vol1 - Page 253

 Dro Merritt, for example, reports havingfollowed a
 number of patients who smoked marijuana over significant periods
 of time. 56---Q/
 Xn addition to patients receiving licit access to
 i_! marijuana through his program, Merritt _aw additional glaucoma
 patients in _Ite testing situations who reported smoking
 marijuana from non=governmental sources to control their elevated
 IOP. Asked if he checked the visual fields of such patients to
 determine marijuana°s effects on retention of field, Dr. Merritt
 responded:
 ! have seen no deterioration in those people
 ...... who have gone away and come back_,used
 [marijuana]°, however they got it. _I
 In his direct testimony, Dr. Merritt notes_
 One of the great frustrations I confronted
 i::_ in conducting my studies, both at Howard
 University and at the University of North
 Carolinas was my inability to provide
 patients with licit, medically supervised
 access to marijuana because of the drugns
 misclassification .... The ethical and
 moral stress of such a situation is not
 tolerable° As a physician I am trained to
 provide cares and to protect my patients from
 unnecessary harm° The law, howevere pro=
 hibits me_gm extending care to these
 patientso _-i
 One of Merritt_s patients, Mro Edward Cart of Vermont
 has testified_
 __6q/ Cross_examination of Dro John Merritt, Tr. 10-117 & !0-I18_
 _ He reports he followed seven or eight patients who used marijuana
 everyday for three months_ three or four for six months and two
 patients for a year or more°
 _9_i/ Cross-examination of Dr. John Merritt_ Tr. 10-211 & 10-212o
 56_/ Affidavit of Dr. John Merritt, _I 81_ 83-S4.