vol2 - Page 59

 J
 him to make a study using synthetic THC. He and colleagues made such a study°
 :-_." They concluded that synthetic THC effected a significant reduction _n spastic_ty
 aBong multiple sclerosis patients, but study participants who had also smoked
 marijuana reported consistently that _ar_juana was more effective.
 _:> 46. Dro Petro accepts marijuana as havin9 a medical use in the
 treatment of spast_city in the United States. %f it were l ega'lly available and
 he was engaged "in an active medlcal practice agaiin, he would not hesii:ate to
 -_:-_ prescribe marijuana, when appropriate, to patients aff'i_cted with uncontrollable
 spast i ci ty.
 47. Dr. Petro presented a paper to a meeting of the American Academy
 of Neurology. The paper was accepted for presentation. After he presented it
 Dr. Petro found that _nany of the neurologists present at this most prestigious -
 meetlng were in agreement with his acceptance of marljuana as having a medical ::
 ....._. use in the treatment of spastlcltyo
 48. Or. Andrew Well, a general medlcine practitioner in Tucson,
 Arizona, who also teaches at the University of Arizona College of P4edicine,
 '
 accepts marijuana as having a medical use in the treatment of spasticity. In.
 multiple sclerosis patients the muscles b_come tense and rigid because tI_eir
 nerve supply is interrupted. Marljuana relieves this spastlclty in many.
 " patients, he has found. He would prescribe l_t to selected patients if it were ..
 legally avaf_ab_1e.. :,: ,.
 49. Or. Lester B. Collins, Ill, a neurologlst, then treatieg_abo_z_ 20
 <::_ n_ltlple sclerosis patients a year, seeing two or !;hree new ones each year,
 stated in 1983 that he had no doubt that _rljuana worked symptomatically for
 some multiple sclerosis patients. He said that _t does not alter the course of
 /..