begin.

Gatewood Galbraith - P.O. Box 1438 - Lexington, Ky. 40588 - (606) 259-1522