norml22 - Page 25

 Major research studies on the effects of chronic marijuana
 use have also been conducted in Jamaicas Greece, and Costa Rica--
 three countries with a history of heavy marijuana use going back
 hundreds of years. The Jamaican study, _a _i_ Jam__ica; A
 Medic__l_Ant _ °ca Stu v o__f/hrg/lic__MazLi_na _$__ (1975), as
 well as the other studies were discussed extensively in the HEW
 Annual Reports. See S_ixt _gQr_t, at pgs. 20-21;
 __if_th_Annua____2__Q___, at pgs 7-8. In all these studies,
 cannabis users were carefully matched with non-users on such
 variables as age, marital status, education, use of alcohol and
 tobacco. The cannabis users smoked cannabis which is
 substantially more potent that the marijuana commonly smoked in
 the United States, and they smoked much more often than marijuana
 is generally smoked in this county. Users in the three studies
 had smoked cannabis for an average of seven to seventeen years.
 The cannabis users and matched controls were subjected to an
 extensive battery of physiological and psychological tests. No
 significant differences were found between cannabis users and
 non-users which could be directly attributed to cannabis use°
 Associate professor of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy
 School of Government_ Harvard University, Mark A.R_ Kleiman
 writes in his book _gain__t2/xce_ (1992} f _'the quarter century
 since large numbers of Americans began to use marijuana has
 produced remarkably little laboratory or epidemiological evidence
 of serious health damage done by the drug0 '_ Id. at 253 (footnote
 omitted).
 24